Herb Carnegie

Lore & Background

Carnegie's hockey career began in 1938 with the Toronto Young Rangers and continued in the early 1940s with the Timmins Buffalo-Ankerite Bisons, a team playing in mining towns in northern Ontario and Quebec. From 1944–45 to 1947-48 he played for Shawinigan and Sherbrooke of the semi-professional Quebec Provincial League, where he was named most valuable player in 1946, 1947, and 1949. During those years he played alongside his brother Ossie. In 1948, Carnegie was given a tryout with the New York Rangers and offered a contract worth $2,700 to play in the Rangers' minor league system, but he turned down all three offers because the amount was less than he was earning in the Quebec league. Returning to Canada, he played in the Quebec Senior Hockey League for Sherbrooke St. Francis and the Quebec Aces, and later a single season with the Owen Sound Mercuries. In the Quebec Senior League, he played with future Montreal Canadiens star Jean Beliveau and was coached by Punch Imlach. As a black man playing hockey in the 1940s and 1950s, Carnegie endured racism; in a notorious 1938 incident, Conn Smythe, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is alleged to have commented that he would accept Carnegie if he were white, or would pay $10,000 to anyone who could turn him white.

Reader's Guide

After retiring from hockey in 1953, Carnegie started the Future Aces Hockey School, one of the first hockey schools in Canada. In 1954, he wrote the 'Future Aces Creed' to foster respect, tolerance, diversity, and sportsmanship among young people. He continued his athletic career as a golfer, winning the Canadian Seniors Golf Championship in 1977 and 1978, and the Ontario Senior Golf Championship in 1975, 1976, and 1982. In 1987, he established the Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation to provide bursaries for college and university. He also had a successful business career as a financial planner with the Investors Group. In 1996, he published his biography, A Fly in a Pail of Milk: The Herb Carnegie Story. Carnegie was named to the Order of Ontario in 1996 and the Order of Canada in 2003. On May 2, 2005, the North York Centennial Centre was renamed the Herbert H. Carnegie Centennial Centre in his honour. On June 12, 2006, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from York University. A public school in York Region is named in his honour. He also received the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship (1988), the Metropolitan Toronto Canada Day Medal (1990), the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1992), the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). Carnegie became legally blind and died in Toronto, Ontario, in an assisted living home.

Did You Know?

• Carnegie was named most valuable player in the Quebec Provincial League in 1946, 1947, and 1949.
• He turned down three contract offers from the New York Rangers in 1948 because the pay was less than he earned in the Quebec league.
• In 1954, he wrote the 'Future Aces Creed' to promote respect, tolerance, diversity, and sportsmanship.
• His grandson Rane Carnegie is a professional hockey player, and his daughter Bernice Carnegie is a co-owner of the Toronto Six women's hockey team.