Denied but not Forgotten

- The Herb Carnegie Story -

    by Jerome V. Chambers Jr.

On November 8, 1919, in the city of Toronto, Ontario Canada, the second child of Jamaican parents George & Adina Carnegie was born.  He was named Herbert H. Carnegie - Herb for short. 

Life for the Carnegies were by no means easy.  George worked as a low-paying janitor, Adina, was a wonderful homemaker, and their two boys, Herb and Ossie, were surrounded in a neighbourhood that propagated the racist, stereotypical attitude that was openly prevalent at the time.  Yet, they refused to allow their circumstances to dictate or conform who they should be.  Such defiance of accepting imposed limitations because of skin colour became more and more pronounced, especially in the lives of the boys. Such negative, prevailing attitudes became more offensive when the two brothers fell passionately in love with a sport that had never embraced the talents of cultural minorities.  Nevertheless, Herb and Ossie simply didn't care.  They felt that when they grew up they would defy those heavily, favoured odds, and prove all their nay-Sayers wrong. 

They wanted to be the first, and had to be the best.  So they knew they had to practice harder than anyone else; be more creative than anyone else; faster than anyone else; and stronger than anyone else or more elusive.  In their early years, from dawn to dusk, if Herb and Ossie were not at school, studying, or completing their daily chores, then they were on the frozen, local ponds or the neighbourhood streets playing the hockey game they loved.  Every waking moment was predicated with the dream of going where no black athlete had ever dared to tread.  Their dreams were not on the grasslands of a college stadium, nor the dirt fields of America's favourite pastime, nor the hardened courts of a crowded gymnasium, but rather on the slippery surfaces of a packed arena hearing disbelievers shouting their names in praise.  For such a prize would be beyond what words could justifiably broadcast. 

Herb remembered as early as 4 years old the name callings, splurged by bigotry, from the neighbourhood children.  It was probably then his training began.  You see, Herb and Ossie knew who they were and what they wanted to do.  So if any of the neighbourhood children thought that they were going to be stumbling blocks to the Carnegie boys, then they would quickly realize that such bigotry would be responded with the Carnegie's fists!  For the brothers were never known to back down or allow anyone to derail their grandeur, aspirations of life, and of playing in Canada's greatest sport nationally.  Even their father, who may not have truly identified with the passion of the game as his boys did, did understand though the era they lived in, the place they lived in, and that their beloved game was institutionalized by a prejudice that would not be willing to bend.  Father Carnegie knew how much they treasured the game, but felt it necessary to give insight to an idea that was never going to see the light of day. 

"You know they won't let any black boys into the National Hockey League," he said. 

Even though the statement was such and obvious truth, it did not stop them.  It only made them work harder in cultivating their skills for that day of reckoning.  And every time they listened to the hockey play by play commentaries on the radio, the greater their yearnings for playing in the winter sport of champions grew.

By high school it became increasingly evident that Herb was the better of the brothers.  Due to his uncanny ability to score, his needle-thread passes, his "swivel hips" elusiveness against the most aggressive of checkers, Herb was constantly targeted not only by the players on the ice, but the opposing fans yelling, "Get that black bastard."  These events could have easily destroyed his aspirations again, but he was too good, too talented, too newsworthy in the Toronto-area newspaper to detract from his dreams.  Plus, with the constant backing of Ossie and under the instruction of his coach to just score more, Herb was determined to grab hold of his destiny.

In spite of the noteworthy attention, George and Adina always demanded that their children never neglected their studies.  So, if their dreams of hockey's grandiose stage, the NHL, was going to fail then at least they would have something else to fall back on.

Later, in his bid to be among hockey's elite, Herb, fuelled by his scorpion spirit, would meet head on with the institutions of the suppressive, prevailing thought of the time.

See the continued story of Herb Carnegie - Smythen by the Conn-voluted truth