Scarborough-born Leaf Wayne Simmonds is a potent force on the ice for the Leafs. But he’s working to bring change in the wider hockey community as well, through the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Scarborough-born Leaf Wayne Simmonds is a potent force on the ice for the Leafs. But he’s working to bring change in the wider hockey community as well, through the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Show Notes
Although he is presently out with a broken wrist, off-season acquisition Wayne Simmonds has already made a massive impression with Leaf Nation. Making his presence felt, physically and emotionally, whenever he’s been called upon.
Wayne is the 8th Black player to wear the Maple Leaf. And he’s the first one to do so in a world where players feel confident enough to speak openly about racism in our game.
Wayne grew up right here, in Scarborough. Despite a successful career—a career that has seen the 32 year-old rack up over 500 points, make an All-Star game (where he’d be named MVP) and play for his country—Wayne always felt the call back home.
For years, he continued to hold his Road Hockey Warriors Charity Ball Hockey Tournament at Scarborough Arena Gardens. And now, here he is: back in Toronto, at the most interesting, exciting and important of times. A time where it’s clear he can make a huge impact on the ice for a team that’s ready to contend; and a time where his off-ice impact could be more keenly felt than ever.
Read Wayne’s article on Wille O’Ree here.
And check out the amazing O’Ree-inspired skates that Simmonds helped design with Bauer and Terry Smith Creations here.
This has been your fourth episode of Barrier Breakers- our look at the amazing Black players and individuals who have changed our game for the better.
We hope you’re finding the journey as entertaining, thought-provoking and essential as we are. A very special thank you to number 24 - Wayne Simmonds. We wish him a very speedy recovery from injury. We need your touch and your drive out there my guy.
‘Barrier Breakers’ was co-created by us here at Leafs Forever and Akil Augustine. Today's episode was written by myself and Paul Matthews, produced by Renita Bangert & Katie Jensen at Vocal Fry Studios for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Further thanks to Digital Producer Emily Latimer, Executive Producer Michael Gelfand, and Director of Production Shawna Morrison.
If you liked the episode, tell people about it. And write us a review. Your feedback is always welcome. Especially on this series. Help us think about this issue in new and interesting ways, and if you have story suggestions for the types of things we should be talking about, let us know.
I am Scott Willats. And until next time, Go Leafs Go.
Wayne Simmonds: You hear a lot of people talking about, ‘Shut up and don't politicize the game and just stick to basketball or stick to hockey.’ Well, you know what? We're humans, too. And all these issues affect us as well. So we're lucky enough to have a platform to where we can speak out. Not many other people do have this platform. So I think it would be wrong of us not to use our platform for the better.
Scott Willats: That’s Wayne Simmonds. Wayne “The Train” Simmonds… Now a Leaf. A key off-season acquisition for our club. A guy who, though, at this moment, is out with a broken wrist, has already made a massive impression with Leaf Nation. Making his presence felt, physically and emotionally whenever he’s been called upon.
So Wayne is the eighth Black player to wear the Maple Leaf. And he’s the first one to do so in a world where players feel confident enough to speak openly about racism in our game.
Number 24 grew up right here, in Scar-town, Scarborough. Despite a successful career - a career that has seen the 32 year-old rack up over 500 points, make an All-Star game (where he was the MVP) and play for his country - Wayne always felt the call to come back to Toronto. For years he continued to hold his Road Hockey Warriors Charity Ball Hockey Tournament at Scarborough Arena Gardens. And now, here he is: back in Toronto looking to make an impression on and off the ice.
So naturally i'm stoked to talk to another GTA guy, especially about this topic.
I’m Scotty Willats. And this is Barrier Breakers.
Scott Willats: Okay so you see him on the ice, but like let’s get to know who Wayne Simmonds really is. For Wayne it starts like most hockey players, with his dad taking him out to the rink, teaching him how to skate.
(SFX: 90s R&B and wind, outdoor skating rink)
Wayne Simmonds: So when I was three years old, my dad, he would always take me skating, which I never understood, because he never, ever came on the ice with me. And I saw him skate one time when he was a horrible skater. So I turned three years old and immediately put a pair of skates on my feet. And we lived at that point. We lived in Melbourne, at Morningside and Soules, which isn't too far away from the Scarborough Town Center. So in the back of Scarborough Town Center there, they had an outdoor rink.
