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Many people will be surprised to learn that professional hockey goalies played without any face protection until nearly 1960.  Pucks can be hit at speeds up to 160 mph, and goalies used to get bruises and gashes on their face regularly during a hockey game.

The first goalie to wear a mask was Jacques Plante, a highly respected player with the Montreal Canadiens, and one of the legends of hockey.  He was an odd fellow, prone to asthma attacks, and to getting more injuries than many other hockey players.  He preferred reading books and painting over going to parties with his teammates.  During his career, he had gotten more than two hundred facial stitches.  In that era, a few hundred stitches were not highly unusual for a hockey player, but generally they were not just on the face.  He also had had two broken cheekbones, four broken noses, and a fractured skull.  Before Plante, several goalies had tried to use masks, but they were wire (similar to ones used by baseball catchers) and impaired vision to some extent.

As the 1958 hockey season was coming to an end, Plante was injured when a puck hit his forehead.  A member of the audience that worked in fiberglass wrote Plante a letter, and explained how he could make a mask molded to fit Plante’s face, and strong enough to protect it.  Plante agreed to sit as a model for the mask, and to wear it during the next hockey season.  He brought it out during the preseason games, and was laughed at and criticized by the hockey community.  His coach in Montreal was sure that the mask reduced his vision and asked him not to wear it.   About two months later, Plante was in a game when someone hit a backhanded from the side of the net.  There were too many players around the goal for Plante to see the puck, and the puck sliced into the side of his nose, which bled profusely.  It took seven stitches to close the wound.

Plante would not go into the next game unless he was allowed to wear his mask.  Since the Canadiens were traveling, the rules at the time required the host team to provide a backup if the goalie became unable to play.  Teams in the 1950s did not travel with backup goalies, and the goalie that the home team found was overweight, nearly forty years old, and had not played recently.  The coach of the Canadiens decided to let Plante play, for he would be a much better choice for goalie even wearing his mask.  The Canadiens won that game, three to one.

Further, Plante contributed to the Canadiens winning the next eleven games in a row, all while wearing his mask.  To make sure that the mask did not impair vision, his coach still required that Plante have an eye exam while wearing his specially designed mask.  Two other goalies joined Plante that year, and slowly the practice spread.  The last bare faced goalies were seen on the professional hockey circuit appeared in the early 1970s.

If I went sky diving, where would I like to go? Wait, if I went sky diving, first I’d need to go for sky diving lessons. I do not have the foggiest idea about parachutes, harnesses or altimeters. Should I start with tandem sky diving or should I attempt accelerated freefalling? Perhaps I should begin in a sky diving simulator. All of these terms are popping up at me but I haven’t a clue. Yes, if I went sky diving, I’d certainly need some very basic instruction. I would probably register with a sky diving center where I am guaranteed to receive instruction from experienced and certified individuals. I would also be taught about the appropriate gear needed for my jump, and in stead of running out and buying all new equipment I could rent the items I needed.

After learning the basics of sky diving; prepared and eager, if I went sky diving I think I would start in Italy. Because sky diving is such a popular sport, there are dropzones all over the world. I’d like to find one in Italy where I could jump out of an aircraft into a beautiful picturesque location. I’ve always wanted to go to Italy so this would be the perfect opportunity to see visit the area and practice my skills, if I went sky diving.

From what I’ve learned, if I went sky diving, I’d definitely start with the tandem jump. Because this method is said to be easy and quite safe, I’d try this first. I know I’d be harnessed to a master sky diver and makes me feel much better. If I went sky diving, I’d skip the accelerated freefall, that’s too advanced for me. I’d stick with the large parachute and take a tandem sky dive.

If I went sky diving, I’d like a friend to go with me. An experience like this might only come once in my lifetime. I’d like to share it with someone special. If I went sky diving, perhaps my husband or my sister could jump with me. Freefalling from 15000 feet with a friendly face a short distance away, would be comforting. Realizing someone special would forever share this memory with me, would make the adventure awesome, if I went sky diving.

If I went sky diving, I’d get on the Internet and search every possible website for sky diving information. I’d look for material related to sky diving locations, equipment, techniques, requirements, anything the Internet would provide. If I went sky diving, I’d definitely want to be well informed regarding what to expect once I arrived at the dropzone. I’d need to know what was provided at the dropzone in the way of food and lodging. There is so much important information I would require if I went sky diving. I’d get my hands on sky diving books and magazines. I would log on to a sky diving message board and probably ask questions. If I went sky diving, it would certainly be a big deal.

African-Americans have lost a lot of their history due to slavery and racism before during and after the civil rights movement. Yet history was made when a Canadian-born black man named Willie O’Ree who played 41 games (3 1/2 years/seasons) with the Boston Bruins and this was 1958 at a time blacks didn’t have much ground in the world since this was a milestone since hockey was a white male dominated sport and for O’Ree since at the time he started his career he was 23 years old. The sport hockey was about 10 years late when it came to integration of minorities in the NHL because all the other sports had already made the transition by the 1950.

Hockey was the only sport holding out since it was what you called the whitest sport ever since they had no black players, team owners, or sportswriters. O’Ree was crossing lines many blacks of his time had a heck of a time playing and being taken seriously in sports. Blacks have not made their place in the hockey world again for nearly 30 years.

It wasn’t until 1998 that Willie O’Ree was formally acknowledged for his groundbreaking historical position as the first black in the NHL and was appointed director for youth development for the NHL/USA Hockey diversity task force where he goes all over the country establishing programs with different teams. This was a milestone that was long overdue to happen because the face of sports would show some sign that the walls of racism and segregation have started to crumble down. When someone who lived in a time where the color of your skin limited you to advance in something, but it was one man who stepped out of the confinements of racism and segregation to be one of the best players in the NHL. Today’s NHL has recruited people of other ethnic backgrounds to the pro teams that currently make up the team list.

It’s showing that it’s not just whites who made the NHL it’s the fact that more opportunities in the league now more than ever with how they’re recruiting players, team managers, and other areas of the league. When you remove racism and segregation the world of opportunity looks brighter for those who are of a different ethnic background to feel like they can succeed in another area of the sports world.

Hockey will definitely improve with time to allow other ethnic groups to be recruited to play hockey. Until then it will be a majority black and white issue in the league and that’s up to the world to demand to see the full equality that should be in the league and around not just players, team owners/management, but also stretching itself to the audience the sport is trying to draw in to diversify the sport to be a sport anyone can play and enjoy watching. Willie O’Ree spends much of his time in San Diego since he left the league when his knee was so bad that later on he had to undergo a full knee replacement, but his time is spent traveling the country lecturing and working his position as director of youth development for the NHL’s diversity task force. With O’Ree’s current position this should set the league in the right direction in terms of diversifying the sport of hockey.

Diversity has opened the door for people of all ethnicities to enjoy and it’s a shared interest across the board for all ages. Some make it a family event to incorporate a single sport and in a region where hockey is popular it’s the choice sport for some people.