Dumba’s father Charles knew Matt and his younger brother Kyle, a goalie who last played for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s university team, loved the game, so the first point of business was a massive backyard rink.
“I just remember playing all the time,” said Dumba, who is back home in Calgary while the NHL is paused due to the coronavirus. “Next goal wins, over and over. And you’re always playing in the Stanley Cup, I can remember going in on shoot-outs (on Kyle) and picking a different player to be every shot.”
By the time Dumba turned seven, he’d found a team to join, but it was at this point that Dumba fully realised he was going to be treated differently on the ice. Dumba’s mother is adopted, her lineage started out in the Philippines, and his father is of Romanian, German and Russian descent.
Dumba in fact epitomises what it means to be Canadian, a country built on open door immigration policies dating back decades, where heritages openly mix in a culture of tolerance and acceptance.
During the 1960s, Canada wiped the last vestiges of institutionalised racism from federal policies and, by 1971, most immigrants to the country were of non-European ancestry, which is still true today.
In 1988, the government passed the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, enshrining respect for various languages, cultures, customs and religions. While far from perfect – outside the cities, non-white discrimination isn’t hard to find – a 2013 study by Swedish economists found Canada had some of the lowest levels of racism of 80 countries surveyed.
But when it came to youngsters on the rink during Dumba’s childhood in the late ’90s and early 2000s, it was anything but inclusive at times.
“Kids would call me every type of swear word from every type of race,” he said. “They wouldn’t even know what I was so they were just kind of throwing the book at me.
“It definitely p***** me off, in those days back then I was usually the only kid of colour on every team I played for. But my teammates were awesome, I had some great teammates that stood up for me over the years.”
The NHL is not prone to racism, but given it has drawn most its players from one country (Canada) it has earned the innocuous nickname, the “whitest sport on earth”.
According to NHL figures, only 23 players of Asian heritage have played in the league, appearing in more than 5,000 games and winning close to 2,000 points. However that is fast changing as the game moves away from size and strength to a more speed and skill-based sport.
Last year was the third consecutive year a player of Asian descent was taken in the first round of the NHL Draft, and the league estimates there are more than 20 prospects in the pipeline who could one day perform in “the show” as the NHL is known in its inner circles.
Dumba, drafted in the first round – seventh overall in 2012, said things took a turn in his favour before his Pee-Wee (under-13 season) at the age of 11. Dumba grew to the height he stands now – 1.83m – and packed on weight after a growth spurt. Now when kids tried to get under his skin on the ice, he could respond with punishing body checks.
“Anyone that was after me, I was after them,” he said. “And I was always about protecting myself and protecting my teammates, so (being physical) just naturally became a part of my game.”
He’d also found inspiration and a way to celebrate his diversity, idolising Paul Kariya, a former NHL player whose Japanese-Canadian father was born in a World War II internment camp in British Columbia. Kariya scored an astonishing 989 points in as many games, retiring in 2011.
Dumba said he remembers one book in particular that left a lasting impression on him. Paul Kariya: Hockey Magician, a 1998 paperback biography that chronicles Kariya’s upbringing and recounts stories similar to that of Dumba’s growing up.
“I probably read that book about 20 or 30 times, it was only about 150 pages, and it was just the life story of Paul. And he has a crazy story, his family coming over and being in Japanese internment camps, and they went through some hardships and so he really had to work hard for it, and he didn’t come from much either.”
Now Dumba has cemented himself as part of the next generation of multicultural talent blazing a trail in the NHL. He’s played in 411 games and tallied 174 points, all for the Minnesota Wild. The team recently awarded him with a five-year, US$30 million contract in July of 2018, and Dumba said he has embraced the idea that he doesn’t look like a stereotypical hockey player in the hope he can inspire the next generation, much like Kariya did for him.
“I’m happy to bring some diversity to the game and give kids someone different to look up to, and let them know they don’t have to look like a stereotypical hockey player to be a hockey player: a big, white farm boy.”
Dumba is a fan favourite in Minnesota, a city also known for its chilly winters and blue collar mentality, and his personality was on full display earlier this year. Dumba helped a family stranded on the highway in January while he was driving home from a game. He stopped and headed to a gas station with the father to help them get their car started.
Nick Swanson, an off-duty officer, noticed the cars stopped before realising it was Dumba who had pulled over to help.
“I never expected to see him there,” Swanson told NHL.com in an interview. “He has been my favourite player forever. The way he acts and conducts himself around fans was just completely normal. I felt like he was one of my friends.”
Dumba’s personality extends outwards from being a Good Samaritan as he sports dozens of tattoos, owns a mustard-coloured 1968 Mustang Fastback and is seen as one of the league’s most stylish players off the ice. Dumba, who also recently adopted a dog named Winona, said it’s simply an expression of his personality, one his parents told him to embrace, rather than hide, since his days as a kid growing up on the icy sheets of Calgary.
“When it all comes down to it, you just have to be yourself. You don’t have to be the typical cookie-cutter hockey player. So when I do something, I don’t do it for other people, it’s for myself.”
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This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Tough Filipino-Canadian NHL player Dumba blazes trail of diversity
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