Art Dorrington (March 13, 1930 – December 29, 2017) was a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

. Dorrington became the first black hockey player to sign a

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) contract when he joined the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

organization in 1950. Despite putting up very good statistics in the minor leagues, he was never able to make it to the major league ranks. Dorrington played for the Atlantic City Seagulls of the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart ...

. After retiring from hockey, Dorrington joined the

Atlantic County Sheriff's Office The Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office is a law enforcement agency located in Atlantic County, New Jersey, with countywide jurisdiction as mandated by the State Constitution of New Jersey. The Sheriff is responsible for providing a variety of fu ...

.Local athlete Art Dorrington, first professional black hockey player, dies
/ref> In the late 1990s he created the Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation, a program that teaches hockey to children from low-income families in Atlantic City. He died on December 29, 2017, at the age of 87 in Atlantic City.

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* 1930 births 2017 deaths Black Canadian ice hockey players Black Nova Scotians Boston Olympics players Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian ice hockey centres Eastern Hockey League players Ice hockey people from Nova Scotia Johnstown Jets players Johnstown Jets (IHL) players People from Truro, Nova Scotia Washington Lions players {{canada-icehockey-centre-1930s-stub