Herb Carnegie is a worthy Hall of Famer, and every fan should know his story

Whenever the Hockey Hall of Fame announces a new class of honorees, it’s only natural that most of the focus goes to the players’ side. It’s a thrill to see somebody you grew up watching get the sport’s ultimate honor, and maybe you skip over the builder’s category, thinking it’s for the long-forgotten old-timers and suit-and-tie cronies.

This year, please don’t make that mistake with Herb Carnegie.

If you know Carnegie’s story, you understand how overdue this honor was. If you don’t, well, you really should, and that’s why it’s so important that the Hall has finally honored him.

Carnegie is often cited as hockey’s first Black star, and that’s a big part of his story, but his case for induction doesn’t start there. Quite simply, he was among the most successful professional players of the 1940s and 1950s, a three-time MVP in the Quebec Provincial League who later starred on a line with Jean Beliveau for the Quebec Aces of the vaunted Quebec Senior Hockey League. This was back in the days when the NHL was still relatively new and wasn’t the only high-level pro league in North America, so Carnegie’s dominance of elite competition makes him a worthy HHOF candidate just on the merits of his play.

But of course, his legacy goes well beyond his on-ice achievements. A Canadian of Jamaican descent, Carnegie faced racism throughout his career, including ugly taunts and insults from opponents and fans. As Carnegie was beginning to earn the attention of NHL scouts, there were comments attributed to legendary Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe suggesting that Toronto would have gladly signed the up-and-coming star if not for his race; in one version of the story, Smythe makes a tongue-in-cheek offer of $10,000 to anyone who can come up with a way to turn Carnegie white. Some historians have disputed whether Smythe actually said those things, but at the very least, such comments wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows in the era. When it came to the hockey world, Carnegie was, to borrow the title of his autobiography, a fly in a pail of milk. He knew it, and with little other choice, he embraced the challenge that came with it.

Carnegie was eventually offered a tryout by the Rangers in 1948, a full decade before Willie O’Ree would become the first Black player in NHL history. He earned a minor-league contract offer that likely would have led to an eventual NHL job, but he chose not to remain in the QSHL rather than take a pay cut to start in New York’s farm system. Another opportunity never came. His former linemate Beliveau would later share his belief that Carnegie was excluded from the NHL because of his skin color, a view that was echoed by others, including Hall of Fame referee Red Storey.

While he never played in the NHL, Carnegie’s success inspired future generations, including a teenaged O’Ree (who years later would say that “it should have been Herbie” who made NHL history). After retiring as a player, Carnegie went on to open one of Canada’s first hockey schools, with an emphasis on creating a culture of respect and tolerance. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1996.

And then, for far too many years, that’s where the story ended. While the HHOF committee’s indefensible veil of secrecy means we have no way of knowing how close any candidate is coming in any given year, Carnegie seemed to fade from the wider discussion. Embarrassingly, the same was largely true of O’Ree. The HHOF finally rectified that oversight in 2018, and thankfully O’Ree lived to see his name take its place alongside the game’s legends.

Carnegie did not, having passed away in 2012. There had been a push in recent years to finally see him inducted, one that was led by his family. (His daughter Bernice is co-founder of The Carnegie Initiative, whose mission is “to ensure that hockey is inclusive, supportive and welcoming to all.”) With O’Ree belatedly but rightfully honored, the hockey world seemed willing to recognize that the role of people of color in the sport’s history went beyond one man and one moment. There’s still work to be done and stories to be told, and perhaps the HHOF committee will consider Larry Kwong next. For now, we can hold two thoughts in our head at the same time — that the inductions of O’Ree and Carnegie came far too late, and that both were well-deserved and worth celebrating.

We’ll get that chance to salute Carnegie on induction night in November, as he finally gets a measure of the recognition from the hockey world that he was largely denied in his lifetime. It will be a landmark day for his family, for the many future generations that he inspired, and for the hockey fans who know his story, whenever it was that they finally learned it. The Hockey Hall of Fame did the right thing on Monday, by Herb Carnegie the player and Herb Carnegie the man, and that’s worth celebrating.

(Photo: Al Dunlop / Toronto Star via Getty Images)