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News and Views: The Only Blacks in College Hockey Are the Pucks
Blacks virtually own a number of American sports but they have yet to make their way into college hockey. Even the biological racists who harp on black physical superiority are mystified. It appears that unusually strong racial traditions in hockey discourage blacks' participation at junior levels, thereby steering black athletes toward other sports such as football and basketball.
Black athletes dominate college basketball and football. More than 62 percent of all male players on basketball scholarships are black. More than 52 percent of all college football players are black. African Americans also make up nearly 30 percent of all college track athletes. In track, blacks consistently record the fastest times in all short- to medium-distance events. But college ice hockey is another story. During the 1996-1997 college hockey season, there were only seven blacks among the 3,554 athletes playing college hockey in the United States. Specifically, blacks made up less than two tenths of 1 percent of all college hockey players. Two blacks played hockey for Lake Superior State College. There was one black player each on the hockey teams at Northeastern University, Colorado College, Colgate University, Union College, and Harvard University. At all other colleges and universities that field an ice hockey team, all of the players are white.
For decades the hockey establishment, on both the college and professional level, explained that the reason there are no black hockey players is simply one of geography. This view is that for the most part hockey players are products of rural Canadian areas where hockey is the only game in...