Great story, arse_hat. Thanks for the reminder.

Slightly off-topic (but maybe not) - A couple of years ago, when Anson Carter was still playing for the Canucks, Science Girl and I saw him doing a post-game interview for Hockey Night in Canada. The interview itself wasn't all that memorable, but the sign that these two (very white) teenagers were waving behind Carter as he spoke was. It read, "Anson is our Hair Hero". It was simultaneously kinda cool, fairly funny, and pretty much not something you'd see in the US.

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Would it have been Saturday if he could use both eyes?

Growing up in LA, we went to see the Los Angeles Blades play a few times at the old Sports Arena (where I also got to see one of UCLA's Final Four victories, but I digress).

Willie O'Ree was on the ice. I knew nothing about hockey, and did not even know that the Blades were a minor league team for the NHL because I did not know anything about the NHL.

It was amazing to watch, in that O'Ree's "game" seemed to be very free flowing and flashy, in comparison to the rest of the skaters. My dad, a default racist (most adults I grew up around used the n word pretty freely to describe a lot of different things) even commented on it. I am trying not to be racist here, but the creativeness and spontaneity he showed seemed similar to the qualities that African Americans brought to the game of basketball.

I quickly forgot all of this, and was not even aware the O'Ree went on to the NHL, until an NPR story the other day.