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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in November, 1996.
Bryant McBride '88
Creating converts to the 'coolest game on earth'
It may appear that for Bryant McBride '88, geography is destiny. He grew up in Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, a city known for its subzero temperatures and record snowfalls, and legendary for having 35 native sons who skated their way into the National Hockey League (NHL). Today McBride is the director of new business development for the NHL. But he believes that his love of sports and his desire to "make a difference," not geography, led him to a career in what he describes as the consummate team sport.In his role, McBride supports an ambitious overall NHL marketing initiative aimed at increasing the sport's fan base through greater television exposure, merchandizing, grassroots involvement, and other initiatives. One important way to make hockey more popular, he contends, is to make it more accessible to the public.
"One of the greatest impediments to the growth of hockey in the United States is the lack of ice rinks," said McBride, who works out of the NHL's New York City offices. In Canada, where the sport is not only the national pastime but akin to a religion, the country's 29 million residents can skate in 5,500 ice rinks. The same number of people living in California have only 61 rinks.
To expose more people to the excitement of hockey, the NHL will construct prototype ice-skating facilities with an in-line skating component to encourage roller bladers to venture out onto the ice, he said.
The NHL also has other ventures underway to attract more fans. The league's Task Force for Diversity in Hockey, for example, of which McBride is a member, helps to recruit new players and assists inner-city hockey programs in raising money by allowing the use of the NHL logo in fundraising efforts.
A common denominator
As someone who still manages to play hockey once a week, McBride is convinced of the physical benefits and character-building value of the game, especially for children. "Hockey is a huge common denominator for kids," he believes. "It doesn't matter if you are a wise guy or fat. It puts everyone on equal footing very quickly. To score a goal, you need to be reliant on your teammates."
McBride, who was born in Chicago and moved to Canada at the age of five, knows firsthand that hockey has the power to transform a person's life. After moving to Ontario, he stepped out onto the ice quickly, honed his talents, and in high school was recruited to play for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Before formally entering the academy in 1984, he spent two years at Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts studying American history and becoming acclimated to life in the United States. Despite doing well and being elected the academy's first African-American class president, McBride spent only one year there. "West Point is a trade school where you learn how to be the best Army officer in the world. I thought I could do more," he said of his reason for leaving.
While exploring schools with good academic reputations where he could continue to play hockey, McBride was asked to come to Trinity by the College's hockey coach, John Dunham, who had seen him skate in Massachusetts.
"Bryant has a tremendous amount of talent. He gave our team strength and depth," Dunham said. McBride was a defenseman for Trinity's championship hockey team during its 1986-1988 reign at the top of the ECAC North-South field. "He's a wonderful human being with boundless energy to do what has to be done," Dunham said of McBride.
For McBride doing what has to be done still involves Trinity. A member of the executive committee of the College's National Alumni Association, McBride remains involved in Trinity's academic and athletic activities. This year, for example, after running an NHL tournament in Finland to showcase that country's homegrown stars now playing in the United States, McBride was able to help Mikko Auvinen, a talented young skater from Finland, enroll as a freshman at Trinity. "I love to be able to send kids to Trinity for the great education and life experience," McBride said.
Making a difference
Trinity's first African-American class president, McBride majored in political science, and after graduation earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. After briefly working in real estate investment and later for the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Boston, McBride decided it was time to return to the sport he loved and to realize his desire to "make a difference."
"I was born in the poorest part of the ghetto in Chicago. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. My mother never lets me forget that. I've been the benefactor of a lot of people's help," he said.
For McBride, one way to remember his roots and help "make a difference" in others' lives is to create converts to the "Coolest Game on Earth," as the league bills itself. Reflecting on the career path he has chosen, McBride observed, "I believe I make more of a difference in helping inner-city kids play hockey than if I were working in politics in Washington."
-- Suzanne Zack