Tennessee State's Historic Foray Into Ice Hockey Could Break Barriers For Black Youth In Sports

Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League

"I think it's important to invest in these unorthodox sports for Black athletes because it allows Black children to have more opportunities to ply sports in general. The more opportunities that children have, the better. They won't feel like they are boxed into one thing or sport." — Zion Williams

Detroit radio icon and hockey fan Gerald McBride was inspired to write the screenplay for his film Black Ice: The Rhythm when he looked around at a sold out University of Michigan hockey game and realized he was the only Black fan among 10,000.

Among the "Big Four" professional sports leagues in the United States, the National Hockey League has the least racial diversity among its players, 90% of whom are white, and only 0.052% of whom are Black. In contrast, about 70.4% of NBA players, 53.5% of NFL players, and  6.2% of Major League Baseball players are Black.

With an eye toward diversifying the sport in general and breaking down barriers for Black athletes, Tennessee State University is poised to make history in the 2025-2026 season when it launches the first NCAA Division I ice hockey team at a historically Black college or university.  

The NHL also was the last of the Big Four to break the color line. Wilie O'Ree, sometimes referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of hockey" became the first Black NHL player in 1958. more than a decade after real Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The Los Angeles Rams had signed the first Black NFL player of the modern era, Kenny Washington, in 1946. Earl Lloyd became the first African-American to play in the NBA game in 1950.

While outright bans on Black hockey players are a thing of the past, the sport has remained charged with a current of racism in recent years. Someone flung a banana at Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds in 2011.  New York Rangers prospect K’Andre Miller was taunted with racial slurs during a video chat in 2020.

Economic barriers are also a factor. Hockey is an expensive sport, typically costing thousands of dollars a year for equipment, ice time and club membership fees.

The groundbreaking program at TSU is part of the NHL's to confront racial inequity within the sport. Kevin Westgarth, vice president of hockey development and strategic collaboration for the NHL, told The Tennessean the league already was discussing the establishment of a hockey team at an HBCU when he received an email from TSU athletic director Dr. Mikki Allen.

"We were having a brainstorming session around what it would take to get a hockey team on an HBCU campus," Westgarth said. "Literally as we got off that call, we got an email forwarded from Dr. Allen at Tennessee State saying they're interested in adding varsity hockey. It was beautiful timing."

TSU is not alone among HBCU's in adding non-traditional sports in recent years. According to the Associated Press, at least 20 schools have added more than 40 new sports NCAA championship or emerging sports since 2016, such as wrestling, gymnastics, lacrosse, and volleyball.

Former NHL player Anson Carter, a co-chair of the league's Player Inclusion Coalition aimed at diversifying hockey, said, "To have the ability to even open up the HBCU in the hockey space ... it really is a game-changer for young kids playing hockey in the United States and Canada.” 

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