Albert Johanneson – Not the first black player at Leeds United
On 30th July, Bill Hern continued his (virtual) tour of the nation’s radio stations when he was interviewed by Jules Bellerby on BBC Radio York. Unsurprisingly the interview focused on Yorkshire clubs with Jules’ team, Leeds United, first up for discussion. The pair also talked about the chances of Harrogate Town making it into the book. Harrogate play Notts County in the play-off final on Sunday 2nd August, three days after the interview and Bill explained that chapters have been written covering each of the teams.
You can listen to the interview here:
If you want to find out who was the first black player at Leeds United (and 91 other clubs!) why not pre-order a copy of ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ here:
Roland Butcher was interviewed recently on Channel DDX in Barbados where he is now a highly respected sports administrator. Cricket fans will probably know that Roland was England’s first black test cricketer and the first black captain of Middlesex, but how many football fans will know that he was the first black player for Stevenage? He was, and this is why Roland will feature in Football’s Black Pioneers, due to be published on 31st August.
During a wide ranging interview Roland was kind enough to mention the book:
Many of the pioneers who feature in Football’s Black Pioneers experienced racism during their time in the game, Paul Canoville faced more than most. The fans at many clubs could overlook the colour of a player’s skin if he was wearing the shirt of the team they supported. This didn’t stop them abusing black players on opposing teams in the vilest terms. Chelsea fans were unusual, if not quite unique, in the abuse they heaped on one of their own.
Paul made his Chelsea debut on 12th April 1982 and I was in the crowd that day. Football Shorts have now published the story and you can read it here:
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!
Statues are very much in the news at the moment. Should we venerate them, tear them down, board them up to protect them from threats (real or imagined), or shuffle them off to a dusty museum?
But sitting alongside such questions is another one, should we put up new statues and, if so, who should they represent?
If we occupied high office no doubt we would stand up and proclaim “what the people want is…” Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, we don’t occupy high office but we do know that what a growing number of ‘the people’ want, particularly if they live in Plymouth, is a statue commemorating Jack Leslie.
Born in London’s East End to a white mother and black father, Jack was a working class lad who made good as a footballer and had a long and successful career with Plymouth Argyle. So successful that he was called up to join the England squad for an international in Belfast in October 1925. Had he played he would have been the first footballer of colour to win an England cap, beating Viv Anderson to that honour by 53 years. Shamefully he was ‘un-called up’ by the selectors when they realised he was black. In Jack’s own words “They found out I was a darkie and I suppose that was like finding out I was foreign.”
A campaign is afoot to erect a statue in Jack’s honour in Plymouth. Plymouth City Council have already announced their intention to rename a square in the city after Jack (a square currently named after Sir John Hawkins, a ‘privateer’ whose activities included trading in enslaved people). But “what the people want…” is a statue of Jack Leslie.
You may also have heard about the campaign on the Today programme on Radio 4. If you missed it, you can listen to the item here:
If you would like more details of the campaign you can read about it here: https://jackleslie.co.uk/. Why not go further and add your voice to demands for a statue and, as today the campaign launches its crowdfunding appeal, a donation too?
Peter Foley was born in Edinburgh on 28th June 1944, the son of a white mother and a black Ghanaian father. He was one of the very few black players in League football in the 1960s and was the first black player at Workington and Chesterfield (when both were still Football League clubs), as well as Scunthorpe. He will feature in in Football’s Black Pioneers as Scunthorpe’s first black player.
Peter suffered his first football-related racist abuse while playing for Workington at Queen’s Park Rangers’ Loftus Road ground on 5th April 1965. The crowd was only 4,642 but Peter recalls that during the warm up he could hear chants of “Zulu, Zulu, Zulu.” He quickly realised those chants were aimed at him as the only black player on the pitch.
Aged just 20, the impact on Peter was traumatic. When he saw that the first fixture for the following season was a return to London and an away game with Millwall he was so concerned about the abuse he might have to suffer, particularly given the reputation of the Millwall crowd, that he feigned injury so he would not have to travel to the capital.
This was a seminal moment in Peter’s life. He realised he had let himself and his team down and allowed the racists to win. He never feigned injury again and he vowed he would never again hide from racism but would fight it wherever he came across it. That he did so is amply demonstrated by his MBE, awarded in 2003, for his anti-racism work both through his Trade Union and the Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football campaign.
