Sixty years after breaking the National Hockey League's color barrier, former Bruin Willie O’Ree will finally be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the league announced Tuesday.
O’Ree, 82, became the first black man to play in the NHL on Jan. 18, 1958 when he was called up from the Quebec Aces to the Bruins.
"We are lucky to have been able to call Willie a Bruin when he made his debut in 1958," Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs said, "and we could not be happier for him to finally receive the recognition he so greatly deserves."
The trailblazing winger spent his entire NHL career with the Bruins, with four goals and 10 points in 45 total games from 1958-1961.
“Oh man, it’d be great,” O’Ree told TSN of the Hall of Fame induction possibility. “There are not enough words that could express what a feeling it would be. It’s something I wish my mom and dad would be alive to see, because they supported me all the years that I played. They wanted me to stay involved in the game in some capacity.”
O’Ree is being inducted as a "builder" of the sport. He has served as the league’s Diversity Ambassador for the Hockey is for Everyone initiative since 1998.
Of course he’s received awards and honors before -- most notably the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, in April 2010-- but the Hall of Fame has been a long time coming.
Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Martin St. Louis and Alexander Yakushev were inducted as players this year. League commissioner Gary Bettman was inducted with O’Ree in the builder category. The induction ceremony is Nov. 12 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.