Color of Hockey: Turning hobby into honoring Black, biracial players of past

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Dean Barnes, whose hobby of collecting cards of Black hockey players has expanded into an award-winning podcast, speaking engagements, a spot aboard the NHL’s United by Hockey mobile history museum and a place at the 2024 Memorial Cup.

What Dean Barnes started as a hobby during the COVID-19 lockdown has grown into something much more.

Barnes used his time at home in Burlington, Ontario, during the panedemic in 2020 to rekindle a childhood aim of completing his hockey card collection.

He then turned his attention to collecting cards of more than 100 Black and biracial players who appeared at least one NHL game.

His hobby has expanded beyond the 2.5-by-3.5 player cards into podcasting and a traveling road show of sorts that chronicles the history and growing impact of players of color in the sport.

In February 2023, Barnes launched “My Hockey Hero,” a podcast in which he interviews players of color from his card collection about their hockey journeys.

“When I resumed (card collecting)," Barnes said, "I’m grateful that it’s evolved and continues to expand in a way that I believe is having a positive influence on all people who enjoy listening to and watching hockey, particularly people from backgrounds that aren’t normally centered in the game.”

Barnes’ work led to a Black Podcasting Award for best sports podcast in 2023, college speaking and commencement engagements, ceremonial puck drops and a spot aboard the NHL’s United by Hockey mobile history museum this season.

He followed having some of his cards on display during previous museum tours with a “United Voices” section during a tour of the 32 NHL markets this season.

The section featured a collection of “My Hockey Hero” episodes. Patrons could scan a QR code and listen to a playlist of interviews with Tony McKegney, Anthony Stewart, Devante Smith-Pelly and others.

“It started as a hobby, a passion project and he’s turned it into something really special,” said Peter Worrell, a former forward who had 46 points (19 goals, 27 assists) in 391 NHL games with the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche from 1997-2004. “Just like anything in life, if you can find something that you truly love, that you’re truly passionate about, you can be really successful at it and it’s not going to feel like a job. It’s a testament to his dedication and hard work that he’s making something out of it.”

The Canadian Hockey League is partnering with Barnes as he turns his attention to diversity and inclusion to collecting cards of former and current players in its major junior leagues.

The CHL is helping connect him with players like Erie forward Malcom Spence and Owen Sound defenseman Taos Jordan, who are among the first in a series of interviews of players of color from the Ontario Hockey League. Players from the Western Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League will be featured as well.

Barnes will also have a presence at the 2024 Memorial Cup in Saginaw, Michigan, May 24-June 2. He will have a dedicated space within the Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit at the Dow Event Center to display his card collection throughout the tournament.

“I’d like to continue expanding my stories of the current CHL players,” he said. “It’s current, there’s lots of diversity that’s growing in that league.”

Barnes is expected to be part of a panel discussion at the Memorial Cup following a screening of “Beyond Their Years: The Incredible Legacies of Herb Carnegie and Buck O’Neil,” a documentary about Carnegie, a 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who many regard as the best Black player never to play in the NHL, and O’Neil, a Negro League baseball legend.

Barnes, a former Canadian college hockey player and now superintendent with the Halton District School Board near Toronto, said his goal of his activities is to “increase the awareness of diversities that play in the game.

"To normalize the participation of Black and biracial players and fans in in amateur and professional hockey, inspire young Black and biracial children to consider the game and learn more about the game,” he said. “I think by putting my story in the forefront, people that are doing inclusion work in terms of representation at all levels of hockey, I think it’s inspiring for everyone. To know where there’s been a history, you’re able to know where you’re going.”

Barnes said his efforts are a labor of love. Several former and current players who have appeared on his podcast call it a much-needed oral history of Black players in the sport.

“You see some of the evolution,” said Bernie Saunders, a forward who was the NHL’s fifth Black player and appeared in 10 games for the Quebec Nordiques from 1979-81. “I heard interviews with Tony McKegney, Bill Riley and Mike Marson from my days, and we had a perspective from the mid-'70s to early-'80s. It’s kind of nice and refreshing for a person like me to hear what the people of color are saying now and seeing how their experience with the game has evolved. I think it’s a very worthwhile project.”

It also has been therapeutic for some players, who rarely spoke about the racial discrimination they encountered during their playing days for fear of being labeled malcontents, demoted to the minor leagues or cut from their teams.

“We didn’t want to stir the pot too much,” said Claude Vilgrain, a forward who had 53 points (21 goals, 32 assists) in 89 NHL games with the Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers from 1987-94. “When we get in a fight or something, it’s like, ‘OK, what’s going on? Why is this angry Black man mad now?’

"I could tell you stories. Basically, I had to announce myself as one of the boys, a nice guy so I could pursue my dream. For me and a lot of players in my generation, we would just look the other way.”

Saunders praises Barnes for giving voice to Black players who weren’t NHL stars or had short stints in the League, reminding fans that they are builders in the sport, nonetheless.

“Mike Marson deserves his props, Bill Riley deserves his props, Alton White (who was the only Black player in the World Hockey Association) deserves his props,” Saunders said. “Hockey Black history is complicated, and I don’t think people fully understand it. So this is a great platform to bring that to light.”