The book Football’s Black Pioneers identified a number of unsung heroes who may not be household names but nevertheless played a significant part in Britain’s black football history. One of those heroes was Steve Stacey.
Steve was the first black player to represent Charlton Athletic, Ipswich Town, and … Exeter City in the Football League (he also played for Chester and Wrexham in the days they were in the League). You can find a programme featuring Steve’s Ipswich debut elsewhere on this site, but he only played once for Charlton and, to date, we have not found a programme for that game).
Steve was coming to the end of his career when he joined Exeter in 1971. He played at No.3 in his debut game against Southport but he was an incredibly versatile player who had appeared in just about every position (including in goal) over the years.
Steve went on to make 64 first team appearances for Exeter in all competitions before moving on to Bath City followed by emigration to Australia.
There were some brief player profiles in the Southport programme (including, unusually, for the home team, possibly because it was the first home game of the season). Steve’s profile was the briefest of all:
Such a brief entry doesn’t come anywhere near doing justice to Steve’s career, even the combination of the Charlton, Ipswich and Exeter chapters in our book barely scratch the surface. Obviously, if you don’t already have a copy, we can recommend Football’s Black Pioneers for the wealth of fascinating stories it contains but Steve’s own book is well worth reading and is a cut above many footballing biographies:
Still alive and living in Australia, where he made a big contribution to the game, Steve created good memories for the fans at all the clubs he played for and was a true pioneer.