Binga Captained Blades As League’s Only Black Player | Black History Month

Gerry Binga was the only Black hockey player on the Blenheim Golden Blades.

Not only that, he was the only Black hockey players in the Border Cities Junior Hockey League.

Binga faced racism in sport from the time he was in peewee hockey, with slurs being hurled from the stands, and being asked not to play at Maple City Country Club.

He was also one of the regions most accomplished swimmers and track and field athletes.

As a child, Binga could be found bounding into the home of Fergie Jenkins to find his mother Klaasseina knitting alongside Fergie’s mother Delores.

That relationship would come full circle in 1968 when Fergie Jenkins, fresh off a season in Major League Baseball, dropped the puck for a ceremonial faceoff featuring Binga as captain of Blenheim, against a player from Detroit.