Color of Hockey: Mayers goes from NHL player to author

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog for the past eight years. Douglas joined NHL.com in March 2019 and writes about people of color in the game. Today, he profiles former NHL player Jamal Mayers, who has written a children's book based loosely based on his life story.

It began as a bedtime story.
Jamal Mayers
, a former NHL forward, would tuck in his son, then 5 years old, and tell him a tale about a little boy who wanted to try ice skating, but his family didn't have much money and he didn't look like most of the other boys and girls on the ice.
"I just decided, for fun, to start writing a story based loosely off my childhood, put some details that were kind of like my upbringing," Mayers said. "My son loved it and he's like, 'What happens next?'"
Mayers turned the bedtime story into "Hockey Is For Me," an illustrated children's book published in partnership with the Chicago Blackhawks that addresses diversity, inclusion, race and bullying based on his experiences growing up in Toronto. The book is the first in what he hopes is several written by him to teach life lessons and inspire children of all backgrounds that hockey is indeed for everyone.
"From the beginning, there might have been this thought that this was a book only for kids of color," said Mayers, who played for the Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks and Toronto Maple Leafs from 1996-97 to 2012-13. "But honestly, I see it much bigger than that. I see this as a conversation starter for all families to teach their kids about what diversity and inclusion looks like."

Mayers poured himself into the book, sharing what it was like to grow up with a single parent who worked numerous jobs to make ends meet and being a black kid taking up a predominately white sport.
Times were tough in the Mayers household. Money was tight -- to the point that Mayers' mother, Doreen, could only afford to pay fees for Jamal's older brother, Allan, to play organized youth hockey. But Allan, realizing how disappointed his younger brother was not playing, asked his mother to pay for Jamal to play the following season instead of him.
Jamal went to play collegiately at Western Michigan University, where he had 159 points (55 goals, 104 assists) in 155 games from 1992-93 and 1995-96. He was selected by the Blues in the fourth round (No. 89) of the 1993 NHL Draft.
Mayers finished with 219 points (90 goals, 129 assists) in 915 NHL games and helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2013.

"I put some details (in the book) that were kind of like my upbringing -- with a single mom, with her working two or three jobs, with being like a latchkey kid, if you will, with financial resources being limited," Mayers said.
"I could write an adult book about how I was able to make it, all the sacrifices and the struggles, moving as much as we did, not having money. But to me, that would feel like a sad story in a way," he said. "But I have so much to be thankful for and grateful for that, to me, it's a positive story. And what better way to write a positive story than to write a children's book?"
Mayers, a hockey analyst for NBC Sports Chicago and a
community liaison for the Blackhawks
, took the book idea to team officials, who embraced it.
Its message dovetails nicely with the Blackhawks' main hockey community outreach hockey programs that Mayers works with: Get Out And Learn (G.O.A.L.), which introduces school students to ball hockey in school gym classes; First Stride, which moves G.O.A.L. participants from ball hockey to learning to skate at the Blackhawks practice facility; and the Little Hawks, a Learn to Play program that provides equipment and for first-time participants between 5-9 years old and instruction from certified coaches at minimal cost.
"A lot of these programs start in fourth grade and we're kind of missing kindergarten through third grade," Mayers said. "Having a 5-year-old son at the time, I started thinking about how am I going to engage the younger kids that may be wondering, 'Why can't I try skating' or, 'When will I get to do that?' I wanted to give them the idea that hockey or skating can be for them. You can only become what you see. I don't think that was being represented as far as hockey players of color, so I decided to write my own (book)."

"Hockey Is For Me" can be purchased at
shop.nhl.com
and at Blackhawks stores in the Chicago area. Mayers hopes the book will eventually have wider distribution, enabling it to reach a larger audience.
He also hopes to publish four sequels, each featuring a lesson through the prism of hockey.
"This one is about perseverance and hard work, the next one is about leadership and all the great things the game teaches you," he said. "I could come up with all kinds of pillars of what the game has taught me."