The NHL recently lost one of its most unlikely trailblazers.
Larry Kwong, the first person of color to play in the league, died last Thursday at age 94, the New York Rangers announced Tuesday. A Chinese Canadian, Kwong broke the NHL’s color barrier in 1948 by playing one shift late in the third period of a game between the Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens.
That shift, which lasted roughly a minute, would be his last in the NHL. Kwong was demoted after the game and elected to go play in the Quebec Senior Hockey League. He went on to have a long, productive career playing in various leagues in the United States, Europe and Canada.
Because of his speed and presence on the ice, Kwong took on the nicknames “King Kwong” and the “China Clipper.”
Kwong was born in 1923 and grew up in Vernon, a small, west coast town in British Columbia, Canada. He was drafted into the Canadian army in 1944, but instead of deploying overseas, Kwong played on a hockey team to entertain troops who were taking a break from fighting in World War II, according to the Toronto Star. Playing for that team reportedly resulted in the Rangers discovering and signing him in 1946.
Kwong is not a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he became an honored member of British Columbia’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He also was enshrined into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.
