Sixty-three years is a long time to wait to do the right thing. But the phrase “better late than never” exists for a reason, we suppose.
On Tuesday, nearly 63 years to the day after Willie O’Ree broke the color barrier in the NHL with the Boston Bruins, the team announced that O’Ree’s number will be retired in a ceremony next month and raised to the rafters at TD Garden.
If that seems like something that should have been done a long time ago, you’re correct. A better time would have been the 25th anniversary or 50th anniversary or even the 60th in 2018, when the Hockey Hall of Fame at long last inducted O’Ree in the builders’ category.