The BC Hockey Hall of Fame honoured Chemainus product Robin Bawa — the first NHL player of South Asian descent — with the Okanagan Hockey Group Pioneer Award for 2016.
The award was presented at the Hall of Fame induction dinner in Penticton on July 22.
As an eight-year-old, Bawa was told, “Your kind doesn’t play hockey.” His dad bought him his first skates the next day.
Bawa rose through the minor hockey ranks in the Cowichan Valley to the Fuller Lake Flyers, then moved to the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Oilers in 1982-83, helping the team win its first WHL championship in 1984. He spent a short time with the New Westminster Bruins, where he faced racial taunts from his hometown fans, then went back to the Kamloops team, renamed the Blazers, where he was an “inspirational leader” on the way to another WHL title in 1986.
Bawa jumped to the professional ranks with the International Hockey League’s Fort Wayne Komets in 1987-88, and on Oct. 6, 1989 suited up for the Washington Capitals, becoming the first player of South Asian descent to make a Big Four team. Although he was better known for his physical play, Bawa scored his first NHL goal in his second game.
In 1991-92, he played two games with the Vancouver Canucks, drawing praise from then-director of hockey operations Brian Burke.
“What Robin does is he’s got good hands, he can score and he can skate and he’s belligerent; he can fight,” Burke said at the time. “His folks did a good job bringing him up. He’s a polite, hard-working young man with good values and its a real pleasure to see him get a shot.”
Bawa went on to play for the San Jose Sharks, and was an original Anaheim Mighty Duck in 1993. He played 61 NHL regular-season games between 1989 and 1994, scoring six goals and assisting on one more, with 60 penalty minutes. He also got into one playoff game with the Canucks.
Bawa also played 565 IHL games, almost all with the Fort Wayne Komets, before retiring in 1999 following a series of concussions.
“In the time since Robin Bawa broke the ice, hockey has become ingrained in the Indo-Canadian community,” the BC Hockey Hall of Fame said in the video that accompanied the award presentation.
So far, only two more Punjabi players have suited up in the NHL: Manny Malhotra, who played 991 games, and Jujhar Khaira, who made his debut with the Edmonton Oilers last season, but he has inspired countless other players.
“Robin was the guy I looked up to,” said Ajay Baines, who grew up in Kamloops and captained the Blazers on his way to the professional ranks. “He had a huge impact on me.”
CBC Punjabi play-by-play announcer Harnarayan Singh also praised Bawa in the video.
“There’s no doubt that Robin Bawa is a pioneer for Canadian Sikhs and the Punjabi community,” Singh said. “Overcoming the obstacles he faced is making the NHL open the door and prove to others that it is possible.”
