The person who most influenced Duante Abercrombie to get into ice hockey was his mother.
And gymnastics. And swimming. And violin lessons.
“She introduced me to a variety of areas that were outside of the traditional realm for a young black man growing up in Washington, D.C., in the late 1980s,” he said.
But when Abercrombie was named coach of Tennessee State University's inaugural men's ice hockey team in April, the first of its kind at a historically black college or university, he quickly realized hockey was the perfect fit for him.
Growing up near the Fort DuPont Ice Arena in southeast Washington, D.C., he remembers watching hockey players take to the ice after beginner skating lessons.
“After the session was over, I watched a (hockey) game and thought, 'Yo, I want to give that a try,'” Abercrombie said.
He was soon introduced to Neal Henderson, a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and founder of North America's oldest minority hockey league. The Fort DuPont program, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides subsidized figure skating, hockey and speed skating lessons to youth in the Washington metropolitan area, sparked Abercrombie's passion and connection to sports.
“(Fort DuPont) was a place where I could immerse myself in a hockey game without any racial undertones,” he said. “I was surrounded by people who looked like me, who were in the same circumstances as me: single-parent families, people from the apartment complex across the street.”
It was at Fort DuPont that Abercrombie's detour to TSU began.
Abercrombie's hockey journey from Washington DC to New Zealand to the NHL
Learning hockey under Henderson at Fort DuPont required more than just lacing up skates and a stick.
As a young black athlete, Abercrombie faced criticism from all sides, including within the black community, and was often chastised by other black students at his school for his choice of sport.
“People were saying, 'That's not football equipment,' or 'Take that off and put on football pads,' or things like that,” Abercrombie said.
Comments like “Black people don't play hockey” will hurt even more.
The words hurt him, but they also strengthened his resolve. Dealing with the pressure gave him a new sense of purpose.
“My whole life I've had to educate (the community) about the sport I love,” Abercrombie said.
After winning a league championship as a senior year at Gonzaga University High School, he attended Hampton University, an HBCU in Virginia with no hockey program, graduating with a business degree in 2008.
His next step was a tryout with the Toledo Walleye, a professional minor league team in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). He was rejected three times, after which his coach encouraged him to try playing overseas to get more time on the ice.
He then traveled to New Zealand to join the West Auckland Admirals of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League (NZIHL). In 2012, Abercrombie returned to North America to try out for professional ice hockey again, but his plans were changed when the NHL lockout began in September of that year.
Through his hockey connections at Fort DuPont, he was given the opportunity to work out with some of the locked-out NHL players in Washington, Capitals forwards Jay Beagle, Mike Ribeiro and Matt Hendricks.
On his first day, he was told to leave if he couldn't keep up with the pace of practice, but to come back if he couldn't.
Not only was he encouraged to return, but he ended up training with them three times a week for nearly three months.
“That was a huge confidence boost for me, believing in myself and knowing that I could actually achieve this now,” Abercrombie said.
The experience sparked a desire to train like a pro, which he got at a facility in Whitby, Ontario, where a chance encounter set him on the path to coaching.
Graham Townsend turns Abercrombie into coach
While training in Whitby, Abercrombie met Graham Townsend, a former Boston Bruins forward and the NHL's first Jamaican-born player.
During that time, Townsend formed the Jamaican national ice hockey team that still competes internationally today. He played more than 700 professional hockey games and also served as skating coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Abercrombie recognized an ally in Townsend, whose path he saw as not so different from his own: Townsend had left Kingston, Jamaica, to grow up in a low-income, crime-ridden neighborhood in Toronto.
“He embodied that, making it to the NHL both as a player and as a coach,” Abercrombie said. “Whatever he tells me, I'm going to follow it.”
The two developed a personal and professional relationship, and Townsend hired Abercombie to help run the Toronto hockey school, developing more coaching relationships along the way.
It was Townsend who recognized Abercrombie's talent for communication and leadership on the ice.
“He said, 'I want you to consider coaching. That's what you need: communication skills, compassion for people,'” Abercrombie said.
He was hired as an assistant coach at Georgetown Prep in Washington in 2016 and promoted to head coach in 2019.
At the same time, he helped lead the Washington Little Capitals and coached at Stephenson University, a Division III school outside Baltimore.
Coaching three teams in two cities while also being married and the father of a young son was a challenge.
“I don't know how he did it, but he did it,” Abercrombie said.
He became the Maple Leafs' development coach in 2022. During his time there, he learned how to coach professional hockey players from then-head coach Sheldon Keefe.
“The essence of things can be taught, but being a good person is something that comes naturally to humans,” Abercrombie said of the experience.
Abercrombie talks about building Tennessee State's men's hockey team
When TSU President Glenda Glover announced the school would launch a men's ice hockey team in June 2023, Abercrombie admitted that wasn't even what he had in mind.
“I didn't think of it that way, mainly because they described it as club hockey,” he said.
TSU Hockey:Tennessee State University becomes hockey pioneer as sport grows in Black community
But after inquiring about the job at TSU, he learned he could take the program directly to Division I.
Abercrombie is committed to playing a mostly Division I schedule that also includes Tennessee and Georgia. The Tigers, who are recruiting and building their schedule for the 2025-26 season, have already sent out several commitment offers.
“I knew what I had to do to make this school a success,” he said. “I had to build it the right way.”
Coaching TSU's first men's hockey team comes with the pressure to succeed. His journey to get here has been filled with obstacles and sacrifices, and now he feels the responsibility to show it was all worth it.
“This is the reality of our society,” Abercrombie said, “but pressure is a privilege. That's my belief.”
