{"id":449371,"date":"2026-02-06T20:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449371\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:09:33","slug":"winter-olympics-bring-new-push-to-recognize-hockey-great-taffy-abel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449371\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics bring new push to recognize hockey great Taffy Abel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Fox
Special to ICT<\/a><\/p>\n

As the 2026 Winter Olympics open in Italy, the nephew of American hockey pioneer Taffy Abel will ask President Donald Trump to give Abel the Presidential Medal of Freedom \u2014 and the official recognition he has long been denied.<\/p>\n

The request is the latest in a decades-long effort from nephew George Jones for honoring the Ojibwe athlete, who is widely recognized as the first Indigenous American in the Winter Olympics and the first to break the color barrier in the National Hockey League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be a great thing for Native Americans \u2026 not just for our family, but for Native Americans,\u201d Jones told ICT. \u201cIt starts to tell some of the untold history of Native Americans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 100 years ago, Abel was a member of the silver-medal-winning U.S. hockey team in the very first Winter Olympics in 1924, played outdoors in Chamonix, France. He was also the flag-bearer for the United States and recited the Olympic oath for the team.<\/p>\n

While Abel is believed to be the first Native American to participate in the Winter Olympics \u2014 and the only Indigenous American to carry the flag in Olympic history \u2014 he kept his Ojibwe heritage secret at the time.<\/p>\n

Due to his light skin color, Abel racially passed as White during the Olympics and throughout his 333-game career in the National Hockey League, though he is widely believed to have been the first player of color to take the ice.<\/p>\n

Abel\u2019s parents began the practice of concealing their race to avoid having their two children taken from them and sent to Indian boarding schools in the early 1900s. His family was multi-racial, with Taffy\u2019s father, John Abel, a White man, originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his mother, Charlotte Gurnoe Abel, from the Chippewa (Ojibwe) Sault Tribe.<\/p>\n

It is likely Able would not have been put on the Olympic team or given the opportunity to play in the NHL if he had disclosed his Ojibwe heritage.<\/p>\n

Because of his racial passing, however, the NHL has not recognized his pioneering achievements, despite being on two Stanley-Cup winning teams. While he was sometimes referred to as \u201cSuperman with skates\u201d due to his physical play and size, not revealing his heritage by racially passing would be his kryptonite in later getting recognition.<\/p>\n

Jones sees his uncle as the \u201cUnseen Warrior\u201d who used a White disguise \u201cbecause of the deep societal prejudices against Indians in the early 1900s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NHL has not responded to repeated requests from ICT for comment.<\/p>\n

New life to an old resolution<\/p>\n

The first day of 2026 was almost the last for Jones. He suffered a coronary event, and it is estimated he was dead for approximately 8 minutes before CPR by his wife and defibrillation by paramedics brought the 76-year-old man in Winter Haven, Florida back to life.<\/p>\n

\"\"The under-14 Soo Lakers hockey team practices on Sept. 29, 2025, at the Taffy Abel Arena on the campus of Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The arena, named for the Ojibwe hockey great, is the only NCAA hockey arena that has more seats (4,000) than the university has students. The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians donated $3 million to the renovation. Credit: Charles Fox\/Special to ICT<\/p>\n

The near-death event, which Jones described as \u201ctransforming,\u201d gave Jones yet another chance to win recognition for his uncle. While campaigning for a Congressional Medal of Honor or induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame requires convincing a large number of individuals to vote in Abel\u2019s favor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is strictly the decision of the U.S. president.<\/p>\n

In the end, it will require one man to convince one man of another man\u2019s achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he\u2019s [President Trump] got an America First policy. Well, why the hell not honor some of the first Americans here, too? That\u2019s my point. They deserve it,\u201d Jones told ICT.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe he will, maybe he won\u2019t. So, it\u2019s not a foregone conclusion either way, but that\u2019s not going to extinguish my advocacy to be on the right side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of January 2025, 673 individuals have been awarded the medal but only six Native Americans \u2014 Wilma Mankiller, Suzan Shown Harjo, Eloise Cobell, Billy Frank Jr., Jim Thorpe, and Annie Dodge Wauneka.<\/p>\n

The very low percentage of Native honorees, Jones feels, could work in his favor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Errors of omission and silence\u2019<\/p>\n

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the historic moment on Nov. 16, 1926, when Abel stepped onto the ice for the New York Rangers, becoming the first Indigenous American player in the National Hockey League. It was also the opening game in the inaugural season of the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Clarence \u201cTaffy\u201d Abel, Ojibwe, was the first Indigenous athlete to play in the National Hockey League. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks in 1929 and played until 1934. This photo is from the 1929-1930 hockey season, when he began playing with the team. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Jones Family Collection<\/p>\n

But there are numerous factors that work against Jones\u2019 campaign.\u00a0 Getting recognition for his uncle has often put him at odds with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Trump has a long-standing relationship with Bettman and has praised the hockey commissioner for the \u201cincredible\u201d job he has done. In 2025, Trump appointed Bettman to his President\u2019s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.<\/p>\n

Jones has never hesitated to speak poorly about Bettman in strong, condemning language and has accused the league of bypassing his uncle through \u201cerrors of omission and silence.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bettman and other league executives credit Willie O\u2019Ree, the first Black (African-Canadian) player in the NHL, with breaking the league\u2019s color barrier in 1958, proclaiming him the \u201cJackie Robinson of hockey.\u201d It has been an ongoing point of contention between Jones and the NHL.<\/p>\n

To strengthen his cause, Jones hopes to gain the support of the governors of Michigan, New York, Illinois, and Minnesota \u2014 the states where Abel played. He is also hoping for grassroots support.<\/p>\n

While not reacting specifically to Jones\u2019 campaign, the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians Chairman Austin Lowes responded in an email to ICT.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaffy Abel is a hero in our community for being both an Olympian and the first American Indian to also play in the NHL,\u201d Lowes said. \u201cOur Tribe contributed several millions to support the renovations to the Lake Superior State University ice arena in the mid 1990s. In turn, the university named the university ice area the Taffy Abel Arena.\u00a0 We are very proud of Taffy and support recognition of his accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said he will remain focused on his goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking about my uncle\u2019s legacy,\u201d he said. \u201cI think his legacy was forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles FoxSpecial to ICT As the 2026 Winter Olympics open in Italy, the nephew of American hockey pioneer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,36921,4,2602,54448,43,36922],"class_list":["post-449371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-blackhawks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-hockey","tag-ict-must-read","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-presidential-medal-of-freedom","tag-sports","tag-taffy-abel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116025502827256729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}