Leveling the Ice

“This is a clear-eyed and important call for an institutional reckoning.”
—Publishers Weekly

“From the nineteenth-century birth of the Colored Hockey League to the NHL’s well-intentioned but clumsy efforts to remake its problematic racial legacy, Leveling the Ice chronicles both the history and current consequences of hockey’s race problem. The ‘culture of hockey’ Sandor describes is troubling but vital to understanding the modern game, its place both in sports and the broader culture, and the barriers that exist for those beyond the bounds of racial gatekeeping who play, want to play, or watch. Anyone who cares about hockey, or about the phenomenon of race in sport more broadly, absolutely must read this book.”
—Thomas Aiello, author of White Ice: Race and the Making of Atlanta Hockey

“An immensely important book, exploring the harm done by racist views, too often buried by the hockey community, that hold back the growth of the sport. It is a book that needed to be written and an issue that the community needs to grapple with.”
—Kevin Shea, hockey historian and author

“A crucial part of the allyship that we need in the fight to break hockey’s comfortable racism. This book makes a tremendous effort to confront racism in hockey on a scale I have not often seen, giving brave players the space to share their stories and helping the wider hockey world catch up to what people of color and women have been grappling with for years.”
—Perry King, author of Rebound: Sports, Community and the Inclusive City

“Instead of handing down buzzwords from an ivory tower, Steven Sandor takes us onto the ice and inside the locker room, revealing stories that range from the obscure to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He isn’t scared to turn the lens on his own inherent biases as a member of the established media. Necessary reading for anyone who cares about the future of the sport.”
—Greg Oliver, Society for International Hockey Research

Steven Sandor has been a sports journalist for almost 30 years. He was the North American editor for the European-based hockey glossy, Face-Off and still freelances as an NHL correspondent for Sun Media, Reuters, the Athletic (Detroit edition), the Miami Herald and the Canadian Press.

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