At its core, the sport of hockey is a fast-paced, physical, exciting game that enthralls most everyone who watches it. However, that doesn’t mean that the sport is without warts. Much like many other professional sports leagues, The NHL has an unfortunate history of not treating those within the game equally. Arguably, the biggest inequality in the sport is the one that sees Black athletes, still, to this very day, face harsh racism and go through other trials and tribulations that the vast majority of hockey players don’t experience. 

This isn’t new. Akim Aliu, P.K. Subban, Willie O’Ree and others have been very open about what they’ve gone through during their various hockey journeys, from Mite all the way to The NHL. What is new is the book written by Julian McKenzie of The Athletic. 

McKenzie’s new tome, “Black Aces: Essential Stories From Hockey’s Black Trailblazers,” shares the stories of what Subban, O’Ree, Kevin Weekes, Herb Carnegie, Jarome Iginla, Grant Fuhr, Anson Carter and so many others went through as they pursued their hockey playing dreams. But the book doesn’t just share the negative experiences. It also highlights the successes and positive stories that each accomplished. Overall, the book does an excellent job of putting the focus, in a good way, on a group of players who have, unfortunately, had to endure quite a lot in order to see their dreams through. Blittner’s Blue Line caught up with McKenzie to discuss his new book and to dive into a topic that many tend to shy away from. 

*Editor’s Note: Questions and Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

McKenzie: “When you see the title, ‘Black Aces,’ and you see that Jarome Iginla and Sarah Nurse and Kevin Weekes are on the cover of the book, you can immediately connect to your mind, it’s a fun double entendre on the fact that black hockey players, being as prominent as they’ve been in hockey, not just in The NHL. I’ll give the credit to my literary agent, Brian Wood, for coming up with the title. It made sense in that moment. I’m very aware of what Black Aces means in the playoff context, but, in the context of the book I was putting together, it made so much sense to flip the title into something completely different.”

Blittner’s Blue Line: When and how did the concept for this book come to you?

McKenzie: “So, in August 2023, I was still in Calgary at the time and I covered Bill Peters, who, once upon a time, coached in The NHL and then resigned after it got found out that he had delivered a series of racial slurs to Akim Aliu, a player he coached in the American Hockey League. In 2023, he (Peters) had gotten a job in the Western Hockey League, coaching a team in Lethbridge, Alberta. 

“So I drove from Calgary to Lethbridge and I covered that press conference. Obviously, just the fact that Bill Peters got that opportunity and he hadn’t apologized to Akim at that point, and he still hasn’t, for what he did. I remember being pretty angry, just as like a fan and to write about it after the fact. And people latched onto it. 

“The agent who I’m working with, Brian Wood, reached out to me not long after and said, ‘Hey, you should think about writing a book.’ I’ve always wanted to write a book. I know in my recent years, I haven’t been as devout of a reader as I would like to. But reading was pretty important to me as a young kid growing up. My grandmother, on my dad’s side of the family, basically taught me how to read and to speak essentially. Just from a really young age, I knew what I wanted to do in life: be a sports journalist and a writer. 

“When the opportunity came to work with Brian on a project, I was like, ‘Man, it’d be cool to work on something.’ It’s just, I didn’t know what the idea was. Maybe like a month or two after we emailed each other, he said, ‘I thought about the idea of profiling a series of black hockey players.’ Next thing I know, I’m at an event in Edmonton, going up to all these different players like Georges Laraque and Sarah Nurse and Anson Carter, just trying to establish contact and to get the opportunity to try to talk to as many black players as I could for a project of that magnitude. And it’s worked out. I’m really happy. 

“It took me about two years to put it together and then everyone got the opportunity to buy and read it starting in February (of this year). So I’ve been really pleased that people have been enjoying it and reading it and have been giving me a lot of well-wishes and other positive thoughts about the book. I’ve been really enjoying it.”

Blittner’s Blue Line: Was it difficult to get people on board for the book, knowing that it talks about such a sensitive subject?

McKenzie: “I know there were a few people who, for different reasons, were just not available to talk. There was one person in particular whom I really wanted in the book and they just politely declined. But everyone else I spoke to they were pretty open with some of the different experiences that they endured racially. 

