When we sent off for match programmes we could never be quite sure what we would get, would our first black player feature at all? We struck lucky with this programme for Birmingham City’s home fixture against Liverpool in 1982.
Birmingham City vs Liverpool match day programme, 31st August 1982
In the 1980s Birmingham and Liverpool were both cities with well-established black communities, in the case of Liverpool, a community that can be traced back for well over a century. Yet they were among the last of the established clubs to field a black player. Howard Gayle had made his Liverpool debut in October 1980 and here we are, two years later, bearing witness to the emergence of Carlos (Carl) Francis as Birmingham City’s first black player.
In fact, Carl didn’t play against Liverpool in spite of being named in the programme. After his debut on 28th August at Old Trafford, his next appearance (from the bench) didn’t come until 18th September in a home game against Coventry City. Manager Ron Saunders had high hopes for Carl ‘I’m sure that he will become an exceptionally good player.’ But it wasn’t to be, Carl made only two starts and three substitute appearances in a Birmingham City career that was over almost before it began. His last first team game was on 20th November 1982 at Maine Road. After a brief spell with Hereford United, in Division Four at the time, his Football League career was over.
The programme features a photo of the Birmingham City squad and Carl Francis is notable for his absence.
I’m not sure who the author of the regular column in the programme ‘On the City Scene’ was, but he had this to say in an item headed ‘South Africa’. “As someone who has never visited South Africa it’s always a little difficult to assess the rights and wrongs of their colour problem.” Really? Was it ever that difficult to take a clear view on the apartheid system? He goes on “There is clearly no easy answer” but then continues “a former Birmingham City stalwart is playing a tiny part in cutting across the race barriers there. Former Welsh international, Bryan Orritt, a well known name at St Andrew’s in the 1960s, is apparently taking part in a ‘Mobil’ sponsored coaching clinic near Johannesburg. This involves teaching the game to coloured youngsters in Soweto. Bryan Orritt is one of the coaches in the scheme who visits two different schools a week to help the lads learn about the game.” Bryan Orritt made a total of 121 appearances for City between 1956/57 and 1961/62. Bryan settled in South Africa and, according to his Wikipedia entry, died in Johanessburg in 2014.
Carl Francis’s Wikipedia entry is silent about what became of him after his brief career as a professional footballer and, not for the want of trying, we have been unable to shed light on the subject.