So he would take me over there every single Saturday, and we’d go skating. And, you know, it got to the point where, you know, I was skating from the time I was three, four, and then I went with my mom when I was six years old to another, it was like a free skate, and we were buzzing around the ice. And one of the boys came up to me and asked me if I played hockey and I said no. And I looked at my mom. I was kind of like, ‘why don't I play hockey?’ And then after that, it was like I got signed up for hockey and I wanted to play sports, grabbed all my gear. And, you know, that was my first season of hockey with Westhill Minor Hockey Association. And, you know, it was love at first sight.
Scott Willats: In the beginning, Wayne is actually a Red Wings fan. But there’s one Leaf he really gravitates to: Number 17, our captain, Wendel Clark.
Wayne Simmonds: So believe it or not, the Lefts weren’t my favourite team. I don't know if I'm gonna get scolded for this, but the Leafs weren’t my favourite team.
Growing up in Toronto, I think my favourite player was Wendel Clark. I just loved his style of play. You know, he was rough and tough. I never actually got to go to a Leafs game when I was younger, but you know how they would have the open practices and stuff like that. So my brother worked at Maple Leaf Gardens, my older brother, he was security there. So he brought me and my youngest brother down for it was one of the open skates. And I remember I was sitting on the glass and I was watching Wendel Clark just like wire slap shots. And, you know, I remember watching him in the game, this is the first time I saw him playing up close and personal. And, you know, I fell in love. Like his style of play, that's exactly what I wanted to do, was be like Wendel Clark.
Scott Willats: It's funny that's your favorite player growing up, because that's the player that you turned into. It's really funny that now that connection was built and goes that way.
Wayne Simmonds: Yeah, I know it's crazy I always try to emulate, you know, my game around that, you know, around that physical type of player, but who could also play at the same time, and score goals. But, if needed, if a teammate needed help or if something needed to happen. You know, I wasn't afraid to go out there and physically, you know, try to start and get the boys going. So, you know, it was nice. It went from Wendel Clark, obviously, other players, you know, I think I grew up watching Jarome Iginla, like Keith Tkachuk, Shane Doan like those types of players.
Scott Willats: Wayne and I are around the same age, so we got into hockey around the same time. Obviously, he had a little bit of a better career. But I had to ask him, what was his earliest hockey experience where he felt a little isolated.
I don't know what it was like, there weren't many black players when I was playing, so I imagine it was the same for you. First of all, how did that feel? Number two, did you encounter some racism growing up and playing in that era? And number three, how did you kind of deal with it?
Wayne Simmonds: So, first of all, I don't really care what colour anybody was. I was on the ice chasing to try and score goals and, you know, trying to hit people even when I wasn't allowed to hit people. So I, there was no worry there. You know, especially when I was younger. You know, those kind of things they're taught. Like when you're a kid, you don't you don't quite get the scope of what's happening and things of that nature. You know, I'd hear my mom say things here and there about other parents, but I wasn't really worried about it. Nothing had really come to me. Nothing racist. No kids were malicious at that time. I think it was kind of when I got to around the age of like ten, eleven, twelve, you know, obviously where you start to develop a little bit more and, you know, kids start talking more garbage, just trash talking. And I think that's when I encountered, you know, my first bout of racism in hockey. And you know what threw me for a loop for sure.
I thought I was just like every other kid on the ice. Obviously, I was the only black kid on my team at the time. But, you know, I had a lot of friends that I played with from the age of six, I want to say all the way up to fifteen.
Obviously, white guys that I'm still best friends with till today, and those guys always had my back because we were so close, but I think, you know, it's tough when you're that young and you don't really understand what's going on or why you're being told to stick to basketball or why you're being called the N-word or, you know, things like that.
So for me, it was tough to handle, but my parents did a really good job, you know, teaching me not to retaliate. I think the first couple of times, obviously, I think naturally it's human nature you're going to retaliate. But my mom sat me down one day and she just said to me, black and white. She goes, ‘these guys are trying to get you off your game. They don't want you to be able to go out there and help your team win. So if you retaliate physically and you get put in the penalty box, they're winning.’ I got a lot of things like that growing up, obviously being one of the few black players within the GTA.
Scott Willats: It's kind of a weird thing, right? Because chirping is a part of hockey and like everybody would be saying, you know, you got tougher skin and yet they're just trying to throw you off your game. But there's a difference between chirping and there's a difference between racism. And I think people don't really get that, right?
