The Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL) was an all-black

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 hock ...

league founded in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in 1895, which featured teams from across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. The league operated for several decades lasting until 1930.

History

The league was founded in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by a group of four black

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

leaders and black intellectuals: Pastor James Borden of Dartmouth Church, James A.R Kinney, lawyer and community leader

James Robinson Johnston James Robinson Johnston (March 12, 1876 – March 3, 1915) was a Canadian lawyer and community leader. Early life and education Johnston was born in Halifax on March 12, 1876. He was the eldest of the five sons of William Johnston, a shoemak ...

, and lawyer and Pan-African organizer

Henry Sylvester Williams Henry Sylvester-Williams (24 March 1867 or 15 February 186926 March 1911) was a Trinidadian lawyer, activist, councillor and writer who was among the founders of the Pan-African movement. As a young man, Williams travelled to the United States ...

. The league was constructed to attract young black men to Sunday worship with the promise of a hockey game between rival churches after the services. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, "with the influence of the Black Nationalism Movement—and with rising interest in the sport of hockey—the league came to be seen as a potential driving force for the equality of

Black Canadians Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though ...

." Among the teams in the league were the Halifax Eurekas, based in Halifax, and the Amherst Royals, based in Amherst. At its zenith, the league had teams in seven communities in Nova Scotia and one in Prince Edward Island. With as many as a dozen teams, over 400 Black Canadian players from across Nova Scotia,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

participated in competition.Martins, Daniel
Hockey historian credits black player with first slapshot
, CanWest News Service, January 31, 2007 The Coloured Hockey League is credited by some as being the first league to allow the goaltender to leave his feet to cover a puck in 1900. This practice was not permitted elsewhere until the formation of the

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 ...

in 1917. It is also claimed that the first player to use the

slapshot A slapshot (also spelled as slap shot) in ice hockey is a powerful shot. Its advantage is as a high-speed shot that can be taken from long distance; the disadvantage is the time to set it up as well as its low accuracy. It has four stages whi ...

was Eddie Martin of the Halifax Eureka in 1906.

Legacy

In January 2020,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

issued a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

featuring the 1906 champion Halifax Eurekas to commemorate the history of black hockey players in Canada. The history of the league is profiled in

Darril Fosty Darril Wayne Fosty (December 21, 1968) is a Canadian-born Pulitzer-nominated journalist, author, and documentarian. History Born in Terrace, British Columbia on December 21, 1968, Fosty's family moved to Kamloops, British Columbia, where he ...

and George Fosty's 2004 non-fiction book ''Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925'', 2014 book ''Tribes: An International Hockey History'', which expands on their previous work, and in

Hubert Davis Hubert Ira Davis Jr. (born May 17, 1970) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 19 ...

's 2022 documentary film ''

Black Ice Black ice, sometimes called clear ice, is a thin coating of glaze ice on a surface, especially on streets. The ice itself is not black, but visually transparent, allowing the often black road below to be seen through it. The typically low levels ...

''.Pat Mullen
"Hubert Davis’s Black Ice Leads Docs in TIFF Gala Announcement"
''

Point of View Point of view or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or thinks of something * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the prono ...

'', July 28, 2022.

References

{{Reflist Defunct ice hockey leagues in New Brunswick Defunct ice hockey leagues in Prince Edward Island History of Black people in Canada Defunct ice hockey leagues in Nova Scotia * Sports leagues established in 1895 1895 establishments in Canada Sports leagues disestablished in 1930 1930 disestablishments in Canada Black Canadian organizations

History

Legacy

See also

References