Tennessee State becomes first HBCU to field men’s hockey

Another View

Hockey made some news last week. Along with the NHL draft and free agency, the Tennessee State University (TSU) announcement that it plans to have a hockey team next year, becoming the first HBCU to do this, might have been the biggest news we heard.

TSU will first field a club-level men’s hockey team, with plans to expand to include women’s hockey, and to become a Division I sport for both genders.

“As of today, I don’t have any players,” TSU Assistant AD Nick Guerriero told us during a phone interview a few days after the historic announcement on June 28. “I don’t have a coach. I don’t have a director of operations. But I do have about 60 emails from folks telling us, ‘Hey, we’d like to come.”

A 2021 feasibility study by College Hockey, Inc. found that having ice hockey at an HBCU would help promote diversity and inclusion in a sport more known for being White than otherwise.  

The HBCU is located in Nashville, where the NHL’s Predators are located as well. The team began a relationship with TSU in 2020, as a significant contributor to its “One Million in One Month” fundraising campaign, and has continued to donate to the school’s scholarship programs, providing internships and job opportunities through the TSU Career Development Center.

In a press release, Dr. Mikki Allen, TSU director of athletics, said that by having the NHL club as willing partners, “We will forge a path towards a more inclusive and united hockey community.”

“I told my athletic director, every day is just a day closer to puck drop,” noted Guerriero. “We need to be very much on the go 24/7. We need to always be talking to somebody, whether it’s coaches at the junior level, players, parents, you know, just the common hockey folk. Someone who understands the game, loves the game.”

The TSU news didn’t go unnoticed here in the Hockey State: “I’m really excited,” said Anthony Walsh, who played on Edina’s state high school championship, then played college hockey and Junior A hockey in Canada. He also coached a North Commons hockey team to a Park Board title and recently graduated from Mitchell Hamline Law School.

“I am excited about my daughter. She’s a freshman in hockey, and she wants to be a pilot,” added Meredith Lang, a mother of two girls. TSU has an excellent aviation program.

Growing up in Richfield, Lang was very often the only Black girl on her hockey team. Nonetheless, she loves the sport. When her daughter told her she wanted to play pucks too, Lang and others helped start the Hockey Ninas girls of color hockey program. 

Later, it was merged into the Minnesota Unbounded team. Last December, Lang started a nonprofit Mosaic Hockey Collective for both boys and girls of color. Diversity-wise Lang pointed out, HBCU hockey is “having the needle moving in the right direction,”

Veteran sports journalist Michael Roberson, a TSU alum who has covered minor and major league hockey for at least two decades, told us that he likes the move, but he also heard some questioning it.

“The operative question is who’s gonna be on the team? We’re gonna have a bunch of Canadian White girls or European White dudes on the team?” asked Roberson. “Hopefully, it does turn out to be a good thing, because this is a huge undertaking. Hopefully, this does turn into something great.”

“We’re looking for the best of the best,” replied Guerriero when asked if TSU will put forward an all-Black club. “You don’t want it to be just an all-Black or Brown team. You want it to be the best of the best players.”