Process Paper
We chose our topic on William O'Ree, the first black person to play in the NHL, because his kind of leadership and legacy goes widely unrecognized today by many and we wanted to do our project on him because we think it is important to recognize the many achievements that O'Ree made throughout his career and even when it ended. We also chose this topic because he played for the Boston Bruins back in the day, which is relatively local to where we live. Both Chris and I are very passionate hockey fans and believe that it is very important for people and other players to understand and realize how tough it was for people of other skin colors to slowly integrate into the NHL. Also, the civil rights movement was going on during O'Ree's career in the NHL which was also very important to know since he had to deal with racism and threats. We conducted our research online and also used various books and articles, picking out the most significant information that we came across. We selected to make a website to express Willie O'Ree's leadership and legacy in a more creative way than just simply typing out an essay about him. We want to show to our viewers that O'Ree was no ordinary person, and that the impact on hockey that he made will be survived by the many black hockey players to come. Our project relates to the NHD theme because his leadership and legacy was extremely significant to the time period he was in and that he broke the color barrier, paving the way for other ethnic groups of people to follow in his footsteps. This year's NHD theme is leadership and legacy, and that is exactly what we are explaining with this website on William O'Ree.