Angela James - Early Life

Early Life

James was born on December 22, 1964, in Toronto, Ontario. She is the daughter of Donna Barrato, a white Canadian from Toronto, and Leo James, a black American from Mississippi who came to Canada to escape racial segregation. She has two half-brothers and two half-sisters on her mother's side. Her father, who was involved with a Toronto nightclub, estimates she has at least nine half-siblings by him, though James believes the number closer to 15. Among them is National Hockey League (NHL) player Theo Peckham.

A single mother, Donna raised Angela and her two half-sisters with the help of government assistance. They lived in a subsidized townhouse in the Flemingdon Park neighbourhood of Toronto. Donna worked as a bookkeeper and at the concession stand of the local arena. She battled depression and mental illness and her eldest daughter, Cindy, worked two part-time jobs at the age of 16 to help the family meet financial obligations. Angela was closest to her sister Kym, though the two also often fought as children. Her father never had a consistent place in her life growing up and did not provide financial support to the family, but was available if she needed him. As one of few black children in Flemingdon Park, Angela often faced insults, particularly over the fact that she was a mixed-race child with a white mother and sisters. She often got into fights over the slurs, forming a combative attitude she carried into the game of hockey. Her maternal grandparents never accepted Angela as a child, though they treated her sisters well.

Always a tomboy, James quickly developed an interest in sports. Her godfather gave her a baseball bat and glove to celebrate her first holy communion. She excelled at hockey, baseball and synchronized swimming as a young child. Her mother wanted her to focus on swimming due to the lack of opportunities for girls in hockey in the 1970s. Her passion was for hockey, however, and she was constantly playing ball hockey with the neighbourhood boys from the time she was in kindergarten. James first played organized hockey in a Flemingdon Park boys house league at the age of eight, and then only after her mother threatened legal action as officials opposed her inclusion.

James dominated the Flemingdon Park league. She started in the novice (7–8 year old) age group, but her skill level was so much higher than her peers that she was moved up to atom and then peewee (11 and 12 year olds). She led the league in scoring, was named an all-star and was invited to play with the league team at a peewee tournament in Montreal. James' participation in the Flemingdon Park league ended partway through her second year due to jealousy from the parents of the boys in the league. The president's son was on James' team, and was particularly offended that his boy was being overshadowed by a girl. He ordered a change in the league's policy to forbid girls from playing.

The only feasible option James had for a girls league was at Annunciation, a Catholic organization in Don Mills. Lacking a vehicle to drive to the games, her mother would take her to and from games at various rinks via the bus. The girls' hockey program was small, requiring that teams be made up of players from all age groups in order to field complete teams. Skipping the bantam age group entirely, James first played senior hockey with the Newtonbrook Saints. She was 13 at the time, playing against women 16 and older. The Saints were a Senior C team, the fourth highest level of women's hockey in the Toronto area at the time.