Penguins rookie P.O Joseph eager to carry on Willie O'Ree's message
P.O Joseph hasn’t met Willie O’Ree.
But Joseph is well aware the path he is on initially was forged O’Ree.
As the NHL’s first Black player in the late 1950s, O’Ree showed people of color, such as Joseph, could play the sport at its highest level.
“It started with him,” said the Penguins’ affable rookie defenseman. “He’s the reason it’s so open-minded now with Black players playing in the NHL. We can’t thank him enough for everything that he did for us. He opened the windows for us to just come through.”
Joseph is hoping to provide similar guidance to younger Black players.
On Thursday, the team announced the creation of the Willie O’Ree Academy. The initiative is intended to provide unique training, social and mentorship opportunities for Black youth hockey players in the Pittsburgh region.
Joseph, a native of Laval, Quebec, was consulted on its creation along with former Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, now the hockey operations advisor with the team. Daley is one of the relatively few Blacks in a front office position in the NHL.
“The second that I heard about it, I was really pumped about it,” Joseph said via video conference after his team’s morning skate Thursday. “The more people that we can touch by talking about it, listening to them and having Willie come in and talk about it, it’s unbelievable. Hopefully, it spreads (like) a spider web. If we can touch one, that’s our main goal. But the more the merrier.”
Scheduled to begin in June and run over nine weeks, the academy aims to bring together Black youth players already participating in the Pittsburgh Amateur Hockey League (PAHL) and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL). During the summer, they will operate from the Penguins practice facility at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex and participate in two training sessions a week — one on the ice and one off the ice. There will be monthly meetings throughout the remainder of the year. The program is free of charge.
Participants will receive training from ex-NHL players such as Daley.
O’Ree, now 85, played 45 games with the Boston Bruins in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 as a builder in recognition of his efforts to expose the sport to people of various backgrounds over several decades.
“We’re able to look after him,” said the 21-year-old Joseph. “I’m sure the younger generation can look after some of the people that learned from him. If it keeps going like that, it’s just going to be unbelievable.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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