HALIFAX – A hockey game featuring all black players is scheduled to be played here on Sunday night to honour the players of an all-black league decades ago.
The Colored Hockey League (CHL), as it was called, saw teams from all over the Maritimes playing mainly on lakes and outdoor rinks beginning in 1895.
On Sunday night at the Centennial Arena, players from the Halifax area will suit up as members of the Hammonds Plains Mossbacks and Charlottetown Rangers, two teams that used to play in the old CHL.
“Part of our mandate is to promote awareness of this league that existed between the years of 1895 and the 1930s,” said Calvin Barton, one of the organizers of the annual game and the treasurer of the Black Ice Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame Society.
The game is one of the events being held as part of Black History Month celebrations.
Proceeds from the Sunday night game will be used to support the Black youth ice hockey program, a Hockey Nova Scotia program for black kids ages four to eight.