Cliff Marshall will feature in the Everton chapter of Football’s Black Pioneers but the following story didn’t make the final cut.
Liverpool historian Ray Costello, then a teacher, remembers Cliff as a bright eleven-year-old at Windsor Street School in the Liverpool Toxteth area. As one of the teachers taking the boys to football lessons, he recalls Cliff being chosen for the Liverpool junior trials to be held in another school some distance away. Ray and the school Head teacher both accompanied young Cliff to the trial, but when they arrived, discovered that it was to be held indoors on a wooden floor. Cliff had turned up with conventional studded boots. Undaunted, the redoubtable Headmistress, Ceridwen Jones, made a quick dash in her car to the not-too-local Woolworths to buy a pair of pumps.
The boys were split arbitrarily into two teams and, being equally matched, it was a hard-fought game. Cliff was the only boy to score a goal that day. He was accepted for the Liverpool Boys’ Team (and would also play for England at schoolboy level).
Later, as a young adult, Cliff joined Everton, much to the chagrin of Glynn Smith, the school’s Deputy Head teacher and main football coach, who was an ardent Liverpool fan.
Cliff made his Everton debut on 11th January 1975 but was he their first black player? Football’s Black Pioneers will reveal all!