The contribution made by black men and women to all aspects of British life is often not given the prominence it deserves. Whether it has been in helping establish the NHS, or running our transport and postal services (and many more besides), Britain wouldn’t be the country it is today without the input of unsung black heroes and heroines working alongside their white colleagues.
‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ will remember the first black player to represent each of the EFL (English Football League) and Premier League clubs. We will remember their contribution on the football field.
But several also served in the military.
As today is Armed Forces Day, we pay particular tribute to Walter Tull, the best known of our pioneering footballers to fight for his country.
In addition to being the first black player to represent Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town, Walter served in the Army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was killed in action in France on 25th March 1918.
Walter wasn’t the only footballing pioneer to don a uniform. Tommy Best (Cardiff and Queens Park Rangers), Tony Collins (Crystal Palace, Norwich and Watford), Roy Brown (Stoke City) and Albert Payne (Tranmere Rovers) were among those who served during World War Two.
In spite of all the evidence to the contrary there are still some people who seem to believe that racism doesn’t exist in our society today. It would be nice if that were true but the experience of people from minority communities as they go about their everyday lives suggests otherwise.
Neither Dion Dublin or Micah Richards will feature in our forthcoming book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ but their experience shows that being in the public eye does not protect you from the small minority of bigots who continue to believe that abusing someone because of their skin colour is acceptable: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/53121327
Chris Kamara, who does feature in our book, has also spoken out recently about his own experiences of racism. We truly hope that the stories in our book, stories that celebrate the contribution of pioneering black footballers, can help foster understanding and greater tolerance today.
Members of the Windrush Generation have contributed so much to so many aspects of British Society, in few places is this more visible than on football pitches up and down the country.
There have been black players in British football from the start of the game as an organised professional sport. A mixed heritage player called Arthur Wharton made his First Division debut in goal for Sheffield United in the League on 23rd February 1895, just seven years after the competition started in 1888.
There were 92 Football League clubs at the start of the 2019/20 season, 18 of them had fielded a black player before the outbreak of World War Two but, for a further 29, their first black player was a member of the Windrush Generation.
There were boxers on the Empire Windrush when it docked at Tilbury on 22nd June 1948 but no professional footballers. However, some came later having been born in the Caribbean. One of them was Brendon Batson. Born in Grenada in 1953, he came to England with his parents as a nine year old and went on to become the first black player in Arsenal’s 1st team in 1972. Roland Butcher, born in Barbados, was the first black footballer to play for Stevenage but is better known as England’s first black international cricketer.
More were born in the UK, the sons of parents who made the journey from the Caribbean in the 1950s or 1960s. Some achieved notable successes in their football career.
London born Laurie Cunningham first played for Leyton Orient before transferring to West Bromwich Albion where, in 1977, he was the first black player to make it into Albion’s 1st eleven. Laurie subsequently moved to Spain where he won a European Cup winner’s medal with the mighty Real Madrid.
Others had long and successful careers for clubs in lower divisions. Tony Ford, Grimsby Town’s first black player, made 1081 League and Cup appearances over a career that spanned 27 seasons from 1975 to 2001. This remains the highest number of appearances for any outfield player (only goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, played more). Tony’s father was from Barbados, in the UK he met Bradford-born, Jean Ford and Tony was born in 1959.
Not all were as successful. Lloyd Maitland’s father arrived from Jamaica in 1951 and Lloyd was born on 21st March 1957. Lloyd only made only 39 appearances in the League for Huddersfield and a further 71 for Darlington before his career was brought to a premature end when he was run over by a car driven by one of his own team mates.
One thing they had in common was that they faced racist abuse of varying degrees of vitriol. Peter Foley, Scunthorpe’s first black player, once feigned injury to avoid playing at Millwall’s notorious ground. This was a seminal moment in Peter’s life as he vowed he would never again hide from racism but would fight it with all his might – he was later awarded the MBE for his work to combat racism.
But none of the Windrush Generation of football pioneers achieved more than Viv Anderson.
Viv Anderson, Nottingham Forest
Viv’s father, Audley Anderson, sailed from Jamaica on board the SS Auriga. He left behind his young bride, Myrtle. Like so many men of the time he recognised the need to make sacrifices to achieve a better future for himself and his family. Audley arrived at Plymouth on 12th October 1954. Five months later, Myrtle followed him, also travelling on the Auriga to Plymouth.
