When we were writing Football’s Black Pioneers we were keen to get first hand accounts of their experiences from as many of ‘our’ pioneers as possible. We had some notable successes, tracking down Calvin Symonds to his home in Bermuda was a notable one. But some proved particularly elusive, Roly Gregoire, Sunderland’s first Black player, was one of the most difficult to contact. As a lifelong Sunderland supporter, Bill Hern tried every trick he knew to trace Roly, but to no avail.
Now, at last, we can hear from Roly, now a Rastafarian with the name Jabari Muata Ta Seti, as, after forty-six years, he has opened up about his shocking experiences at the hands of racist so-called supporters of the team he briefly represented.
You can read Roly’s story as far as we were able to establish it in 2022, in the Sunderland chapter of our book (still available via Amazon or any good bookshop!), but to hear about Roly’s experience in his own words, click on this link: