A Brief History of Brown People in the VHL

[Victor 11,043]

Is the title of this article racist? Maybe, but it still feels safer than going “A History of Indians in the VHL” and then finding out all those I assumed were Indian were actually Pakistani. Regardless, the idea behind this article came about in my surprisingly slightly more frequent forays into Discord, when I realised @DilIsPickle seemed to be actively looking for “brown people” in the VHL. It appears he has already located @fonziGG but he wants more. This seemed odd to me, since I recall there were so many and although this might not be really true on reflection, what really motivated me was the realisation that some of these members, who were a staple of the VHL community for years, are literal unknowns now. And thus, was born this brief history.

 

The OG: Matt Bailey aka @Quik

The VHL's most famous Indo-Italian, although he has never made a player to reflect his ethnicity with the exception of the Italian Matteo Gallo, probably his least successful player. But Quik, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Builder, has an otherwise long and storied history in the league. His first three players made the Hall of Fame – Vasteras' playoff MVP Matthew Pogge, the underrated Branden Snelheid and of course Matt Bailey, the VHL's greatest ever half-defenceman/half-forward (sorry Keaton Louth). After disappearing from the league for several real life years, Quik returned with another Hall of Famer in Mats Johnsson, before picking up his old role as Helsinki GM, winning a cup in S66 with Kronos Bailey as captain, 50 seasons after Matt Bailey was the playoff MVP, inspiring a Helsinki championship in S15.

 

Of course, Quik also became VHL commissioner, further cementing his legacy in the league, before seemingly going inactive in the second half of S68. We shall see if he returns to his old self, but he remains a shining example for people of colour everywhere.

 

The Ones That Really Come To Mind: Harvey and Japinder Singh @DGFX. @8Ovechkin8

Before we had Dil, we had the Singhs. Granted, neither was actually a Singh, but two of their most famous players were and they fully embraced their Indianness. Harvey Sekhon aka DGFX was the first to join, the New York Americans picking up Harvey Singh late in the third round of the S12 draft. Singh would make his debut for New York in S14, in time for the franchise's maiden Continental Cup, and the following season was promoted to a role as assistant GM, the right-hand man of rookie GM Vase Trikamaki, aka me. After the quick rise to prominence, Harvey was then one of the key pieces of New York's firesale and ended up in Riga to start S16, where he teamed up with Jesse Jussal, a little-known S13 draftee, aka 8Ovechkin8. Together they would help an unfancied Reign team to a championship in S16 and would become a notorious duo for many seasons to come.

 

Point to note: this is where I admit I can't remember whether Riga's GM at the time, Vladimir Kliment, was another member of the brown crew rising through the VHL ranks in the 'teens'. If so, a brief history of this member would be as follows: great_save_luongo joined the VHL for the S8 draft, with Vladimir Kliment* drafted by Riga where he would stay for his entire VHL career. Kliment was a key part of the Reign's first ever Continental Cup win in S10, before becoming Dustin Funk's assistant GM, enabling a smooth transition into him leading the rebuild which concluded with the championship in S16. His second player, Zlatan Zanetti, joined Riga as the GM player and to my knowledge never recreated after stepping down not long after the S16 cup.

 

*A sudden realisation dawned on me when writing this little tangent that Vladimir had an older brother, Ilya Kliment, whose member bobbylu is better remembered for the follow-up, Hall of Famer Carl Jacobs. Does that mean bobbylu was another member of the VHL's Indian community? Or were neither one of them and they were just from Vancouver (as, to be fair, were also DGFX and 8O8). One can only speculate....

 

After their brief time in Riga, both Harvey and 8O8 would embark on their most famous careers. DGFX joined the legendary S18 draft with forward Anton Brekker, who initially had a bad boy reputation attached to him, which meant he was traded from Seattle to Davos on the cheap after his rookie season. He promptly shook off the negative image and became one of the key figures of the great Davos dynasty which followed. That team was most famous for its goaltender, Daisuke Kanou, but Brekker also became a surefire Hall of Famer fairly quickly, and helped Davos to 5 finals and 3 Continental Cups.

 

Jussal retired a bit later than Harvey Singh, and was succeeded by the first ever Indian first overall pick – Japinder Singh being the consensus number one prospect in S20. While the pair's previous players didn't necessarily all play up the stereotype, Japinder reveled in it and became probably the best player brought to the VHL by either member, earning a place among the greatest defencemen of all time. Japinder Singh would end up joining Brekker in Davos for two of the championships, before claiming a third with Helsinki in S27.

