Grant Fuhr

Grant Fuhr (1962- ), hockey player. Fuhr was born to a white teenage mother and adopted by a white couple in Spruce Grove, a small town near Edmonton in the province of Alberta. His parents were initially concerned that they would not be able to instill a sense of racial pride in their son, but as his mother later said, “We asked him to be fair in his judgments, to not judge a person – or himself – on social or economic standing, but on their honesty and integrity.” He began playing hockey at the age of five and immediately took to goaltending, later recalling, “There was something about the equipment I liked and something about the challenge.” Ironically, growing up in a predominantly white area benefited his future career; if he had lived in eastern Canada, he probably would have been steered towards basketball. In 1981, the Edmonton Oilers made him the 8^th overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft. Fuhr quickly established himself as one of the best goaltenders in hockey history. During his ten seasons in Edmonton, he was named to the All-Star Team five times, becoming the first black player so honored, and the Oilers won the Stanley Cup championship five times. He was especially dominant during the playoffs, giving up less than three goals per game during these games, and he was also skilled at getting the Oilers' high-scoring offense started; in 1984, he set the single-season record for points scored by a goaltender. His best overall year was 1987, when he led his country to victory in the Canada Cup (an international tournament that featured the six best hockey nations in the world), won another Stanley Cup, finished second in MVP voting, and was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender in the league.

In the early 1990s, Fuhr began struggling with injuries and substance abuse and was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, part of the dismantling of one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history. After moving on to the Buffalo Sabres, a team that had previously experienced little success, he led them to the second round of the playoffs in 1994. That year he was awarded the William M. Jennings Trophy for giving up the fewest goals of any goalkeeper in the league; due to his continuing injuries, he shared the award with his backup Dominik Hasek, who under Fuhr’s mentorship developed into a fellow all-time great. While playing for Buffalo, however, he was also denied membership in a nearby country club that had admitted several of his teammates, and although the club denied that racism was a factor, someone burned a swastika onto one of the golfing greens. The club eventually apologized to Fuhr and offered him a membership, which he rejected. In 1995 he signed with the St. Louis Blues, and despite his many injuries, he set NHL records by playing in 76 consecutive games and 79 games overall. In the playoffs that year, he suffered serious knee injuries that ended his season. He continued on for several more years, becoming the third winningest goaltender in Blues history and also playing for the Calgary Flames, where he earned his 400^th career win and mentored a fellow black Canadian and goalkeeper Fred Brathwaite, before retiring in 2000. His 403 career wins made him eighth all time in NHL history and currently ranks him fourteenth, and his 92 playoff victories and 31 shutouts also rank among the all-time greats. In 2003 he became the first black player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. During his induction speech, he reflected that “It’s an extra special honor to be the first man of color in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It just shows that hockey is such a diverse sport that anybody can be successful in it, and I’m proud of that.” He has become a role model for the NHL’s increasing number of black players, stating that he is “flattered” to be in this position. Nearly two decades after his retirement, only seven other black players have followed him in being named to the All-Star Team. He is also ranked 70^th on The Hockey News’ list of the 100 all-time greatest hockey players, and in 2003 his number 31 was retired by the Oilers. A year later, he became the goaltender coach for the Phoenix Coyotes, working alongside head coach and former teammate Wayne Gretzky, who has often stated that Fuhr is the best goaltender of all time. He served in that position until 2009 and since 2014 has been co-owner and director of golf at a country club in California. In 2015 he wrote his autobiography Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion, and in 2019 he became the subject of the documentary Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story, in which he summarizes his successes and challenges by stating simply “You make bad choices and you can still succeed in life even if you make bad choices. You have to live and learn.”

©David Brodnax, Sr.