Jamaican hockey pioneer finally gets his due

HERB CARNEGIE, son of Jamaican immigrant parents, was considered to be the best black ice hockey player never to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Recognition of Carnegie’s exploits have been slow in coming and last week’s announcement that he had been admitted to the NHL’s Hall of Fame, only came after many years of petitions, lobbying, editorials and pushing from past and current NHL players, who knew his contribution to the sport.

His induction comes 68 years after he played his final game, and 10 years after his death.

Carnegie’s induction has been hailed as most important for the black history of ice hockey because it finally recognises one of the sport’s earliest pioneers in the drive for diversity, equity and inclusion, and recognises the pain of his unfulfilled NHL dream.

Carnegie played top-level hockey for a number of Canadian teams and was considered good enough to play for many teams in the NHL. He turned down several offers to do so because he was being asked to take significant pay cuts, it was said, on the basis of the colour of his skin.

His daughter, Bernice Carnegie, who has established and maintained a close relationship with the Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation and is one of the organisation’s strongest supporters in Canada, was elated at the induction.

According to an interview she did with nhl.com, the legendary player’s daughter was in tears.

“For a long time, I just kind of put it out of my mind. There were so many people that worked so hard to try to bring it to their (the Hall’s) attention, but it just didn’t want to seem to happen. Every year when the announcement came out, news articles would come out and say, ‘Herb’s been forgotten, Herb’s been forgotten,” Bernice was quoted as saying.

Carnegie is only the fifth black member of the NHL’s Hall of Fame, joining Grant Fuhr (2003), Angela James (2010), Willie O’Ree (2018) and Jarome Iginla (2020).