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Detroit native Jalen Smereck this season is the first black player with the Flint Firebirds in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), a development program for the National Hockey League.
The 19-year-old defenseman hasn't faced any overt racism in Flint, a city where about 57 percent of residents are African-Americans, MLive reports. Before coming to Flint, Smereck played in the 2015-2016 season for the OHL's Oshawa Generals in a city that is less than 4% black.
He found not everyone embraced the idea of a black hockey player in a sport that remains predominantly white. About 5 percent of NHL players are black.
Jalen Smereck: "The boys were always there to support me."
"Just getting called the N-word by fans, opponents and just being told 'You don't belong here, you should be playing basketball' or some crazy stuff like that," Smereck tells MLive's Eric Woodyard. "I try not to pay too much attention to it and the boys were always there to support me."
How good is he?
Smereck on Thursday signed an entry-level contract with the NHL's Arizona Coyotes, but will remain with the Firebirds this year, MLive says. He played in a preseason game for the Coyotes on Sept. 26 against the Los Angeles Kings and finished with a +1 rating. He has four assists in two games with the Firebirds.
MLive reports:
Although others have suited up for the Firebirds with NHL contracts, Smereck is the first to be signed right out of the organization. Playing on hockey's top level has been a dream of his since he first picked up a pair of skates at two years old, running around the Jack Adams Memorial Arena with his big brother's tall sticks in Detroit.
Smereck, who attended Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, says his teammates treat him just like everyone else.
"I've never really had another minority on my team and the guys welcome me in as just another guy. Everybody's looked at the same so it's pretty good."
It hasn't always been easy for black hockey players.
Val James became the first black American hockey player in the NHL in 1982 when he was called up by the Buffalo Sabres. He was preceded by some black Canadian players.
John Gallaguer, who helped James write an autobiography, "The Val James Story: Black Ice," says James faced vicious racism from the youth leagues on up, according to a story last year on NPR's website. In the book, they describe footage a CBS news crew captured at a minor league game in Virginia.
"You had individual fans sitting with their families yelling the most vile, racist slurs you can imagine," Gallagher said. "You had a 16, 17-year-old kid with a watermelon, and he was proudly showing it to the camera, and the watermelon had Val James' name on it."
