Herb Carnegie

Herbert H. Carnegie (Herb as he became known) was born November 8, 1919 in Toronto, Ontario to Jamaican immigrants, Adina Janes (née Mitchell) and George Nathaniel Carnegie, a janitor. At age eight, Herb discovered his passion for hockey when he borrowed his older brother’s skates on an icy pond in his North York neighborhood Willowdale.  A naturally gifted skater, Herb soon devoted his free time to practicing hockey with his brother Ossie. Like many young Canadians during the 1920s, Herb grew up listening to radio broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games and dreamed of playing in the NHL. Herb’s father George, however, stressed the importance of getting an education while pursuing sports professionally. Along with his brother, Herb joined the hockey team at public school; they were the only black boys on the ice and their father the only black man in the stands. During high school, Herb played for a year on the Earl Haig Collegiate team, but transferred to the Toronto Northern Vocational School team, which played at the Maple Leaf Gardens. On the ice, Herb was subjected to racial slurs and despite grabbing the attention of the Toronto Maple Leafs owner, Conn Smythe, when he was eighteen, he was blocked from warranted opportunities to play for the NHL because he was black. In watching Herb play from the stands,  Smythe stated that he would have considered recruiting Herb if only “he could be turned white.” This deeply affected Herb and solidified that the NHL colour barrier would more than likely keep him from his dream. However, Herb continued to play the game and practice diligently, making headlines by scoring five goals in a single game. Around this time, he met the woman he would later marry, Audrey Redmon, whose parent did not approve of the match at first but later relented.