“In some cases, a lot of it is readily accessible for people to read. Like Willie O’Ree, for example, even if I didn’t get to talk to him directly, that’s still somebody who a lot of people know about his story, coming up and trying to play with one working eye and breaking the black color barrier and all the challenges that came with it. Reading his autobiography was super, super interesting to get a sense of what he was like. 

“Same deal with Herb Carnegie as well, with some of the racial injustices he went through up until he started playing. But I definitely wanted a balance. I wanted it to not just be a book where we’re just detailing unfortunate instances of racism. It’s a huge part of what, unfortunately, these players have gone through. 

“But I also wanted people to understand that these black hockey players are successful in the National Hockey League or in the PWHL and they’re worth paying attention to. They’re worth getting to know their stories beyond just knowing them, because they were, unfortunately, at the hands of racism. 

“It’s worthwhile to take a couple minutes and know about the history of Jarome Iginla and him growing up in St. Albert, near Edmonton and to know about his fandom of the Oilers and to know about his fandom for Grant Fuhr and to hear stories from guys like Craig Button, about wanting him in Dallas, and then getting to have him as a guy in Calgary when was GM. I thought it was a really cool opportunity to not just highlight the obvious injustices that unfortunately plague players of color, not just in the ’90s and other decades before, but, unfortunately, still to this day. But I also wanted to highlight the positives. 

“I wanted to highlight a lot of great stories because there are a ton of great stories surrounding black hockey players. And I feel really honored to have had an opportunity to showcase that.”

Blittner’s Blue Line: Was there anything one of the players told you that made you go, “wow, I didn’t know that”? 

McKenzie: “Hard to whittle it to just one thing, but I think writing about Herb Carnegie and what he went through as a young player, playing for a young team in Toronto, and he’s practicing at the Maple Leaf Gardens and the Leafs are there, and he gets told by a coach, ‘Hey, if we could find a way to turn you white, we’d put you on our team tomorrow.’ 

“To look back on interviews, particularly, he gets interviewed by Elliotte Friedman about this, and he speaks about it, and he’s upset and he’s distraught and he starts crying. That was upsetting to kind of look back on. And I appreciated Elliotte for his time, being able to explain his side of that interview and how surprised he was to see Herb react that way. 

“Speaking to his daughter, Bernice, about this too and just kind of knowing, obviously, she’s doing a lot to preserve her father’s legacy, but I definitely got the sense that, maybe more could have been done by powers beyond her to ensure that people would uplift his legacy and not just have it be on her. We’re talking about a guy who was probably the best black hockey player to ever play in the National Hockey League. He played with Jean Béliveau in Quebec before Jean Béliveau became the star that he was with the Montreal Canadiens during his time in The NHL. 

“Even Jean Béliveau, in the autobiography that Herb put out in the later stages of his life, in the Foreword, he’s like, ‘Hey, why wasn’t Herb good enough to play in The League?’ I think a lot of that stuff was pretty illuminating. 

“Going through the P.K. (Subban) stuff was really fun. As a Montreal guy, just having lived a lot of his time with the Montreal Canadiens and hearing from different people who covered him and chatted with him. His brother, Malcolm, was really good. I really loved the story of those two being brothers and growing up playing video games against each other and playing tennis against each other and stuff like that. 

“But also, just knowing P.K. as an energetic personality, who’s also thinking forward about what the game has done for him, but also what he’s doing to build himself up as a media personality. 

“It’s really difficult to whittle it down to just one thing. But I would say, as a catch-all and a sum up of everything, I think the biggest thing to take away from that is, as much as we look at hockey as a predominantly white sport, you look through the history of the game, you will find black people at the center and you will find black people, not just performing well, but you’ll look at black people innovating in the game and playing it for decades upon decades, despite what people will tell you. 

“This is not a sport where, if you see black people on social media going to a game like ‘Oh, man, we can’t believe this game’s actually cooler than we thought.’ No. This is something where black people have been involved for decades, on decades, and will continue to do so because of how amazing the sport is.”

All in all, a very illuminating conversation with the author of a very intriguing book. For those wishing to check out the book, you can go to https://a.co/d/0dz7VdaP, or you can visit https://www.triumphbooks.com/.