Myrtle was a qualified teacher but, as so many in her position found, her qualifications didn’t satisfy the UK authorities. She found a job as a school dinner lady but later qualified as a nurse, becoming one of the many thousands of nurses from the Caribbean who helped make the Health Service such a success.
The Andersons had set up home in Nottingham and that is where Vivian Alexander Anderson was born on 29th July 1956. Viv went on to be a key part of the team that won the First Division title (what would now be the Premiership) and the European Cup (forerunner of the Champions League) twice with Nottingham Forest. He was Forest’s first black player and, in 1978, also the first to win a full England cap.
On 8th June Bill Hern was interviewed by Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on their regular talkSPORT show. Bill talked eloquently about our forthcoming book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’. The story of Jack Lesley kicked off the interview but Bill also spoke about the only black ‘Busby Babe’ and several others. You can listen to the interview here:
15th June 2020 was National Heroes Day in Bermuda. This may seem an odd thing for us to celebrate here but one of the players who will feature in ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ is Calvin Symonds who was born in Bermuda on 29th March 1932.
In January 2020 the Bermudan Minister of Labour, Community Affairs and Sports, the Hon. Lovitta Foggo, honoured Bermudian sports legend Calvin Symonds by unveiling a plaque at the Northlands Primary School. In her speech the Minister said of Calvin ‘he is considered a cultural icon and a sports legend.’
I wonder how many Rochdale fans realise he was their first black player?!
Although he wasn’t actually a ‘first black player’ Clyde Best, another Bermuda born player, will also feature in our forthcoming book. Clyde had a long and successful career at West Ham, scoring a total of 58 goals in 221 appearances before leaving the club in 1976. Clyde was playing his football at a time when racism was at its worst, “in those days, as a black player, no matter where you went you would be in for a hard time. You just had to tough it out.” He was, in the words of another black player, on the receiving end of ‘the full banana treatment’ on many occasions.
Both Clyde and Calvin returned to live in Bermuda after their football careers ended and both can truly be regarded National Heroes. They are also, of course, in their different ways, two of English football’s black pioneers.
On the morning of 6th October 1925 Jack Leslie was called into the office of Plymouth Argyle manager Bob Jack and given the great news that the International Selection Committee had met the previous day and chosen him for the England squad to take on Northern Ireland in Belfast on 24th October. He wasn’t in the starting eleven but was named as a travelling reserve. In their excitement it is unlikely either man gave a second thought to the fact that Jack was on the verge of becoming the first black player to represent England.
The selection of a Third Division player was unusual enough to attract comment regardless of his colour and so there was a lot about Jack’s call up in the local and national press. The Northern Whig, for instance, commented “Leslie who has scored plenty of goals for the Argyle, is an inside forward of great ability and will soon work his way into representative matches.”
But it wasn’t to be. On the day he should have been in Belfast he actually played for Plymouth, scoring twice in a 7-2 home win over Bournemouth. He had been dropped from the England squad.
No explanation was ever given, indeed, in a move Donald Trump would have been proud of, the FA even denied he had ever been selected. In Jack’s own words , “I did hear, roundabout like, that the FA had come to have another look at me. Not at me football but at me face. They asked, and found they’d made a ricket. Found out about me daddy, and that was it. Me mum was English but me daddy was black as the Ace of Spades. They found out I was a darkie and I suppose that was like finding out I was foreign.”
Jack Lesley’s de-selection must rank as one of the most shameful incidents in the long and far from blemish-free history of the FA.
Shocking though it is, that story shouldn’t be all Jack is remembered for. He had a very successful club career and you will be able to read about it in ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’.
A group of fans are setting up a campaign to have a statue erected at Argyle’s ground, Home Park, and you can read about their plans here https://jackleslie.co.uk/
Do you know who the pioneering black footballers pictured above are and the clubs they played for? If you don’t (or even if you do) keep your eyes open for ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’, the book that will tell the stories of the first black players to represent each of the 92 Football League clubs.
You know things aren’t as they should be when three stories concerning racism in the game appear within the space of a few days.
