For Black Players, a New College Scholarship Program WASHINGTON - The Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Hockey League unveiled an unusual joint program Wednesday to give hockey-playing students scholarships to historically black public colleges. The near-term aim of the program is to help deserving students who are serious about their studies and active in local hockey programs make the leap to college. But the long-term goal is to bring the sport to the black community. In other words, it is an initiative to send needy hockey players to schools that do not play hockey in the hope that the sport will gradually catch on. "There was a time when golf was not a big sport in the African-American community, but then there was Tiger Woods," Johnny C. Taylor Jr., the president of the fund said in an interview. On our campuses we currently don't have hockey leagues. We don't have even an intramural hockey league. We're working on it and this initiative is the beginning of that. We should not as a community be limited to basketball and football. There are very few black players in the N.H.L. and youths in inner cities often have little access to ice rinks. Under Gary Bettman, the N.H.L. commissioner, the league has sought to introduce young people to the sport. The alliance with the Thurgood Marshall fund is intended to extend its reach among minorities. The program to award four-year scholarships to attend one of the nation's 47 historically black public colleges will begin next year. Some of the money for the scholarships will be raised through the Congressional Hockey Challenge, an annual game between the "Lawmakers" - headlined by forward and Democratic senator from Massachusetts John Kerry - and the "Lobbyists." This year's game will be played Sunday at the home of the Capitals, the Verizon Center. While the spirit of cooperation has been in short supply in Congress over the past year a bipartisan group of lawmakers will lace up their skates. In addition to Sen. Kerry, they include representatives Erik Paulsen, a Minnesota Republican; Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois; Larry Bucshon, an Indiana Republican; Brian Higgins, a New York Democrat; and Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican and a former N.H.L. referee. Bettman made the announcement on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, just a few feet away from the Stanley Cup, which drew more attention than the congressmen. Also in attendance was Ed Snider, the chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers, who established a foundation to bring hockey to inner city youth in Philadelphia; and Ted Leonsis, who owns the Capitals. One of the teenagers helped by Snider, 17-year-old Dishawn Jackson, came from Philadelphia for the event. Until he ran into Snider Foundation coach Chris Lawrence, Jackson had never even seen a hockey game. "I never knew that the rink was like two minutes from my house," Jackson said. I went to go play basketball, it was like right there. I never even went inside the place, he was outside looking for people, trying to get them to come play and he saw me. "At first I said "No, I'm black. I don't want to play hockey,"" he added. I tried it the first day, I liked it. It was something new, something different so I kept going with and now I'm a much better player. Now Jackson, a center, is looking forward to a new challenge next year: college - but one with a hockey team.