Wayne Simmonds: Yeah, racism isn't chirping, you know, racism is ignorance. It's someone that is afraid of something that they don't know. They don't know, you know, where I came from, how I grew up. I don't look like them. So they don't they don't know anything about me. And for the most part, I always found that if you saw the kid and he was being, you know, ignorant ten times out of ten, it was their parents who taught them that. So, you know, it was tough growing up. I love the sport of hockey so much that I wouldn't let any negativity get in my way and stop me from doing what I really love to do.
Wayne Simmonds: The majority of my idols all were athletes, but I'd say guys like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bill Russell, some of those older guys that actually fought for their civil rights. Obviously, Muhammad Ali. Just like, you know, those men who spoke up and didn't take the guff that they were given. And they stood there and they put the, you know, the race on their shoulders and they helped battle through. Obviously, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, men like that who made it their place in the world to speak up for our culture and for our black ethnicity to really push us forward.
Willie O’Ree, being the first black player in the NHL, he was like the first man on the moon to me. An astronaut. Plain and simple like that.
Scott Willats: You wouldn’t necessarily assume a teenage hockey player would be into that kind of history, but Wayne was. For him, O’Ree was everything. He was the original. He was Neil Armstrong.
SFX: ‘three, two, one,’ a rocket takes off
Scott Willats: In the spring of 2018, Wayne would write an awesome piece in the Players’ Tribune about O’Ree. I highly recommend you guys go and read it. We’ll put the link in our show notes. The title of the article? The Astronaut.
Wayne Simmonds: This was around the time of you know, before Willie was nominated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. And I just kind of really wanted to put my thoughts down on paper and express to the hockey world how much this man Willie O’Ree means to the game of hockey, not only for black players, but for players of every ethnicity.
The things that he went through to make it to the NHL and still doesn't have a bad word to say about anyone, is obviously a testament to what he's done, the type of person he is, and how he looks at life. So for me, to get all of that off my chest and explain that, um you know, it really was just a letter to the world to say that, you know, Mr. O’Ree really should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame and these are the reasons why. And that's how I felt.
Going back to 2011, Joel Ward got called the N-word for scoring an overtime winner and sending Boston home. So, like, that's still happening in today's day and age. And for Willie to be able to endure all of the name calling, the way he was unfairly treated. Not to mention, he was legally blind in one eye while he was doing all of this and nobody even knew that. I think to me, like, it just shows you the grace, the respectability and the determination that a black man can have. And it’s unbelievable.
Scott Willats: In November of 2018, Willie O’Ree was indeed inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. This season, a remarkable documentary, called ‘Willie,’ has become a must-watch... I mean, look at this guy in his trademark fedora - he's been on every NHL helmet since Martin Luther King Day, under the banner: ‘Celebrate Equality.’ What a beauty.
Scott Willats: The game of hockey is basically at a crossroads.
Last June, Wayne was one of seven current and former NHL players to come together and form the Hockey Diversity Alliance, the HDA. It’s an organization whose stated mission was to get rid of racism and intolerance in our sport. In doing so, Wayne, Akim Aliu, Evander Kane, Matt Dumba, Nazem Kadri and others, refused to do what some people in our sport say, ‘Shut up and play.’ Since then, the HDA has rolled out proposals to fund grassroots hockey programs for minorities, anti-racism education, and other measures.
The creation of the Hockey Diversity Alliance back in the spring of 2020 was a massive catalyst for change. And, according to Wayne, a big part of what led to its creation was the way that the hockey world reacted to the allegations made by one of the HDA’s founding members.
Now back in November 2019, former NHLer Akim Aliu reported that 10 years earlier, then-present Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters, dropped racial slurs multiple times in the locker room. Though the Calgary Flames performed an internal investigation and Peters ultimately stepped down, the reaction around the hockey world was disappointing to Wayne.
Wayne Simmonds: The way that Akim was treated and the fact that he came out 10 years after and how everyone kind of pushed it to the side and they're like, ‘Oh, well, Akim’s a bad apple, Akim’s this, Akim’s that.’ Akim is every Black kid who plays the game. To have something said so malicious and so ignorant, you know, to a young man who, by the way, this coach has all the power over, you know, it's ridiculous. No one checks for it, no one looked out for him. So that happens to many kids in the hockey world. And that was kind of the catalyst for us to create the HDA.
