Eustace King

Early life and education

King was born in Evanston, Illinois on April 21, 1972. His mother, who moved from Jamaica after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., worked as a seamstress and a nurse. His father, also from Jamaica, was a dog breeder and construction worker.

King played hockey as an after-school activity and on minor ice hockey teams. He moved to Omaha, Nebraska during high school and joined the USHL to earn an athletic scholarship. He received a Bachelor of Science from Miami University in 1996 and later studied negotiation at Harvard Law School.

Career

King played goaltender for the Omaha Lancers from 1989 to 1991, appearing in 36 games. In the 1989–90 season he had five wins and two losses; by January 1991 he had nine wins, four losses, and two ties. The Lancers won the Anderson Cup in the 1989–90 regular season and the Clark Cup in the 1989–90 and 1990–91 playoffs. In June 1991 he was traded to the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

He did not miss any regular-season game before the 1992 USHL playoffs. Dubuque lost to the Des Moines Buccaneers in the 1992 Clark Cup finals and reached the round-robin stage of the 1992 National Junior-A championship. In 33 goaltending games with the Fighting Saints during the 1991–92 season, King had 16 wins, 12 losses, and 2 ties. From 1992 to 1996 he played for the Miami Redskins in the CCHA, appearing in 77 minutes between 1993 and 1995.

In February 1995 he received a one-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct after a game against Michigan State. During the 1995–96 season he held the Miami season record for goals against average at 3.90. By January 1996 he had appeared in seven games; after 20 games in 1996 he had five wins, seven losses, and two ties. Before his hockey career, King worked for Leo Burnett Worldwide in media buying.

In 1994 he joined the NHL Diversity Task Force as a manager and later became a director in sponsorship. In 2004 he co-created O2K Sports Management with Matthew Oates, working in healthcare and finance. He is a member of the NHLPA, and as of 2020 was one of a few people of color working as an agent for the NHLPA.