Larry Kwong

Kwong was born in 1923 in Vernon, British Columbia, as the second youngest of 15 children born to his Cantonese-speaking father who had two wives.^[2][3] His father had immigrated from China in 1884 for the gold rush in Cherry Creek, BC.^[4] His father later started farming and then went into the grocery business in Vernon, British Columbia, calling his store Kwong Hing Lung. Larry's Chinese surname was Eng, but decided to take the name of his father's store as the last name in his English name.^[2]

Just two weeks after his birth, the government of the Dominion of Canada enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 which completely prohibited Chinese immigrants from entering Canada.^[5] Kwong faced numerous acts of racial discrimination during his youthful years in Vernon, as he recalled being denied service at a barbershop because of his ethnic background.^[4]

Kwong practiced ice hockey on outdoor rinks and frozen ponds around Vernon, before the city’s first indoor arena opened when he was 14 years old.^[6] He powered the Vernon Hydrophones to the midget hockey championship of BC in 1939 and then to the provincial juvenile title in 1941.^[7] As an 18-year-old, Kwong jumped the junior ranks to play senior hockey after a try-out for the elite semi-professional Trail Smoke Eaters, who had won the 1939 World Ice Hockey Championships. In Trail, players who made the roster got good-paying jobs at a local smelter, but Kwong was denied a job because of his Chinese heritage. Instead, he was sent to a nearby hotel to work as a bellhop.^[8]

In early 1944, Kwong was drafted into the Canadian Army. Instead of being deployed overseas, he was selected to join "Sugar" Jim Henry and Mac Colville on the Red Deer Wheelers of the Central Alberta Garrison Hockey League. The Wheelers defeated the Calgary Combines (starring two-time NHL scoring champion Sweeney Schriner) in the playoff semi-final, before falling to Calgary Currie Army (whose roster included Hart Trophy winners Max Bentley and Tommy Anderson) in the final series.^[9] In a game with the Wetaskiwin Army Colonels in 1945, Kwong scored 7 goals, including 6 in the third period alone, in a 9-3 victory over the Penhold Air Force team.^[10]

After World War II, Kwong returned to Trail and won the provincial senior hockey championship with the Smoke Eaters in 1946. In that BC Final series against the New Westminster Royals, Kwong led the Smokies in scoring (tied with Mike Buckna) and scored the Savage Cup-winning goal.^[11]

Later in 1946, Lester Patrick and Frank Boucher scouted Kwong and were impressed, signing him for the New York Rovers, a farm team of the New York Rangers.^[12] Kwong scored a goal in his debut for the Rovers against the Boston Olympics in Boston on October 27, 1946.^[13] At Madison Square Garden on November 17, 1946, Shavey Lee presented Kwong with the Key to New York's Chinatown. Kwong went on to lead the New York Rovers in scoring in 1947–1948 with 86 points in 65 games.

On March 13, 1948, Kwong became the first player of Asian descent to play in the NHL. Kwong was not the first non-white player, having been preceded by several Indigenous athletes, including Paul Jacobs, Taffy Abel and Henry Maracle.^[1] Kwong wore number 8 and played against Maurice Richard and the Montreal Canadiens in the Montreal Forum. This event came less than a year after Jackie Robinson shattered the baseball colour line in the US. During this game, Kwong was benched until late in the third period, when he was sent to play his lone shift of the game. Spending just a minute on the ice, he tallied no points in what would be his only big-league game.^{[14][15][16][17]}

While several other Rover forwards were called to play subsequent games, Kwong was not, despite being the Rovers' top scorer and MVP.^[18][19] Kwong became convinced that he would not get an opportunity to prove himself at the NHL level with the Rangers, and he left the Rangers organization at the end of the season. In the off-season, Kwong accepted a more lucrative offer to play for the Valleyfield Braves of the Quebec Senior Hockey League.^[2]

Kwong went on to have a long and successful career in senior and professional leagues in Canada and the United States. Coached by Toe Blake, Kwong was named as an alternate captain of the Valleyfield Braves. In 1951 Kwong won the Vimy Trophy as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Quebec Senior Hockey League. That year, he led the Valleyfield Braves to the league championship and then to the Alexander Cup, the Canadian major senior title. In the following QSHL season (1951–52), Kwong's 38 goals were topped only by Jean Béliveau's 45 tallies. In his nine-year tenure in the Quebec League, competing against future NHL All-Stars such as Béliveau, Jacques Plante, Dickie Moore, Gerry McNeil and Jean-Guy Talbot, Kwong averaged better than a point per game. Béliveau, who later became a Hall of Fame inductee, said: "Larry made his wing men look good because he was a great passer. He was doing what a centre man is supposed to do."^[2]

Kwong accepted an offer to play hockey in England and, later, in Switzerland, before it even became fashionable to do so in Europe.^[20] He expected only to stay for a year, but remained in Europe for 15 years. "I went there to coach ice hockey and then after six years of coaching, I decided to start teaching tennis as a tennis pro."^[14] Kwong spent one season with the Nottingham Panthers in Britain, scoring 55 goals in 55 games, before moving to Switzerland where he led HC Ambrì-Piotta in scoring as player-coach.^[21] With this coaching assignment, he became the first person of Chinese descent to coach a professional hockey team.^[22] He later coached HC Lugano, HC Lausanne, EHC Aarau and the Neuchâtel Young Sprinters. In 1960, Kwong led a team of expatriates, the Swiss Canadians, to victories over the Soviet and Czechoslovak national squads at the Geneva International Tournament.^[23] According to former Swiss Ice Hockey Federation CEO Patrick Bloch, Kwong was "a great ambassador and builder of hockey."^[24]

Kwong was married to Audrey Craven (1929–1979) in Nottingham in 1964. The couple had one daughter, Kristina Heintz.^[25] In 1972 Kwong returned to Canada with his family to run Food-Vale Supermarket with his brother Jack. In 1989 Kwong married Janine Boyer. He was widowed for a second time in 1999. Retired from the grocery business, he lived in Calgary, Alberta. Kwong died on March 15, 2018, in Calgary at the age of 94.^[14][26]

Kwong has been honoured on numerous occasions. Below is a list of select honours:

• List of sports desegregation firsts
• Herb Carnegie, Hockey Hall of Fame honoured member who played against Kwong for 5 seasons in the QSHL
• Willie O'Ree, first black player in the NHL, a decade after Larry Kwong broke the colour barrier
• Mike Wong, former NHL player
• Robin Bawa, first player of South Asian descent in the NHL
• Jim Paek, two-time Stanley Cup champion
• Peter Ing, former NHL goalie
• Andong Song, first Chinese-born hockey player to be drafted by an NHL team (New York Islanders)
• List of players who played only one game in the NHL