Blake Bolden - Barrier Breaking member of the Los Angeles Kings
The Full 60 with Craig Custance
The Athletic
4.8 • 595 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Blake Bolden, the first black woman to scout for an NHL team, joins Craig on this week's Full 60. Blake, who was the number one out of 40 influential people on the Athletic's 40 under 40 in the NHL last summer talks with Craig about her journey in hockey. Blake shares stories of starting to learn to skate late, how she developed her skills, how she never gave up despite abuse pointed in her direction by hockey parents and fellow players and how ultimately she became a role model for young black girls interested in hockey. In addition to being a pro scout for the Kings, Blake is also the LA Kings Growth and Inclusion Specialist and talks about her first meeting with Luc Robitaille, her admiration for Willie O'Ree and her desire to win multiple Stanley Cups with the Kings.
Blake, who sits on a committee with the NHL on inclusion and diversity in hockey has also set her sights on one day achieving her goal becoming the first female General Manager in NHL history.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Full 60 featuring Craig Custin's and presented by The Athletic. |
| 0:10.9 | Each week we'll dive into the biggest stories in hockey while bringing in unique voices to entertain and explain all aspects of the game. |
| 0:20.0 | Hey, this is Craig and welcome to this week's episode of the full 60, |
| 0:23.7 | and I am thrilled to be joined by L.A. King Scout, |
| 0:28.6 | a barrier-breaking member of the hockey community, Blake Bolden. |
| 0:33.3 | Blake, I'm so excited to do this. |
| 0:35.0 | Thank you for joining us. |
| 0:36.3 | I'm thrilled to have it. |
| 0:37.3 | Of course. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for joining us. I'm thrilled to have you. Of course. |
| 0:38.2 | I'm excited to be here. |
| 0:39.6 | This is awesome. |
| 0:40.6 | The athletic is amazing. |
| 0:42.1 | You guys who have helped me up so much. |
| 0:44.7 | Oh, we're just doing our job. |
| 0:47.2 | You are, yeah, that's, I'm thrilled to have you. |
| 0:51.1 | I think the last time we spoke, it was we did the 40 under 40. |
| 0:55.6 | And it was like when I say last time, like we talk all the time. |
| 1:00.3 | I think that was the first time we spoke. |
| 1:01.8 | And it was great to talk to you. |
| 1:04.2 | But even more, it was so fun to talk to people in the hockey world about you because of just the respect and, you know, almost awe that, |
| 1:12.5 | that, you know, when they wouldn't, they would chat about you, it was like, it's really |
| 1:16.2 | cool to see somebody who's so universally, um, respected like that. It was really fun to do. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.