Sportswriter and author Jeff Pearlman has been dishing out some interesting behind-the-scenes stories and insights on the people he’s interviewed and written about over the years.
Pearlman has talked about the scariest athlete he ever interviewed and the coolest person in sports he’s ever been around, to name a few.
He recently shared a story about an interview with an NHL executive when he was an aspiring journalist in high school that likely would have ended that person’s professional career had he said those things with a major publication.
“In 1990, I was sports editor of my high school student newspaper, and somehow I arranged an interview with Joe Bucchino, then the assistant general manager of the New York Rangers. And for a high school kid, this was a huge, huge, huge deal.
“In this interview, I asked him why he didn’t think more Blacks played in the NHL. And Joe Bucchino, assistant general manager of the Rangers, said to me, he thought it was because Blacks didn’t necessarily have the leg strength to play in the National Hockey League. I repeat, he told me Blacks don’t have the leg strength to play in the NHL.
“It’s insanity. If he was dumb enough to say this to the New York Times or Washington Post, he would have been out of hockey.”
Pearlman has shared the story in the past and even posted the column on Twitter/X back in 2018.
Here’s a crazy one: In 1989 I interviewed Joe Bucchino, at the time the assistant GM for @NYRangers. It was for my high school newspaper. I asked him why pro hockey wasn’t more diverse. This is what he told me (in age of Twitter, he’s fired in 5 minutes) … pic.twitter.com/NCEQ90uYfR
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) November 11, 2018
In the printed article, Bucchino is quoted as saying “Hockey is not a big Black sport. With only four Black players in the league, it’s shown that Blacks don’t medically have strong enough legs.”
Somehow, the actual quote was even worse than Pearlman’s retelling.