Pioneering Stratford player’s stick off to Hockey Hall of Fame
Posted Feb 11, 2016 06:08:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A piece of black history is off to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and it all started in Stratford.
One of the world’s first black hockey players, Charlie Lightfoot, played for the Stratford Hockey Club as early as 1900, winning a junior championship in the Ontario Hockey Association and an intermediate championship the following year.
“The fact that he was on a championship team at the junior level and intermediate level in Stratford, and from all accounts, he was one of those real good guys, moved to Stratford at eight years of age, and resided there until he passed in his eighties […] obviously, hockey was a big part of Charlie Lightfoot’s life,” says Craig Campbell, manager of the resource centre and archives at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Lightfoot’s stick will be part of an exhibit called “The Changing Face of Hockey — Diversity in Our Game,” opening March 11th.
“[People] know about the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, they know about the Waterloo Siskins and Kitchener Rangers, they know about certain NHL players, NHL teams, women’s players, but we like to educate people on the other treasured stories that make up the heritage of hockey, and I think the Charlie Lightfoot stick helps achieve that goal,” says Campbell.
Another of Lightfoot’s sticks will remain at the Stratford Perth Museum.
