Renee Hess, BGHC Founder While growing up, Renee Hess wasn’t into sports, but as an adult she was hooked once she watched hockey. “It was around 2011,” Hess recalled. “I started reading about it, listening to hockey games. I didn’t really watch them [on television] because it is hard to find them on regular television.” “I worked up the nerve around … [Read more...]
Sports: a space for local and national sports news, with emphasis on stories pertaining to African Americans.
‘Soul on Ice’ chronicles overlooked Black hockey history
First of a two-part column Kwame Damon Mason Black contributions in hockey, whether in the United States or in Canada, have historically been whitewashed out of history books. Filmmaker Kwame Damon Mason’s goal is to help rectify this omission. Mason’s 2016 documentary Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future tells the untold story of the Coloured Hockey League that was … [Read more...]
Minnesota women’s hockey on a roll
Women’s hockey dominated this reporter’s attention last weekend. Minnesota (31-5-1) defeated Princeton 5-2 last Saturday at Ridder Arena to advance to the program’s 14th Frozen Four appearance. The Gophers will play Cornell in the first of two semifinals Friday at Hamden, Conn. This year’s squad is one of Brad Frost’s youngest clubs, but he told the MSR after the win he … [Read more...]
Women’s hockey internship has steep learning curve
Brianna Montgomery \\ Photo by Charles Hallman The National Women Hockey League’s (NWHL’s) first-year Minnesota Whitecaps is the first local pro team in this century to have someone not White working in its marketing and public relations department. In the early 1990s, the University of Minnesota had exactly two Blacks — one male and one female — as assistant sports … [Read more...]
The color of hockey: Diversity on the rise in women’s pro hockey
Conclusion of a three-part column Former college teammates Blake Bolden and Kaliya Johnson are now competitors in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), which started in 2015. On the surface, this isn’t unusual, but in Bolden’s and Johnson’s case, the two female pucksters are among the small handful of Black hockey players. Angela James, who played 1980-2000, is … [Read more...]