Men's Ice Hockey | February 06, 2020
There is an iconic Western Michigan University hockey photo which can still be found on the Internet of the Saunders brothers proudly wearing their Bronco jerseys.
It was taken prior to the 1975-76 season, the usual set-up photo which will be featured in newspaper stories many times.
It's that photo of the Canadian brothers, though, which shows how WMU's hockey team and head coach Bill Neal helped usher in minority players into the college game. At the time, though, as Bernie tells the story, it was just two brothers who wanted to play on the same hockey team. They just happened to be black.
After successful junior careers, John started at the University of Indiana, which was starting a hockey program, but there wasn't much going on at the time, so he transferred to the University of Michigan, which was a college powerhouse in the 70s.
''I had double digit offers from colleges and I was initially going to Michigan because John was there,'' Bernie Saunders said. ''However, John wasn't playing much at Michigan, and after a scrimmage against Western Michigan, John called Bill Neal and asked him if he wanted a defenseman and Bill jumped at having John.
''When John left Michigan, the team I liked best was St. Lawrence and the person who recruited me was Bill Wilkinson, who would go on to become Western Michigan's head coach (1982-99). John and I were from Toronto and I was a home body, so St. Lawrence looked like the right place for me.''
Then came a phone call which turned everything around.
''I didn't even have Western in the picture when all this happened with John,'' Bernie said. "I called Bill Neal to tell him I was going to St. Lawrence, and I don't know how this happened, but it was one of those turning points in life. I changed my mind on the phone and said I'm going to Western.
''It was a split-second decision.''
And as it turns out, it was a pretty good decision for the brothers. Bernie would go on to become the all-time leading scorer at WMU when he left in 1979. In 140 games played, he scored 76 goals and had 78 assists for 154 points. That figure still ranks him among the top 20 on the Broncos' all-time list.
Bernie would be inducted into the WMU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 and into the WMU Hockey Ring of Honor in its inaugural year, 2013. John spoke at the Ring of Honor ceremony.
John would play two seasons before transferring to Ryerson University in Toronto to pursue a career in broadcasting. He would become a nationally known broadcaster for ESPN before passing away in 2016.
''Kalamazoo was the best thing for me, and those years were the best thing for me developmentally for my career,'' Bernie Saunders said. ''It's interesting how those twists and turns in life turn out.''
It definitely wasn't easy for both of them, though, being minorities in a sport where there weren't many at all.
''When I first started maturing as a player and getting interests from the juniors and colleges, I had to become a better fighter,'' Saunders said. ''I became a really good fighter and I'd fight at the drop of a hat.
''Then I learned I had to temper it because I was a strong goal scorer. It became obvious teams were luring me into the penalty box to get me off the ice.''
It's a little tough to score goals from the penalty box, so he picked his battles and there were many.
''Bob Wagner (the late sports writer for the Kalamazoo Gazette) wrote an article about how Bowling Green just pummeled me in a game,'' he said. ''The toughest thing was whole teams had you targeted and every player was banging on you.
''I learned quickly that my mentality had to be that I would beat them on the scoreboard, not with my fists.''
It was in one of his first games at Western Michigan in which Saunders realized he could play at this level and beyond. The U.S. Olympic Hockey team played at Lawson Ice Arena in 1975 and Saunders had an assist in a game which WMU lost, 4-1.
''It was a really well-played game and we gave them a run for their money,'' Saunders said. ''I had an assist, and I thought if I can play against the Olympic team, I can play at this level.''
After his WMU career, Saunders would go on to play in the National Hockey League for the Quebec Nordiques as well as professionally for Novia Scotia and Syracuse in the American Hockey League, Cincinnati of the Central Hockey League and Kalamazoo of the International Hockey League.
It was while he was with Cincinnati the racial overtones cropped up prior to a game in Birmingham, Ala. A few years before, the owner of Birmingham when it was in the World Hockey Association, John Bassett, had to release Tony McKegney to the NHL's Buffalo Sabres because season ticket holders were complaining because McKegney was black, according to an online story about the Bulls.
''The next year, the Nordiques sent me to Cincinnati, and when I went to play my first game in Birmingham, the Cincinnati executives came in and told me I might be shot in this game,'' Saunders said. ''So I basically went into the arena with some protection.
''I played the game and I score a goal…and I get a standing ovation from the Birmingham crowd. I was stunned. After the game I talked to people and they were appalled at the way the Tony McKegney thing was handled and wanted me to feel at home.''
Saunders would go on to become the fifth black to play in the NHL. The first was Willie O'Ree (1957-61) and then came Bill Riley, Mike Marson and McKegney. According to a list on Wikipedia, there have been 94 black players in the NHL since O'Ree broke in.
''It will normalize, having black players, but it was so unusual in my day,'' Saunders said. ''But it's good to see people won't be so freaked out by it.''
As for his alma mater: ''It makes me proud to see what Western is doing in hockey now,'' he said. ''I was just one of the bricks in the wall to what they are doing now. To see them flourish like this gives me a warm feeling in my heart.''
After hockey, Saunders flourished himself, first in the pharmaceutical industry and then in bio-tech. He currently is retired and living on the east coast.
