Too Colourful For the League

This documentary examines the struggles of Black hockey players in Canada from the 1930s to the present day, telling the story of the players’ courage and determination to play in a white-dominated sport. It focuses on an effort by former Montreal citizenship judge Richard Lord to nominate legendary Black hockey player Herb Carnegie into the Hockey Hall of Fame. During the 1940s, Carnegie was widely acknowledged as one of the best hockey players in the world, playing alongside Jean Beliveau for the Quebec Aces, yet he was never allowed to play in the NHL because of a long-time colour barrier, which was only broken a decade later by Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins.