Jamal Mayers 1974–

Hockey player

At a Glance…

Sources

Part of the first significant wave of National Hockey League (NHL) players of African descent in the 1990s, Ja-mal Mayers compiled a solid record as a right-wing for the St. Louis Blues since his debut with the team in November of 1996. Combining power and speed, Mayers helped to rejuvenate the lineup of the Blues, which made the post-season playoffs every year after he joined the squad full-time in 1998. Mayers also took an active role in promoting diversity issues in the NHL’s ranks and worked to increase opportunities for inner-city hockey players to have access to skates, sticks, and ice time. Viewed as vital to the Blues’ chances to make the playoffs again in the 2002-2003 season, the team was disappointed when Mayers suffered a knee injury early in the season. Surgery on the knee ended Mayers’s year but he hoped to return to the active line up in 2003.

Jamal Mayers was born on October 24, 1974, in Toronto, Ontario. His mother, Doreen Mayers, separated from his father when he was a toddler and raised Jamal and his older brother, Allan, as a single parent. The brothers both skated from an early age and joined youth hockey programs in Toronto while they were growing up. When money became tight in the Mayers household, Jamal had to sit out one season because his mother could not afford to pay for the equipment and league fees for both brothers. Allan Mayers, six years older than his brother, subsequently decided that hockey was too important for his sibling to give up and decided to let his brother play instead. “It was a tough year not being able to play,” Mayers recalled in an interview with John McGourty on the official NHL website in 2001, “I owe a lot to my brother. He saw how much I loved the game and decided not to play the next year so I could play. I’m indebted to him and that’s one example of why we are so close.” As a fifteen-year-old, Mayers started playing amateur hockey with the Thornhill club in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. He stayed with the team from 1990 through 1992.

The family’s situation improved when Doreen Mayers married Allan Crosswell when Jamal was fourteen years old. Crosswell encouraged his stepsons to pursue their college degrees before attempting to start careers as athletes and both took his advice. Mayers entered Western Michigan University (WMU) in Grand Rapids in 1992. Although he was drafted as the third pick of the St. Louis Blues on June 26, 1993, Mayers decided

At a Glance…

Born jamal Mayers on October 24, 1974, in Toronto, ON, Canada; son of Doreen Mayers. Education: Western Michigan University, BA, marketing, 1996.

Career: St. Louis Blues, hockey player, 1996-.

Address: Team —St. Louis Blues, 1401 Clark Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63103.

to remain in college instead of jumping into the NHL’s ranks. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from WMU in 1996. In his four years on WMU’s men’s hockey team, Mayers helped the squad make it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association finals twice.

In signing with the St. Louis Blues in 1993, Mayers was a part of the first sizable wave of players of African descent to make it to the NHL’s ranks. Traditionally, most of the league’s players had been from Canada, northern Europe and Russia, and the northern parts of the United States, areas where relatively few people of African descent lived. With immigration from the former British Commonwealth nations of Africa to Canada, however, the population of Afro-Canadians edged up to about two percent of the population by 2000, meaning that a more diverse group of young players was coming up through the junior-hockey ranks in that country. Aware of his status as a role model to younger players of African descent, Mayers worked through programs such as Ice Hockey in Harlem to promote the sport to a new audience. He also became a member of the NHL Diversity Task Force and worked with the NHL Players’ Association to help the sport broaden its participation level and appeal to young, minority players.

After making his first appearance with the Blues on November 3, 1996, Mayers spent most of the 1996-1997 season with the Worcester Ice Cats, the Blues’ minor-league affiliate in Massachusetts. At six-feet, one-inch tall and about 210 pounds, Mayers was a dominating physical presence on the ice, but his outstanding asset was his speed across the ice. Mayers racked up 26 scoring points in 62 games with the Ice Cats in the 1996-1997 season and improved his scoring total to 43 points in 61 games the following season. In both seasons he had more than 100 penalty minutes, a testament to his aggressive style of play.

After playing 20 games with the Ice Cats at the beginning of the 1998-1999 season, Mayers completed the year on the Blues’ roster, where he played 34 games and had nine scoring points and 40 penalty minutes. In the 1999-2000 season, which the Blues finished with the best record in the NHL, Mayers was a vital component of “The Hound Line” along with left wing Tyson Nash and center Craig Conroy. The defensive trio earned the nickname for doggedly checking the team’s opponents and frustrating their scoring opportunities. In January of 2002 Karl Samuleson wrote of Mayer’s contribution to the Blues in Hockey Digest saying, “Mayers is an essential cog in their juggernaut. Whether it’s the first game of the season or the seventh game of a Stanley Cup semifinals, Mayers brings the same never-say-die attitude to the rink and sets the physical tone for his team with an impressive blend of power and speed.”

By the 2002-2003 season, Mayers earned an estimated $550,000 with the Blues. Early in the season the team got off to a nine-game winning streak, which boded well for the Blues’ chances to make the playoffs again. “It’s fun when you’re winning and it’s fun to come to the rink,” Mayers told the San Francisco Chronicle in May of 2002, “Everybody is playing together and it makes it fun.” In typically modest fashion, he added, “It’s a collective effort. Different guys on any given night. it’s been different guys stepping up at different times.” Unfortunately, a knee injury that required surgery put an end to Mayers’s season in November of 2002. He was expected to sit out the rest of the season and return to the line up for the 2003-2004 season.

Sources

Periodicals

Chicago Tribune, April 26, 2002.

Detroit News, March 21, 2002.

Hockey Digest, February 2001; January 2002.

San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2002.

Sporting News, December 2, 2002.

Sports Illustrated, October 4, 1999.

On-line

“Brotherly Love,” National Hockey League Website, www.nhl.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/nhlice.woa/wa/printPagelocation=/blackhistory/mayer.html (March 17, 2003).

“Jamal Mayers,” Internet Hockey Database Website, www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=6059 (March 17, 2003).

“Jamal Mayers,” National Hockey League Players’ Association Website, www.nhlpa.com/Content/THE_PLAYERS/player_biol.asp?ID=3642 (March 17, 2003).

“Jamal Mayers,” St. Louis Blues Official Team Website, www.stlouisblues.com/team/players/mayers.html (March 17, 2003).

—Timothy Borden