Untold Story About Hockey...
Why Did The NHL Stop Discriminating Black Hockey Players?
Herb Carnegie
So to start this untold story I will be using an example, Herb Carnegie (First Black Hockey Star). Herb Carnegie was born on November 8 1919 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The parents of Herb Carnegie were Jamaican immigrants. Later as Herb Carnegie got older he started playing hockey, he played for the Quebec Aces, Sherbrooke St. Francis, Toronto Observers, Earl Haig Secondary School, Toronto Vacational, Toronto Junior Rangers A Timmins Buffalo Ankerites, Shawinigan Cataractes, Owen Sound, and the QPHL (league). His dream was to play in the NHL, but he couldn't because he was black. Herb Carnegie was mostly discriminated by people that were white (because white people mostly played hockey back then). The closest Herb Carnegie came to the NHL was when he got a tryout from the New York Rangers at their 1948 training camp. Herb Carnegie was a great player he won a scoring title, 2 consecutive MVP awards, and led Sherbrook to the league championships. Herb Carnegie faced discrimination when he was playing at Maple Leaf Gardens, Conn Smythe (boss of the Toronto Maple Leafs) watched Herb Carnegie play and told Ed Wildey (coach of Herb Carnegie) that he would sign Herb Carnegie if he was white. Ed Wildey was then reported saying that he would give any man $10,000 that can turn Herb Carnegie white, Herb Carnegie was shattered by this. Sadly Herb Carnegie died on March 9 2012.
Herb Carnegie
Picture by www.cbc.ca
Herb Carnegie
Picture by www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
Herb Carnegie
Picture by www.herritagetrust.on.ca
NHL Discrimination....
The NHL claims that it had never had any restrictions, also the NHL never had a policy that black players can't play so it was basically an unwritten rule. In the 1970s hockey players were largely taken from Canada, but Canada's black population was very small. In 1971 Canadians made up over 95% of the NHL, only 0.2% of all the Canadians were black. Now the black population has increased to 2%. There were only 120 jobs in the NHL, if all players were Canadian the entire black population of Canada would have been a single candidate along with 4 other contenders for 1 position. Currently there are only 31 black hockey players in the NHL.
P.K Subban
Black hockey star
Picture by www.gohabsgo.com
Wayne Simmonds
Black hockey star
Picture by nypost.com
Willie O'Ree
First black hockey star in the NHL
Picture by puresportsny.com
Sources
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/pro-hockey-and-african-heritage-story
http://theconversation.com/only-the-puck-was-black-a-story-of-race-and-the-nhl-37450
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/03/15/herb_carnegies_legacy_celebrated.html
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/herb-carnegie/
http://www.arcticicehockey.com/2013/12/6/5179170/racism-nhl-evander-kane-pk-subban
http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2014/3/28/5493088/the-history-of-black-players-in-the-nhl
http://keranews.org/post/first-black-american-nhl-player-enforcer-was-defenseless-vs-racism