Jarome Iginla grew up in the Edmonton area in the 1980s amid the Edmonton Oilers dynasty. He said he wanted to be like Mark Messier and loved Wayne Gretzky the same as the other kids, but being Black, it was special to see Grant Fuhr.
"I had a lot of positive, wonderful, wonderful experiences, but a question I got asked a lot was, 'What are the chances of making it to the NHL? There aren't many Black players in the NHL,'" he said.
Iginla said he could say to people, "Well, look at Grant Fuhr. He's an all-star." He said he could point to Black players like Tony McKegney "to have answers for other kids."
"It was very, very important for me following my dream," he said.
Well, look at Jarome Iginla. He's going to be a Hall of Famer.
He was selected for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday in his first year of eligibility. He will be like Messier and Gretzky, and he will become the fourth Black player in the Hall, joining Fuhr, Angela James and Willie O'Ree.
Especially at this time in society, with the NHL promoting the message that "Hockey Is For Everyone," it could be very, very important for Black players following their dreams.
"Maybe that will be special to some other kids in the way that it was to me," Iginla said.
His full name is Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla. His father was originally from Nigeria and changed his first name from Adekunle to Elvis when he came to Canada. In his father's native language, his last name means "big tree."
After his parents divorced when he was young, Iginla grew up with his mother, Susan, and his grandparents. He said his grandpa, Rick Schuchard, took him to his first hockey tryout when he was 7 and had skated once. They expected to receive a jersey and socks, and when they didn't, his grandpa ran to the store and found a Calgary Flames jersey without the crest.
"I guess it makes sense now, because the Flames were not very popular in Edmonton, and that was the only jersey left, I guess, in my size," Iginla said with a laugh.
Iginla and his grandpa shared popcorn while watching the Oilers on television. His grandpa took him to watch Fuhr play baseball when he was about 10. They took a picture together.
"That was my second love, playing ball," Fuhr said. "He was our bat boy. I played for his grandpa. He was a great little kid. The fun part is, I got to watch him grow up from a kid all the way up through [the NHL]."
Iginla developed into a dominant power forward. In 20 NHL seasons, including 16 in a Flames jersey with the crest, he scored 1,300 points (625 goals, 675 assists) in 1,554 games. He's 14th in games played and tied for 16th in goals with Hall of Famer Joe Sakic. He led the NHL in goals (52) and points (96) in 2001-02, winning the Lester B. Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award) as most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players' Association, and tied Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash for the League lead in goals (41) in 2003-04. He won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award in 2008-09.
He also helped Canada win the 1996 IIHF World Junior Championship and 1997 IIHF World Championship, and a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Olympics, setting up Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby for the Golden Goal on home soil the last time.
And he did it with class, setting the kind of example he once followed. Lanny McDonald, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and its chairman, held various roles in the Flames front office in the 1990s and early 2000s. One day on the road, he was signing autographs for kids along a fence as the players boarded the team bus.
"Jarome comes right by, goes onto the bus, and I thought, 'Damn, I was kind of hoping he'd come over and sign a few autographs,'" McDonald said. "He went on the team bus and told every teammate, 'Get off the bus and sign autographs for the kids for a few minutes, and then we'll leave.' And that told me a whole lot about Jarome, what kind of a person he is, what he stands for."
Iginla got to play one season with Fuhr, when the goalie finished his career in Calgary in 1999-2000. He called it an honor.
"He was a true idol of mine, for being a Black hockey player but also for being such a great hockey player," Iginla said.
Iginla said he showed Fuhr the picture they took together when he was a kid, and they took another picture together. This one was for Sports Illustrated with a Black teammate, goalie Fred Brathwaite. It's on the wall in his house.
"I look at it all the time, and it means a lot to me," Iginla said.
This means a lot to a lot of people.
"I think it's fabulous," Fuhr said. "You couldn't ask for a better person on the ice and off the ice. He's the guy that makes people around him better, in all aspects of life."
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