The amount of players we have that wanted to step up and create a better environment around the game, it was amazing. And, you know, we came together and we just wanted to make the hockey world a better place. And, you know, we're trying to make it so that it's diverse and it's inclusive and that everyone feels comfortable in their own skin.
No one should have to come to the rink, whether they're white, Black, Asian, brown, whatever it may be, and feel out of place. Because of a coach, because of management, because of a player, that's not right. So I think the main thing for us is we want to make sure that the hockey world is held accountable for what's happening in that nothing is passed by the wayside.
It's not just about us. It's about everyone who's coming up after us. We already know how the world is right now and where we stand. And maybe it's not going to make a difference for our generation, or the next generation, but two generations down the line. That's where it should be seamless. You know, there should be no discrimination, there should be none of that. It's just about playing hockey and having fun and enjoying it. No one should have to look over their shoulder and worry about, you know, discrimination of any kind from anybody.
Scott Willats: Has there been any blowback or has it been mostly positively received?
Wayne Simmonds: I think you always get blowback. You get people saying, ‘oh, well, hockey doesn't have a diversity problem. Hockey doesn't have a racism problem, it's all one off.’ But all these incidents aren’t one offs. You know, they continuously happen. And every time they happen, they get thrown by the wayside and we're not going to accept that anymore. So that's why we know, we formed the group and, you know, we want to make it safe. We want to make it safe for everybody.
So now I guess we're in a place where we're actively working and trying to create grassroots programs that not only cater to players of different ethnicities, but we also want to help with the world just in general.
Scott Willats: Ten years ago if you’d suggested that Players of Colour in the NHL would be organized and advocating for change -- at the pro and grassroots levels -- well, people probably would have looked at you strangely. But today, it’s actually happening. The entire conversation around the sport of hockey is changing. That change is being driven by the league, by individual teams, by organizations like Black Girl Hockey Club - who we profiled in our first episode - and by the pros themselves.
Where all this pushing and advocating goes is anyone’s guess. The anti-racist fight, as Renee Hess of BGHC told us, is a constant struggle. It’s two steps forward, one step back. It requires consistency and fortitude.
And Wayne and the fellow members of the HDA, they’re committed. They won’t be told to just shut up and play. The stakes are too important. Because what’s at stake is the game they all love. It's for the kids out skating at Scarborough Town Centre this weekend, watching Wayne Simmonds score goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs and dreaming of doing the same thing one day. To make sure those kids don’t have to be looking over their shoulders, wondering if the game really wants them.
Scott Willats: How do you want to be remembered, Wayne?
Wayne Simmonds: To be honest, I think as a good human and as somebody who pushed for social equality, someone who is looked upon that had no fear and was always there to stand up for what he thought was right.
I think that goes beyond hockey. Obviously, I want to be known as a great hockey player and, you know, do all of that type of stuff. But, you know, I want to be known for someone who stands for what's right.
Scott Willats: Well, you've always been one of my favorite players, even though you and Geroux? used to kill us a lot. [laughs]
Wayne Simmonds: [laughs] That’s okay, I'm not killing anymore. I’m out there killin’ other people.
Scott Willats: We wish you a speedy recovery. We can't wait to drop this podcast. From one Black guy to another Black guy that's part of this game of hockey. I really appreciate what you're doing and I really mean that. And you're really making a difference, my guy.
Wayne Simmonds: No problem, I really appreciate it and I thank you for having me on your podcast and to speak my mind.
Scott Willats: This has been your fourth episode of Barrier Breakers - our look at the amazing Black players and individuals who have changed our game for the better.
We hope that you’re finding the journey as entertaining, thought-provoking, and essential as we do. A very special thank you to number 24 - Wayne Simmonds. We wish him a very speedy recovery from his injury. We need your touch and your drive out there, my guy.
‘Barrier Breakers’ was co-created by us here at Leafs Forever and Akil Augustine. Today's episode was written by myself and Paul Matthews, produced by Renita Bangert & Katie Jensen of Vocal Fry Studios for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Further thanks to Emily Latimer, Executive Producer Michael Gelfand, and Director of Production Shawna Morrison.
If you liked the episode, tell people about it. And write us a review. Your feedback is always welcome. Especially on this series. Help us think about this issue in new and interesting ways, and if you have story suggestions for the types of things we should be talking about, let us know.
I am Scotty Willats. As always, Go Leafs Go.