Jason McCrimmon has been dedicated to growing hockey throughout the Detroit area for years.
When the lifelong Detroit resident attended the 2024 North American Rink Conference & Expo in Milwaukee, he was able to learn even more ways to give back to the sport he now loves.
The conference was a big experience for McCrimmon, a 41-year-old who did not like hockey as a kid at first. However, he eventually made a life out of the sport, growing to be 6-foot-4, 240 pounds and earning the nickname of “Motor City Hitter” during his career in college and various minor leagues before giving back to his hometown.
By virtue of being in a USA Hockey-registered program, McCrimmon earned a scholarship to attend the conference last year, which is presented by the United States Ice Rink Association.
“What was huge for me was looking at different viewpoints — from parents to referees to coaches — and how do we make ourselves more marketable to a different age group or demographic,” McCrimmon said. “Being able to problem-solve better, being in a good space to kind of make sure that we’re efficient with our programs and then, not only that, but being efficient for the community that’s around the program.”
Community is very important to McCrimmon, which is why he and Cynthia Wardlaw created the Detroit Ice Dreams program in 2014, shortly following McCrimmon’s professional playing career ended.
The Ice Dreams operate out of Jack Adams Ice Arena, where McCrimmon started skating at when he was 3 years old.
“To be in a situation to be able to run the program out of the same place I started and be able to give back to kids in that community that I grew up in, for me, it’s beyond a win,” McCrimmon said.
McCrimmon’s efforts to lift those in Detroit who might not otherwise have an opportunity have not gone unnoticed. In addition to the NARCE scholarship, McCrimmon won the United States 2023 Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, which he received during the NHL Awards ceremony that year. O’Ree became the NHL’s first Black player when he took the ice for the Boston Bruins against the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 18, 1958.
“It was breathtaking. I’m still in awe now,” McCrimmon said. “Just very, very grateful. Any level of the game of hockey, for us to be in a space that we’re around greatness, which is Willie O’Ree, to be in a situation where my name is even anywhere near his name is beyond amazing. But again, it comes down to our group because I’m not doing it by myself. We have a great group that’s around us with Cynthia Wardlaw. We just have a great system that works for all of us and I’m just the face of it and I’m very grateful to be able to contribute in any way.”
First awarded in 2017-18, the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award is presented annually “to an individual who – through the game of hockey – has positively impacted his or her community, culture or society.”
Nominations for the 2024 award are open until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 9) and can be submitted at NHL.com/OreeAward.
Everything McCrimmon does seems to have a connection. For instance, the name of the Ice Dreams program came from his daughter’s name, Icecis.
Not bad for a kid who wanted to give up on hockey because it was too cold. McCrimmon stuck with the game because he was following his older brothers, who had a love for hockey that McCrimmon eventually developed.
Now he is helping to send kids off to college and other hockey programs across the country, including the NHL. Dakota Joshua is in his fifth NHL season, third with the Vancouver Canucks, after being a fifth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft.
“I’m very grateful and blessed to be in a space that we are able to have reached the resources that will be able to help out for kids that might not have that vision at that moment to see the game and what we get from it,” McCrimmon said. “From creating lifelong friends, creating strategies that help out with life lessons and being able just to be a team player.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Black History Month is observed in February and celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of our country's history.
To learn more about Black History Month visit https://www.blackhistorymonth.gov
Source: usahockey.com