Chatham-Kent sports writer Ian Kennedy has been reading The Hockey News since he was eight-years-old.
These days he’s seeing his own name in the publication regularly.
Shining the spotlight on stories of historical significance, race, equality and local hometown ties, the born and raised Wallaceburg native has also found his recent work published with major networks across the web and featured in The Globe and Mail.
Launching the hyper-local Chatham-Kent Sports Network in 2011, Kennedy says his recent accomplishments, highlighted by his partnership with The Hockey News, is a dream come true.
“I’ve been discovering a lot of these stories, many of which had been untold for so long,” says Kennedy. “I thought I would just put it out there.”
The Hockey News was the first to accept an article. And pretty quickly, too.
“Within about 20 minutes of contacting The Hockey News, they accepted my first article and it really evolved quickly from there,” he adds. “To the point where now I’ve got a couple of articles in every magazine and I’m putting out several articles online every week for them. It’s becoming a full-time process.”
Kennedy also has his hands full while preparing his first full-length book, available in May from Tidewater Press.
“On Account Of Darkness: Shining Light On Race in Sport”, a title inspired by the Chatham Coloured All Stars, is now available for pre-order.
“On Account of Darkness” tells an incredible number of local stories of interest from Fergie Jenkins to Bob Izumi. The Wakabyashi family is featured as well as many ancestors of the Chatham Coloured All Stars and Chatham’s Eddie Wright, the first black coach in NCAA hockey history. Kennedy’s book also features a great connection to Walpole Island First Nations, profiling Ian Jacobs, the Tooshkenig family, Bill Sands and Ed Pinnance. Pinnance was the first Indigenous baseball player in Major League Baseball history.
“It does tell some stories that we are not going to be proud of at times,” he warns. “But hopefully, we can learn from them and learn to move forward as a community without repeating the past.”
Now residing in Erie Beach with his family, Kennedy has become one of the voices and key cheerleaders for the previously mentioned Chatham Coloured All Stars team and their attempt to be recognized by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. An attempt that was once again refused in this year’s induction announcement, much to the chagrin of many local residents and ancestors.
The story of the Chatham Coloured All Stars, the first all black team in Canadian baseball history to ever win a provincial championship in 1934, a whole 13 years before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier, is something Kennedy is very passionate about. His latest writing accomplishment was having a feature article on the team and the failure of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize them placed in The Globe and Mail, one of the country’s leading publications.
“The All Stars did this at a time when they would take the field and be showered with spit and slurs and kids would be throwing stones at them while their parents encouraged it,” Ian explains. “And if they won a game they would literally have to fight their way out of town.”
Local groups including descendants of the 1934 roster members have unsuccessfully been trying to have the team recognized and inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. After some very strong public backing over the past couple of years including 2021’s “Game of Honour”, featuring ancestors of the All Stars, most felt they were a lock for induction in 2022.
And then, it didn’t happen.
“For five straight years that application has been denied and I’m not quite sure the reasoning,” says Kennedy. “It’s just not right. They’re such an influential team. It’s hard to compare their successes, and where the players from that league and that team went because they played at a time when they didn’t have a league to play in. There was not a Canadian system like in the U.S. where all black teams had formal leagues, so for anyone to say that they have to have the exact same wins and losses or trophy recognition is really ignorant to the fact of what that team went through.”
Many, Kennedy included, believe the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and others are failing to see the legacy and impact of this team.
One only has to look at the most prominent Canadian baseball figure of all time, Chatham’s own Fergie Jenkins.
The first ever Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and already a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Fergie’s story began with his own father, Ferguson Jenkins Sr., who was a member of the Chatham Coloured All Stars.
“Fergie grew up learning to play baseball on Stirling Park, where the Chatham Coloured All Stars played,” Kennedy adds. “He watched his dad and those men play and was impacted by the opportunity those men built within Chatham for young black players to really have an opportunity within sport. It’s kind of baffling that that impact and legacy isn’t looked at with more power.”
“On Account of Darkness” is now available for pre-order from anywhere you get your books, including Indigo, Chapters, Amazon, Barns and Nobles, through tidewaterpress.ca and locally at Turns and Tales in downtown Chatham.
