50 years ago and some change, Willie O’Ree, 22 years old, stepped onto the ice at the hallowed Montreal Forum, a brand-new member of the National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins, who had just called him up from the minors. It was January 18, 1958.

He only played that night and the next, for a total of two games. But three seasons later, O’Ree was back, this time lacing up his skates 43 times for the Bruins. It was then that he was dubbed “The Jackie Robinson of Hockey” for breaking the NHL’s color barrier.

Today, O’Ree is the Director of the NHL’s Diversity Program, which aims to bring the game of ice hockey to inner city kids and other underprivileged youths. He oversees some 39 programs, all designed to get as many kids on the ice as possible, so that the trail O’Ree blazed doesn’t get overgrown with weeds.

He recently sat down with SET during a visit to Detroit. Here’s the first installment of a multi-part series that SET will run of our Q & A with “The Jackie Robinson of Hockey.”

(Editor’s note: At this point in the interview, Willie began telling an amazing story of how he lost vision in his right eye, yet told no one about it).

O’Ree: I had an accident in my late teens, when a slap shot hit me in the right eye. I ended up losing about 95% of the vision in that eye. But the Quebec Aces called me and said they were building a championship team and wanted me to be a part of it. So I didn’t disclose to them anything about my eye.

I was a left winger and a left-handed shot, so because I couldn’t see out of my right eye, I had to completely turn my head to the right. But I decided to concentrate on what I COULD see instead of what I couldn’t see, and I only told two people about my eye: my youngest sister, and my best friend. I swore them to secrecy, because I was afraid if anyone found out they wouldn’t let me play again. So everyone thought I had simply recovered from my eye injury, but the truth was that I was blind in my right eye. I never took an eye exam for any of the eleven professional teams I played for.

“...the truth was that I was blind in my right eye.”

SET: Do you remember your first NHL goal?

O’Ree: Yes. It was January 1st, 1961, at the Boston Garden, playing against the Montreal Canadiens. It ended up being the winning goal.

I was playing left wing and Leo Boivin, one of our defensemen, hit me with a perfect pass, in stride. Charlie Hodge was in goal for Montreal, and I remember one of my teammates telling me that you should keep the puck along the ice against him because Hodge had a very good glove hand. So I’m going in on Hodge and I kept thinking, “Keep it low! Keep it low!” I shot the puck and it went in off the inside of the left post. That made the score 3-1. We ended up winning, 3-2.

The fans in Boston gave me a two-minute standing ovation.

Come back to SetMagazine.com for Part 4 of our Q&A with Willie O’Ree, in which he talks about his current role with the NHL’s Diversity Program, and whether he’s happy with the league’s diversity today!