In the first, Danny Rose speaks about his experiences of racism and how it affected him. The story alse features Renee Hector of Tottenham women’s team. We met Renee at an event in London that was held to celebrate the life of Laurie Cunningham. She spoke eloquently about the abuse she faced on social media because she had the temerity to call out racist abuse directed at her by an opposing player during a game: https://theconversation.com/racisms-rise-in-football-demands-harsher-sanctions-and-better-mental-health-support-131701
Although neither Danny or Renee will feature in the forthcoming book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’, Laurie Cunningham definitely will as he was the first black player at West Bromwich Albion and the book will celebrate the first black player at each Football League club.
The second story concerns the failure of the authorities to identify those in the crowd responsible for directing racist abuse at Antonio Rudiger. In a statement Tottenham said that they could neither corroborate nor contradict the allegation that monkey noises were directed at Rudiger during the Chelsea/Tottenham match in December. Rudiger is quoted as saying “They never get punished. In the end I’m the scapegoat.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51611099
The third story concerned a young player, Jonathan Leko, abused by a player on the opposing team whilst playing for Charlton Athletic. The abuser, Leeds United goalkeeper, Kiko Casilla, was found guilty by the FA who imposed an eight match ban and a £60,000 fine. Hopefully this punishment will be sufficient to deter others: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51628153
Is racism on the rise? Sadly, the answer seems to be ‘yes’.
If these sort of incidents can happen in 2019 imagine what it must have been like for the pioneers who were the first to make the breakthrough into the professional game. In the 1970s, for instance, they would generally be the only black player in their team’s squad and possibly one of the few black faces in the town. The names of many of these unsung heroes will scarcely be known to supporters at large and will possibly have been forgotten by the fans of the teams they played for, players like Lloyd Maitland who became Huddersfield’s first black player in 1974:
‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ will tell the story of Lloyd’s brief career and the shocking way in which it ended.
There have long been question marks over the Football Association’s attitude to black players. The book ‘Pitch Black’ by Emy Onuora, published in 2015, reported a conversation with Graham Taylor in which Taylor said the FA tried to impose an unofficial quota system on the number of black players an England manager should be allowed to use. Taylor (England manager from 1990 to 1993) allegedly said he had been summoned by two members of the FA’s hierarchy and told “in no uncertain terms” he should not go beyond a certain limit.
Taylor is said to have made the remark during a function at Watford’s ground during the 1999-2000 season when Richie Moran was the guest speaker. Moran, a Birmingham City player in the 1990s who eventually quit the game because of the racial abuse he suffered, recalls in Onuora’s book: “Graham Taylor came up to me and said: ‘Look, I’m going to tell you something … I’m never going to admit it, I will be sued for libel.’ He said: ‘When I was manager of England I was called in by two members of the FA, who I won’t name …’ I volunteered two names. He said: ‘I’m not prepared to say, but I was told in no uncertain terms not to pick too many black players for the national side.’”
Other guests at the event also heard the conversation. Taylor died in 2017 but when the book came out in 2015 he initially said he could not specifically remember the conversation with Moran. “That is not me trying to evade it – and it also doesn’t mean I didn’t say it – but if anyone looks at my record with club and country it would be obvious to everyone anyway that I didn’t follow what was apparently said. If anyone looks at my record, I could never be accused of blocking the way for any black player.” Later he was more categoric in asserting that the conversation never took place “I have no memory of that conversation (with Moran). There certainly was an event at Watford. I can remember that, but I certainly have no memory of a conversation about black players.” Taylor went on to say that he would be taking legal advice about what was being said but, if he did, we are unaware of any subsequent legal action.
Moran, was quoted in the Guardian newspaper at the time of the book’s publication strongly refuting Taylor’s denials. “I have a very vivid memory of the conversation.” He went on “I’m not saying for one moment that Graham Taylor had any intentions … all I’m saying is that that is a conversation I had with him. I have no reason to make it up.”
Just to show that there is nothing new under the sun the story of Jack Leslie, a player called up to represent England in 1925 and then ‘un-called up’ a few days later, is one we have been aware of for some time.
Here is recent article on the subject by Martin Johnes of Swansea University and Alex Jackson of the National Football Museum:
Jack Leslie was the first black player to represent Plymouth Argyle and will feature in our forthcoming book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’. He never did play for England though.
