Note from Perrye & Gaby: We apologize for the late release of this issue. We decided that last Thursday wasn’t appropriate for us to publish with the current political climate, so we postponed it. Lucky for you though, this means that you’ll get two issues this week.
We're thankful for your support and understanding.
One of hockey’s most annoying and pervasive myths is that the sport has always been for white people. In a league where 93% of players are white, it’s not hard to make that assumption. However, it’s important to distinguish that the NHL, and hockey as it exists now, is white by design, not by happenstance. The NHL and the Coloured Hockey League - the first professional hockey league in Canada - overlapped for several years, yet the NHL wouldn’t bring on their first Black player until 1954. Non-professional and development leagues like the CHL have made participating in the sport almost untenable. Of those that do make it through the system, very few come out without a story of their own. In spite of that, the contributions of Black athletes in the sport are there; they’ve just gone long unacknowledged.
One of the most significant and under-told stories is that of Mr. Herb Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie was born in 1919 in Toronto, the son of Jamaican immigrants. Like many other children of his time, he began playing in the back ponds of his home. He quickly rose to junior hockey stardom, playing with the Toronto Young Rangers by the age of 19. He was a skilled compact player, standing at 5’8 and 170 pounds, and known for his stickhandling and skating ability.
Mr. Carnegie began his professional career with the Buffalo Ankerites and spent most of it playing for leagues in Ontario and Quebec. Notably, he played on the first all-Black line outside of the Coloured Hockey League along with his brother Ossie, and Manny McIntyre. His prolific career and style of play would go on to influence Canadien’s great Jean Beliveau - who would go on to be one of his teammates with the Quebec Aces.
By all intents and purposes, Mr. Carnegie should have been an NHL star. But making it to the league would prove impossible because of socioeconomic and racist barriers. In 1948, Mr. Carnegie would try out with the New York Rangers, but the minor league salary they offered him would not be enough to sustain his family.
After retiring in 1954, Mr. Carnegie remained active in hockey. He founded the Future Aces Hockey School in 1955—the first registered hockey school in Canada. The school was founded on the principles of equitable treatment and good citizenship- something that was not always afforded to him. Today, those principles continued to be honored through the work his family has engaged with, and the work of the foundation he established.
His significant contributions to Canadian society were recognized with an Order of Ontario (1996) and the Order of Canada (2003). In addition, he received recognition in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (2001) and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. Despite having a career in the sport that very few have accomplished- and many would envy - Mr. Herb Carnegie has yet to receive proper recognition from the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF).
Since Akim Aliu’s revelations of the racism he experienced in 2019, and the social uprisings that happened shortly after 2020, hockey has been engaged in a desperate effort to modernize itself. However, trying to course correct over 100 years of culturally ingrained racism is, uh, quite difficult, and this season has worked its hardest to prove that.
This is why the induction of Mr. Carnegie into the HHOF should be of utmost priority. It’s not just the correct thing to do, it’s the only way we can start working towards fixing anything. It’s not possible for us to talk about change if we don’t acknowledge those who were failed by the system beforehand and persevered in spite of it. Mr. Carnegie could not get his roses during his time with us, but I hope that as we continue to share his legacy others can envision a better future, and find comfort in the fact that there has always been those who’ve wanted more for the sport. Mr. Carnegie showed more grace towards hockey than it ever did to him - and hockey is all that much better for his contributions and his presence. Hockey has its heroes, we just need to tell their stories.
Note From Gaby: In late 2020, my friend Ashley Frazier and I started working on a campaign to collect 500 letters in support of his induction through Hockey Fans For Change. It was a really great experience but cut short to COVID-19 impacting our families and some big life changes for both of us. My old account, which had thousands of more followers, also got banned, and we lost a significant portion of our contacts and the outreach that we’ve done. I hope that with this newsletter, we’ll be able to kickstart HFC again and support the work being done by his family and others in the sport.
If you’ve read this and are interesting in submitting a letter, please feel free to send one to gaby@hockeyfansforchange.org or sign the petition here.
Other Thoughts:
Brad Marchand is Shaking and Crying: Brad Marchand just finished his most recent 6-game suspension last Monday. The funniest thing about all this is that the comment that led to Marchand losing his mind was probably the weakest chirp we’ve ever been privy to. Very interesting seeing that reaction from someone who only a few months ago was talking about how if people get offended with on-ice chirps, the NHL will become the “softest league in the world.” Between this and the frankly alarming number of hunting accounts he follows on Instagram, I’m getting the picture of a man who is totally and absolutely secure in his being. Where are those twitter fingers at now, Brad?
Speaking of Nova Scotian Terrors: Nathan MacKinnon wasn’t disciplined for slashing a referee. The Department of Player Safety came out with a statement saying that there would be no further action because he intended to slash another player.
