While black athletes integrated into the National Football League for the first time in 1920, the other three major sports were much further behind. Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play in the Major Leagues in 1947. Earl Lloyd did so in the NBA in 1950.

But it wasn't until 1958 when Willie O'Ree became the first African-American to play in the NHL.

Last November, O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, becoming the first black man to be enshrined in the sport's hallowed grounds.

"What he was able to do throughout his career, and all the challenges he had to face, and he had to overcome just to play the game," said Brown, who was assigned to the Iowa Wild earlier this week. "That in itself is amazing. When I look back and have been able to sit down and talk with him ... to listen to his stories and pick his brain about when he was playing, it just amazes me. I feel so grateful just to be able to play this game for all that he's done to help people like me."

While Greenway and Brown's journeys to the NHL have each been far easier from a racial standpoint than O'Ree's was, each has had to stare down racism and stigma associated with being a black man playing a predominantly white sport.

Greenway said he and his brother, J.D., a third-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft by Toronto who plays in the United States Hockey League, were sat down by their Caucasian mother, Shannon, and warned of the challenges they would face because of the color of their skin.

What he was able to do throughout his career, and all the challenges he had to face, and he had to overcome just to play the game ... J.T. Brown on Willie O'Ree

Canton, a small town in upstate New York about 15 miles from the Canadian border, has just under 7,000 residents. A vast majority are white, which is the background in which the Greenway boys grew up.

"There's under 10 black people where I'm from, let me tell you that," Greenway said with a smile.

That meant the Greenway boys had white friends and white teammates.

"I'd basically grown up in a family that was predominantly white," Greenway said. "My mom's side of the family is white, I grew up in a town where everyone was white, so race was a little different for me. We never really had too many problems."



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But just growing up in a mostly white community didn't stop some from hurling the occasional racial insult.

"It's ridiculous, but it's something I knew I'd come across at some point in my life," Greenway said. "I'm pretty thick-skinned. I mean, I've only ever really gotten it from opposing fans, and they're nobody that I really give the time of day to."