 

DGFX and 8O8 seemed to be drifting out of the league by this point but rejoined forces as the Athera twins for the S28 draft. Both carved out respectable careers, although not quite as impressive as those of Brekker and Singh, and the spark seemed to be largely gone. For DGFX, Theseus Athera was his last notable player, save for a brief attempt in the late 40s as Kendrick Cole, a highly rated prospect who burned out after the draft. Troy Athera was the more successful Athera, on the right side of the Riga vs New York shenanigans of S32 and S33 (winning a final against Riga first, before being traded there and beating New York the season after), which seemed to be enough motivation to create another India-born first overall pick: Godavari Yumalatopinto in S36. “Yuma” would be his last player and he would claim a surprise Sterling Labatte Trophy in S38, shared with the great Conner Low. However, inactivity soon hit, followed by a position switch and seeming to be a expendable extra forward for a few cup contenders for the rest of his career.

 

Anyone else?

Two other names come to mind, although the details are a bit murkier on them. First, before 8Ovechkin8 there was miniovechkin8, and the only reason he even makes an appearance here is because on one Sterling and Smarch podcast they seemed to be under the impression that they were the same person. They weren't, but I am not sure in that case if that passing comment was at all linked to miniovechkin's ethnicity. Either way, he didn't achieve much in the VHL, with his best player being the forgettable Aaron Skille in the latter years of the first decade.

 

Then there was Hamza. Hamza became a bit of meme for many years, although I can't exactly recall the details behind it, other than it was to do with grading, but whether GFX or Media Spot I can not be sure. But player wise Hamza Ahmed was a combustible type, probably around 14 in his brief time in the VHL, and also a crossover from the SHL who I feel for many years remained the representation of the SHL as a whole to many members (loud and immature essentially). Hamza didn't last long here – he was one of the third round steals in S18, like Joey Clarence, Roman Andreev, and the recent addition to the HOF, Mathias Chouinard, but unlike these more prolific names, only spent a season or two in the VHL before an abrupt retirement. Like many on this list, he was never seen or heard from again.

 

That concludes my little trip down memory lane. It was not researched and probably error-strewn but hopefully shed some light on the occasionally diverse VHL past.

[Victor 11,043]

Oh yes I was also going to tag @diamond_ace and @.sniffuM as for some I reason I feel they are best placed to shed a light on Hamza.

 

And since this was 1,300 something words, this shall also be my link for week 2.

[frescoelmo 1,282]

I'm 1/4 indian where's my @

[Victor 11,043]

4 minutes ago, frescoelmo said:

I'm 1/4 indian where's my @

How can you be 1/4 indian if you're 5/4 Mexican

[frescoelmo 1,282]

6 minutes ago, Victor said:

How can you be 1/4 indian if you're 5/4 Mexican

 

only when i vote

[Dil 1,763]

my god I love you @Victor

[CowboyinAmerica 2,918]

Godavari Yumalatopinto, that's a player name I haven't heard in a while. Was supposed to be the final piece of my Olsen's Seattle team and then... nope.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

34 minutes ago, Victor said:

Oh yes I was also going to tag @diamond_ace and @.sniffuM as for some I reason I feel they are best placed to shed a light on Hamza.

 

And since this was 1,300 something words, this shall also be my link for week 2.

 

I don't remember him making much of an impact here, although years later he resurfaced in the SBA much more mature (although he had constant beef with kendrick) and making a couple HOF players.

[diamond_ace 3,114]

44 minutes ago, Victor said:

Oh yes I was also going to tag @diamond_ace and @.sniffuM as for some I reason I feel they are best placed to shed a light on Hamza.

 

And since this was 1,300 something words, this shall also be my link for week 2.

He went 4-5 seasons in his first time here, and was actually half decent, but got busted for some sort of graphics related rule violation (I want to say he stole a pack of some sort and used the pack too heavily such that it appeared to ride the line of stolen work/not stolen work). Then as @.sniffuM said, he got big in SBA years later, and actually made a brief comeback here under a different username, but didn't last long that time either. I think his comeback player never got out of the M.

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

I'm brown, but I'm a different type of brown. I'm the other Indian  

[Victor 11,043]

7 hours ago, TheLastOlympian07 said:

I'm brown, but I'm a different type of brown. I'm the other Indian  

I'm gonna write an article about brovy just to spite you.

[Will 4,662]

On 11/18/2019 at 2:55 PM, Victor said:

Anyone else?

 

 

Jaladolar the only other person I can think of

[Victor 11,043]

Just now, Will said:

 

Jaladolar the only other person I can think of

Ah yes, @boubabi's favourite member.