442: Larry Kwong blazed the trail for Asian diasporic athletes in professional hockey

As a teen, Kwong led his team, the Vernon Hydrophones, to a youth championship of British Columbia in 1939, and a provincial juvenile title two years later. When he was 18, he skipped the junior ranks and immediately joined the senior ranks after trying out for the Trail Smoke Eaters, an elite semi-professional team in Trail, British Columbia. In Trail, players who made the roster were also given good-paying jobs at a local smelter. However, because of Kwong’s Chinese heritage, he was denied a job and sent to work as a bellhop at a nearby hotel instead.

After the Smoke Eaters, Kwong played for the Nanaimo Clippers and the Vancouver St. Regis before being drafted into the Canadian Army in 1944, during World War II. But Kwong’s military service did not consist of being deployed overseas. Instead, he was selected to join the Red Deer Army Wheelers, a military hockey team that was formed from Canadian Army units in and around the city of Red Deer, Alberta.

Following the war, Kwong returned to Trail in 1946, where he went back to playing for the Smoke Eaters. Later that year, he was signed to the New York Rovers, a farm team of the New York Rangers. When the Rovers would play at Madison Square Garden, the stands would be full of Chinese people from Chinatown, hoping to catch a glimpse of the “China Clipper,” a nickname given to Kwong due to his speed on the ice, comparing him to fast, trans-Pacific flying boats of the same name. (His other nickname was “King Kwong.”) Before this, these people had never watched a hockey game, Chester Sit, director of The Shift: The Story of the China Clipper, a documentary about Kwong, told the NHL. In that same interview, Chad Soon, a hockey historian and friend of Kwong’s family, said, “Larry became a huge hero by starring at Madison Square Garden in the fastest spectator sport around.”

On March 13, 1948, Kwong got called up to the Rangers to play against the Montreal Canadiens. And while he only played for a minute in the third period, those 60 seconds were enough for him to become the first non-white player to play in the NHL. Kwong made history less than a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in MLB, and Wataru “Wat” Misaka did the same in the Basketball Association of America (a precursor to the NBA).

While he only played for a minute in the third period, those 60 seconds were enough for him to become the first non-white player to play in the NHL.

Realizing he wasn’t going to get that far with the Rangers, Kwong decided to leave the team at the end of that season. He joined the Valleyfield Braves of the Quebec Senior Hockey League (QSHL), and played in the league for eight years, winning two championships with the Braves, leading the team in points, and earning MVP and First All-Star Team honors, according to the Canucks article.

Kwong’s hockey career also took him to Europe, where he played in England and Switzerland. After a year in the latter, he began coaching as the Swiss League instituted a rule that didn’t allow foreigners to play. But that didn’t stop Kwong from lacing up his skates, as he gathered a group of expats that included other Canadian coaches and high-level athletes to play in exhibition games across the continent. While he had intended to go to Europe for only a year, Kwong ended up staying for 15 years. When he returned to Canada, he settled in Calgary.

Despite his short time in the NHL, Kwong’s impact on the sport was great and his legacy continues. In the NHL interview, Soon said, ”You know, he was making huge, giant strides for Asian Americans and Canadians breaking the shackles of stereotypes. He totally blazed the trail.”

And on that legacy, Kwong told the NHL, “Some people call me a role model, and I feel very proud of that. I want to be remembered that if I want something, I would try to get it.”

Kwong died on March 15, 2018, 70 years and two days after he made hockey history. He was 94.