Larry Kwong overcame odds to be NHL pioneer

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This week Fischler zeroes in on a historic game played 75 years ago at The Forum in Montreal. It marked the first time a player of Asian descent played in an NHL game.

Growing up in Vernon, British Columbia, Larry Kwong dreamed about playing in the NHL. Listening to Foster Hewitt's broadcasts of Saturday night Toronto Maple Leafs games inspired him even more.

"My buddies and I would get out on the frozen ponds and play hockey until we couldn't stand up anymore," Kwong said. "We were like so many young Canadiians, our eyes were on the NHL."

Then a pause.

"But I knew I had a lot of obstacles to overcome."

The roadblocks had nothing to do with Kwong's ability. He spurred his town's Midget team to the British Columbia championship and when he graduated to the Trail Smoke Eaters, a popular provincial semi-pro team, he became their ace center.

Kwong's obstacles were rooted in legal bias. As the New York Times noted, "Under the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, Chinese Canadians were denied the vote and other basic rights." That was the year Kwong was born and as a youngster he was aware of anti-Chinese hostility.

"We were discriminated against in my own home town," he remembered. "Even the barber wouldn't cut my hair because I was Chinese. This left a mark on me. I felt I was not one of the boys. When teammates of mine got good off-ice jobs at the local smelter, I was turned away. I became a bellhop at the local hotel."

In 1942 a Chicago Black Hawks scout invited Kwong, then 19, to a pro tryout, but he never made it. The Canadian government refused the documentation required for him to leave Canada.

"World War II was on so I joined the (Canadian) Army and wound up in Red Deer, Alberta," Kwong said. "We had a service hockey team and two of my teammates were (former New York Rangers) -- Mac Colville and 'Sugar' Jim Henry."

The Rangers alums recommended Kwong to New York's hockey boss Lester Patrick, who scouted Kwong after his Army discharge and invited him to the Rangers training camp in 1946.

The fact that Kwong measured only 5-foot-6, 150 pounds wasn't a problem since he knew how to get around the big guys. The Toronto Globe and Mail described Kwong as "a doodlebug on skates."

The Rangers assigned him to the New York Rovers of the Eastern Hockey League. Kwong made his debut in the United States against the Boston Olympics on Oct. 27, 1946, and scored a goal.

"Larry attracted fans because he was good and also was our first Chinese-Canadian player," Rangers publicist Stan Saplin said. "Before one game, the unofficial 'mayor' of Chinatown, Shavee Lee, came to The Garden with two Chinese showgirls and gave Larry the keys to Chinatown. He even got a nickname, 'The China Clipper.' Everybody loved him."

Me included. As a 14-year-old fan, I attended every Rovers game and rooted for Kwong, who centered a line with future Ranger Nick Mickoski and Hub Anslow. Kwong made that line click.

In 1947-48, Kwong emerged as the Rovers leading scorer. Later that season, Rangers coach Frank Boucher told Kwong to meet the big club in Montreal for a game against the Canadiens on March 13, 1948.

It was an important game since New York was leading Montreal for a playoff berth and it should have been a big game for Kwong, but, unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Kwong remained on the bench for two periods and well into the third. The game was tied 2-2 when Boucher finally dispatched Kwong to take a shift.

The forward dutifully took his short shift without incident, never realizing that it would be his only one in the NHL. Montreal went ahead late in the third period and won the game 3-2.

"I was quite disappointed because I was only used for about a minute," Kwong explained. "I didn't get a real chance to show what I could do."

He returned to the Rovers and finished the season as their leading scorer. But he refused an invitation to Rangers training camp in September 1948, preferring an offer from the Valleyfield Braves of the Quebec Senior Hockey League.

"I liked New York very much," Kwong explained, "but I wanted to go to a team that I knew really wanted me."

He played against future Hall of Famers Jean Beliveau and Dickie Moore in the QSHL. Kwong was runner-up to Beliveau in the scoring race one season. Another season he was league MVP and a playoff star.

"Larry made his wings look good because he was such a great passer," Beliveau said.

As age slowed him, Kwong continued his playing career in Europe before returning to Canada and his family's business in Calgary. He died at the age of 94 on March 19, 2018, 70 years to the month from his ground-breaking -- and only -- NHL game.

By that time Larry had been acknowledged as a trail-blazer and was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He also was an inspiration to more than a dozen players of Asian ancestry who followed him to the NHL. One of them, British Columbia native Paul Kariya, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.

"Larry was a heck of a hockey player," said Moore. "He was a good skater, a good puck handler and could score goals. What more could you ask of a hockey player?"

That's a question Larry Kwong often pondered.