He faced discrimination playing softball in Cape Breton. They want his legacy to be recognized

Two Nova Scotians have made it their mission to get a Black softball player inducted into the Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame.

Arnold (Lucky) Campbell, who was born and raised in Glace Bay, played fast-pitch softball in the 1940s and 1950s.

He's remembered in part for the array of positions he played on a four-man team called the Glace Bay Rockets. He was the team's fifth member, and their only Black player.

"Lucky played ball — good ball, excellent ball," Mary Desmond told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Halifax.

"And Black African Nova Scotians couldn't get on white teams unless he was the best, and better than any of the other team members."

Desmond, a councillor for the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, learned of Campbell while doing research for a community newsletter in Glace Bay years ago.

But his name recently came up again when she met his daughter, Evelyn Sims. 

Sims told her that only one of the Glace Bay Rockets had been inducted into the Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame, but she would've liked to see the whole team honoured, including her father.

That's when they decided to campaign for Campbell's induction.

"Just for him to be recognized would be an accomplishment by the whole family," Sims told Mainstreet.

"That's something that we would love to see happen because … I want him recognized to show who he was and how good of a player he really was."

Sims said her father started playing ball when he was a kid, joining teams from Glace Bay to New Waterford, including the Universal Nines, an all-Black team.

"His performance throughout the years, as far as I can remember, it was astounding," she said.

Desmond said she found information and statistics about Campbell's ball career in the Cape Breton Post. He once posted a .428 batting average.