Willie

The Game-Changing Story of the NHL's First Black Player

Author Willie O'Ree and Michael McKinley

Foreword by Jarome Iginla

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An inspiring memoir that shows that anyone can achieve their dreams if they are willing to fight for them.

On January 18, 1958 Willie O'Ree was finally called up to the NHL after years of toiling in the minors, joining the Boston Bruins. And when he stepped out onto the ice against the Montreal Canadiens, not only did he fulfil the childhood dream he shared with so many other Canadian kids, he did something that had never been done before: He broke hockey's colour barrier--just as his hero, Jackie Robinson, had done for baseball.
In that pioneering first NHL game, O'Ree proved that no one could stop him from being a hockey player. But he soon learned that he could…

$19.95

October 19, 2021

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The author of Hockey: A People's History and four earlier books on hockey, MICHAEL MCKINLEY is also a journalist, a documentary filmmaker, and a screenwriter. A Vancouver native, he was educated at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he was associate editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. His journalism has appeared in major venues on two continents, including the Guardian, Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the National Post, and Saturday Night magazine. He has also written and produced several documentaries for CNN, and one episode of South Park. The Penalty Killing is his first novel.