Charley Lightfoot's Story Remains Largely Untold
Stratford, Ont.'s Charley Lightfoot is one of the first professional Black hockey players on record. Ian Kennedy looks at Lightfoot's career across parts of Canada.
When discussing prominent, historic, Black men’s hockey players, the conversation almost certainly involves Willie O’Ree and Herb Carnegie. Both were recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, enshrining their spot in hockey lore.
Other players - Hipple Galloway, Manny McIntyre, Wilfred ‘Boomer’ Harding, Ossie Carnegie, and Fred Kelly - have also had their paths documented, while the recent Black Ice documentary showcased the historic Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. It’s clear that Black hockey players have always been part of the game, but many, due to racism or segregation, also played with little to no record.
Charley Lightfoot is one of hockey history’s less celebrated Black pioneers, but breaking into integrated professional hockey in 1906, Lightfoot was one of, if not the first Black professional hockey player. Unfortunately, aside from one of his sticks in the Hockey Hall of Fame and a 1900 team photo including Lightfoot, his story remains largely untold.
Living in Stratford, Ont., Charley Lightfoot began playing for the town in 1898 and won a pair of Ontario Hockey Association championships playing with the Stratford Juniors in 1900 and the following year in 1901 with Stratford’s intermediate team.
“To me, this story of Charley Lightfoot certainly speaks well of Canadian culture. He’s a pioneer, one of the first black players in the world…” said John Kastner, GM of Stratford’s Museum in 2016. The stick, which was a Mic Mac, likely made by Indigenous people in Nova Scotia, is one of the oldest sticks in the Hockey Hall of Fame known to be used by a specific player.
Lightfoot would continue playing hockey, including professionally, in towns across Canada. In 1906, Lightfoot played in the Manitoba Professional Hockey League with the Portage la Prairie Cities. In November of 1906, The Ottawa Journal published a blurb stating Lightfoot “enjoys the distinction of being the only colored player in Canadian senior hockey.”
Among his Portage la Prairie teammates that season was future Montreal Canadiens defender Ernie Dubeau. The Manitoba Hockey Association had several prominent teams in the early 1900s, including the Winnipeg Victorias and Kenora Thistles, who would win Stanley Cups during the early Challenge Cup era. Another team, the Winnipeg Falcons, won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal representing the nation in 1920.
Lightfoot’s appearance in the professional league came more than 50 years before Willie O’Ree would break the NHL’s color barrier and decades before Herb Carnegie put his stamp on the hockey world.
Lightfoot would return West for the 1907 season, playing in Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ont. He continued to travel Canada in the coming years as his skills were in high demand. In 1912, he suited up for Belleville in the Lakeshore League, followed by a stint in Halifax, N.S., during the 1913 season.
Following his time in Halifax, Lightfoot returned to Stratford, where he lived until he died in 1968.
Following his playing career, Charley Lightfoot, who was called Charles and Chas at times in records, refereed and coached hockey.
Throughout his life, Lightfoot, a descendant of enslaved people in Kentucky, worked as a tailor and later a welder in Stratford with the Canadian National Railway (CNR), where he coached the CNR Apprentices hockey team.
In 2016, Stratford recognized Lightfoot, adding the pioneer to the Legend category of Stratford’s Sports Wall of Fame.
Prior to Lightfoot’s beginnings in hockey in 1898, there are no records of another Black hockey player competing in integrated, organized competition. Could he be the first? It’s possible.
Lightfoot’s story plays an important yet often overlooked role in rebuilding hockey’s history, specifically Black history in hockey. His legacy deserves celebration from the hockey community.