Hockey Hero and Racism in Canada

From the Greater Toronto section of the Wednesday, January 2, 2008, Toronto Star, page A12, an article about 88-year-old Herb Carnegie, a former hockey player:

Hockey Legend

ANOTHER TRIBUTE FOR A 'BLACK ACE'

York Region school named for Herb Carnegie, 88, a star player whose race kept him out of the NHL

Peter Edwards
Staff Reporter

Herb Carnegie loves it when visitors to his apartment in a North York seniors' home "ooh and aah" at the statues, trophies, plaques and photos that fill his living room.

There's his Order of Canada, membership in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, an honorary law degree from York University and a Planet Africa Lifetime Achievement Award.

There are dozens of other tribunes for his achievements in hockey, golf and community service.

Awards surround him, but some he has never seen.

Carnegie, considered by some as the greatest player never to play in the National Hockey League is 88 years old and blind.

"Basically I'm in the dark," says Carnegie, who lost his sight eight years ago to glaucoma.

And still, the awards keep arriving.

Recently, officials from the York Region District School Board dropped by.

The board is building Herbert H. Carnegie Public School and they wanted to discuss which of his awards should go in the school's trophy case.

"It's so fastastic to have the school," says Carnegie of the building, which is to open in September in the Bathurst St. and Teston Rd. area of Vaughan.

He loves the idea of talking with the 600 students about his "Future Aces Creed," a fair play code of conduct he wrote more than a half century ago to promote co-operation, mutual respect and self-esteem.

"I don't want to be pretty face on the wall (in a photograph) if I have the health to be present in person."

The son of Jamaican immigrants was a hockey star in the 1930s to the early 1950s, a time when there were no non-white NHL players.

When he was 18, he was skating at Maple Leaf Gardens when his coach for the Toronto Young Rangers of Junior A pointed someone out to him.

"That's Conn Smythe," his coach said. "The builder of Maple Leaf Gardens. The owner of the Leafs. He said he would take you tomorrow if somebody could paint you white."

Carnegie couldn't believe Smythe would say such a thing and wondered if his coach was just trying to motivate him.

But in the ensuring years, Carnegie realized his coach had been telling the truth.

He played semi-pro hockey in Quebec with Jean Beliveau and, while Beliveau graduated to the NHL and the Hockey Hall of Fame, Carnegie remained mired in the minors, despite once scoring 127 points in a 40-game season and being named league MVP three times.

He played on an all-black line with brother Ossie and Manny McIntyre.

They were billed as the "Black Aces."

But it wasn't until 1958 that Willie O'Ree of Fredericton, N.B., broke the colour barrier in the NHL, joining the Boston Bruins.

When he finally retired, Carnegie wondered, "What kind of a place is this Canada, that talks about freedom, democracy? ... All of these nice things, that don't apply to me."

That's when he founded Future Aces and wrote its creed.

It says, in part: "I will develop my talents and ability in order that I may be helpful to society."

Carnegie moved on to become a financial consultant with the Investment Group in Toronto.

thestar.com

To see a video interview with Herb Carnegie, visit thestar.com