One of the Great NHL Players from Michigan Had a Dark Secret

His name was Clarence "Taffy" Able. He was from Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. He played on the team that won a Silver Medal in the first Winter Olympics in France, and also won two Stanley Cup Championships in the NHL with the New York Rangers. But, "Taffy" Able is most probably someone you have never heard of.

You see, ICT News.com reported that Able played a long time ago, 1926 to 1934. Big and burly, "there were few obstacles that the rangy hockey defenseman, known for his “carcass-rattling” style of play, let stand in the way of victory for himself and his teams."

Abel never really said he played hockey for a living however. He would simply say "I'm in the business of winning!"

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But, with all of his success in professional hockey back in the day, he carried a dark secret.

"Taffy" Able, the Michigan native, was Ojibwe. He was the first Indigenous person to play in the National Hockey League and the Winter Olympics, but nobody knew his secret.

The level of racism was at a peak back then, and if the NHL has actually known that he was a Native American, Ojibwe, he would never have been allowed to play the sport.

Although through the years "Taffy" Able's accomplishments have been recognized in the modern era of hockey, and he was inducted into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame, his claim to fame as being the first Native American, Indigenous person, to play in the NHL has never been accepted or recognized by the NHL. Al least not up to now.

Sault Ste Marie certainly has recognized and honored Able. He remains a hometown hero. Lake Superior State University has named their hockey arena after him, the Taffy Able Arena.

By-the way, Able got his nickname as a kid. He loved taffy candy so much that all his friends started calling him "Taffy," and it stuck!