Mind you, and this less than a week after a shoulder-to-head hit on Nolan Patrick that was assesed only a minor. Even more annoyingly, I have to point out that Jamie Benn was fined the MAXIMUM amount ($5,000) for squirting some water at an opposing player only days before. Maybe one day I’ll write something about how the DPS is very similar to HR Departments, i.e. looking out for the company’s interests. Curbing dangerous behaviour by their most profitable players is decidedly not beneficial to them. But that’s for another time. In the meantime, look at the picture I’ve added to my collection of “White Hockey Men Making Bad Life Choices”
Auston Matthews Probably Hates You: Mr. Matthews accidentally crashed into a post knocking out some of his pearly veneers and getting (temporary) plump new lips Juvaderm wished it could achieve. After he was asked a ridiculous question about how it happened, he gave a reply in the way only a Virgo could.
Welcome to The Hockey Firm:
In order to keep us both amused, Perrye and I met last Monday and came up with a couple more alternating sections for the newsletter. A particular favorite activity of ours is discussing the various ways we wouldn’t mess up the PR responses from sports teams. Take our advice, or don’t, we don’t give a shit.
Client #1 - The Chicago Blackhawks
On Monday, February 21, the flaming walking disaster previously known as the Chicago Blackhawks announced that they would be parting ways with Bobby Hull. There’s been a lot written about how terrible he was, so we won’t go into much detail. Still, nothing shows the organization’s depth of depravity and lack of moral integrity than bringing on a man with a 3-in-1 combination of anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, and violent misogyny. All of which were known before they put up a statue of him outside of the United Center. There would have been no easy way to break ties with someone so enthusiastically endorsed before, but Jesus Christ, would it hurt to maybe think about your approach a little more?
The Blackhawks have the PR disaster equivalent of a gaping wound. The team is losing, fans are mad, and ticket sales appear to be so bad that they’re offering promotions like a minor league team. Long gone are the days of $75 standing-room-only ticket prices. Regardless of anything that’s been happening internally, Rocky Wirtz effectively destroyed any of their progress. They have to realize that until they start winning again everything they do will just be considered a rushed effort to save face.
So bearing that in mind, we don’t understand the rush. Bobby Hull’s behavior has long been an open secret, and it’s never picked up much traction from the media. It was one of those things that could have been done with more thought and turned into something tangible. We would have scrapped the entire ambassador program until next season and bring it back with a whole new lineup. Did you know the Blackhawks’ Dirk Graham was the NHL’s first Black Captain AND head coach? Yeah, that’s way cooler.
Despite the pacifying statement on why the team is no longer working with Hull, we all know why it is. This whole “I know, that you know, that I know” move is weird and disingenuous, and probably why they ended up on the cover of the Sun-Time’s sports page with a scathing article by Ben Pope.
If we had the Blackhawks as clients, we would have kept moving in silence and at the beginning of next season and would say something along the lines of “We’ve been working these past few months to build programming that falls in line with our values and beliefs. For this reason, we decided to revamp our ambassador program and add on (insert names) for a better reflection of the path we’re taking forward.” If they asked us about Bobby Hull, we would keep it pushing and ask our friendly hockey media members to refer to our statement. At the program’s launch, we would outline the qualities and culture we expect our new ambassadors to embody - in a subtle acknowledgement that we don’t stand for what Bobby Hull did. We would also make sure that the statue disappears expeditiously - but that’s for another time.
Shit I’m Obsessed With This Week
AKA Gaby tries to map out the inner workings of her ADHD brain.
The Wellness to White Supremacy Pipeline: Okay, so this (and all the other cult + occult things I keep bringing up) has been an interest for a while. It happened when I, *maybe*, accidentally started propagating a rumor on Twitter that Jonathan Toews was in a cult last year (for legal reasons because we [me, Perrye] don’t want to be sued - he’s definitely not, and this is most definitely just a joke). Anyway, what I really wanted to understand was why so many athletes love Joe Rogan, and that’s led me into a whole other world of research into the connections between modern new age movements and white supremacy groups like QAnon. I’m still learning, but I do wanna talk about it! Here is an interesting article + video I’ve come across:
Acid fascism: Past and present ties between occultism and the far right
How athletes fall for pseudoscience, and wellness leads to conspiracy theories:
This Question: Is it a sin to trophy hunt?
A former player (David Booth) tweeted some truly asinine things about how Tyler Bertuzzi is the most persecuted NHL player in history or something.
A perfect time for the @NHL to lead the way for inclusion and diversity in all of sports. The persecution of @tylerbertuzzi is the worst in nhl history and no one is standing up for him.Ottawa Senators Change Name To Ottawa Dictators https://t.co/NY7AW50FPLThe Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBeeI had no idea who this was, so I googled him, and his wiki said he was an avid trophy hunter and had gotten quite a bit of flak for posting some of his more exotic hunts. He also appears to be a pretty conservative Christian, so I got to thinking about whether hunting for pleasure violates the scripture. Turns out there are a few schools of thought on this. Will report back.
The Cleaning Lady on Fox: I’m lowkey loving this show because everyone kinda sucks, but the chemistry of the main characters is A++, and led by the fantastic Elodie Yung. There are only a few episodes left in this season, and I am already living in the constant fear that they will break my heart just like they did when they canceled Pitch (Editor’s note: This is the moment when I discovered that Gaby got taste, haha!). So watch it, and let me know what you think :)
Miss you all, and I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves.
With love,
Gaby