My Big Black Paper: An introduction to Herbert Carnegie

If you missed yesterday's post, I am basically saying that the reason there are so few black skaters in the NHL is because of demography, not racism, although racist incidents do exist. Where will I go from here?? Let's take a look at Herbert Carnegie...

An Introduction to Herbert Carnegie

There exists scholarly works which have made, with varying degrees of success, the argument that the biggest reason there are so few black players in the NHL is due to racial discrimination. Perhaps one of the most explicit examples is the case of Herb Carnegie’s exclusion from the NHL. Herb Carnegie was a black hockey player who played for a number of Quebec-based minor league hockey teams over a career that spanned from 1944 to 1954. The Canadian Sports Hall of Fame lists him on its website as “likely one of the best ever players to never play pro-league hockey”. It should be clarified that the CSHF is referring to the lack of an NHL career for Carnegie, as he did play professional hockey in other leagues. Toiling away in the minor leagues, a breakout season at the age of twenty-nine earned him an invitation to training camp with the New York Rangers in 1948. He was offered a contract with their farm club; however it paid much less than what he could have made in the Quebec leagues, and he ultimately made the decision to continue to play hockey in Quebec.

Herb Carnegie was born on November 8th, 1919 in Toronto, as a member of the only black family on the west side of the city. As an infant, he and his family moved to a rural part of Toronto known as Willowdale. This move allowed his father, a janitor for a Toronto utility company, to earn supplemental income by growing produce and raising livestock in the country. While living in Willowdale, he and his brother Ossie played hockey on frozen ponds around the community for hours a day. Before he cracked the Quebec Professional Hockey League (QPHL), he played on a team in Timmins, Ontario, on a line with Ossie and another young black skater from New Brunswick named Manny McIntyre. As the first all-black line in professional hockey, the media was quick to coin nicknames with vivid imagery attached, such as the “Dark Destroyers” and the “Dusky Speedsters”.

Carnegie himself insists that the reason he did not make the NHL was “…not because of a lack of talent or a willingness to work hard, but because of racism”. Such a statement is a bold one, especially when it comes from a former professional athlete. It is easy enough to read this statement and conclude that this was in fact the reason why Carnegie did not make the NHL. However, when one takes a look at his career statistics, there are some very interesting numbers that surface.

Where will I go from here? Just what is so interesting about Carnegie's career stats? The man himself said he didn't make the show because of racism, how will I disprove this?? Tune in tomorrow to find out!!