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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Jan Eichler Integration of Minorities into the National Hockey League Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2013 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his kind advice and support. I would also like to thank Mr. Jason Blake, Ph.D. for his comments. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2 Introduction to the Key Concepts ..................................................................... 7 Chapter 3 Integration of Blacks: From Anomaly to Hockey Stars.................................. 14 Chapter 4 First Nations Peoples: The Overlooked Trailblazers of the Game ................ 24 Chapter 5 English Canadian vs. French Canadian Identity: The Problem of 'Two Solitudes' ......................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 40 Works Cited and Consulted ............................................................................................. 43 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 47 Resumé ............................................................................................................................ 48 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 1 Introduction Minorities are a quintessential part of North American society. Even though attitude towards them and their position in society have improved, there still exist biased perceptions of minority group members and there is a lingering inclination to exploit their presence by the hegemonic white group. One of the best indicators of minorities‟ situation in society is sport as “sport reflects and reinforces the hegemony of societal arrangements” (qtd. in Frey 505). Therefore, sports might perpetuate discriminatory social constructions which consequently limit minority athletes‟ access to it. On the other hand, sports can challenge these constructions and help to gradually eradicate them. One of the sporting institutions through which minorities try to override racial and discriminatory treatment is the National Hockey League. The main goal of the thesis is to explore whether there are recurrent patterns concerning minority ice hockey players‟ integration into the National Hockey League and to discover and describe aspects influencing the frequency of their representation in ice hockey‟s premier league. Additional goals are to draw attention to the importance of minority athletes to the game of ice hockey1 and to discuss whether their position in the National Hockey League has improved. The thesis is divided into several chapters. Apart from Introduction and Conclusion chapters, there is also an introductory chapter which should enable the readers to better understand general reasons of minority athletes to participate in professional sport, disadvantages connected to the concepts of race and ethnicity and how it translates into their representation in the National Hockey League. The main body of the thesis is dedicated to the integration of three most significant National Hockey League minority groups black, First 1 The thesis focuses on the game of ice hockey – to be referred to as the game of hockey from this point on. 5 Nations and French Canadian minority groups, respectively. Chapters three and four both concern groups‟ identity on the basis of race, whereas chapter five operates on the basis of linguistic identification and ethnicity. More specifically, the third chapter introduces the main stereotypes concerning black hockey players, their relationship with the media and what kind of opportunity the media offered to them. The fourth chapter deals mainly with the perception of phenomena connected to the First Nations peoples and the game of hockey and how these phenomena influence their endeavors to make it to the National Hockey League. The fifth chapter is primarily concerned with the underrepresentation of French Canadian hockey players on National Hockey League teams‟ rosters in comparison with Anglo-Canadians and discusses whether the former are underpaid in comparison with the latter. 6 Chapter 2 Introduction to the Key Concepts The role of sports and sporting events in society has become increasingly more impactful even though the world of sports and its social and cultural ramifications are questioned at times. Sports‟ significance and prominence in society have gradually grown and sports nowadays have meanings and forms of behavior attached to them which are part of a broader cultural context (Coakley, Pike 3-7). As Bruce Carrington puts it in his article Social Mobility, Ethnicity and Sport, this cultural context helps to develop and organize “various forms of collective identity, i.e. social class, „racial‟, ethnic, local, regional and national identities” (Carrington 8). The author will define some key terms in this chapter which will be then used throughout this work, especially focusing on the game of hockey and its role in Canada where it is a pervasive aspect of culture. The institutionalization of sports and the position of minority members in the game of hockey in North America will be compared and contrasted. In addition, some hockey terminology closely connected to the topic of integration of minorities will be defined. First of all, this will be done in order to introduce the whole topic of integration of minorities into the National Hockey League. Moreover, it will enable the author to discuss the integration in more detail and narrow down the focus of this work on particular examples of integrated minorities. Admittedly, as there is a wide range of minority groups represented in the National Hockey League, it is not possible to include all of them and this work will be drawn only on the most significant examples. Finally, the author will define terms such as minority group, ethnic group and racial group which need to be discussed in order to thoroughly analyze the whole topic of integration of minorities into the National Hockey League. 7 Sports in general have undoubtedly emerged as an important substance of social and cultural context as they represent, reflect and help to create a collective identity. Moreover, they promote socialization and are believed to develop proper values such as self-discipline and hard work while partaking (Frey, Eitzen 504-507). Finally, sports help to understand and interpret society. As Virginia Woolf puts it in her review of Ring Lardner‟s fiction, sports are providing “a centre, a meeting place for divers activities of a people whom a vast continent isolates, whom no tradition controls” (qtd. in Blake 6). On the other hand, there also exist critical comments relativizing the sports‟ magnitude within society. Participation in sports is often conditioned and is often based on financial demands which lead to its exclusiveness. James H. Frey and D. Stanley Eitzen explain the whole idea of sport as an agent of socialization in one of their articles: [There is] little evidence to support the idea that sport is necessary for complete and adequate socialization, or that involvement in sport results in character building, moral development, […] good citizenship, or valued personal traits. […] [In effect], it is actually the result of a selection process that attracts and retains children and youth in sport who already have or are comfortable with the values and behavioral traits that coaches demand and that lead to success in sport. (emphasis added) (Frey, Eitzen 506) Notwithstanding the fact, however, the minority athletes aspire to penetrate into the hegemonic and prejudicial realm of sports. The reasons why they want to distort and disrupt the pre-existing hierarchical patterns excluding them from an equal opportunity to achieve an extrinsic and intrinsic reward and their success to accomplish these ambitious goals vary. First, minority groups members started to participate in sports because sports have served as a means of resistance. To show that their performance and compete level in game can equal or sometimes be even better than those of their white counter-participants has been one of the few ways how to battle against social oppression and to override all the doubts, prejudicial 8 opinions and remarks they have to face. The success of minority athletes on playing fields then leads to increased social status and prestige. Second, there is the material advancement which is naturally connected with the success in sports and that has motivated the minority group members to thrive in sports (Carrington, Frey, Eitzen). However, as Robert E. Washington and David Karen point out in one of their articles, “[w]hile many individual minority group members have experienced upward social mobility as a result of their achievements in sports, most [sociological] studies agree that actual mobility outcomes for minority group communities have been exaggerated” (Washington, Karen 194). Nevertheless,

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