On 20th July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the surface of the moon.
The footprints that he and Buzz Aldrin left behind are still there and will be for a very long time – there is no wind, no rain and so, no erosion. As long as the moon exists the footprints are likely to still be there.
History is like that, it leaves an indelible impression that, once made, cannot be unmade.
Not every piece of history is as momentous as stepping onto the moon for the first time but each of our pioneering black footballers left their mark in the history books of the club they played for. Neville Chamberlain’s ‘Neil Armstrong’ moment came on 31st December 1977 when he made his debut for Port Vale in a home game against Rotherham. We don’t (yet) have a programme for that game but Neville made history not once but twice while wearing a Port Vale shirt and we do have the programme for his second date with destiny.
On 13th April 1979 Neville was playing No.7 in an away game at Wigan, there was nothing very remarkable about this, it was his 30th appearance for the club. He was already pretty well established in the team and so it is a bit of a surprise that he isn’t named in the starting eleven (he did in fact start at No.7), but at least he appears in the list of players in the Port Vale squad:
What made the day ‘historic’ was that in the second half Neville’s younger brother, Mark, whose name is not among the players listed in the programme, joined him on the pitch when he came on as substitute. This was the first time two black brothers had appeared together in a team in a Football League match. Bob Delgado was also in the Vale team so, unusually for those days, they fielded three black players.
Neville made a total of 158 appearances for Port Vale scoring 41 goals and Mark made 110 appearances and scored 20 goals. The brothers also played together at Stoke and Neville went on to be the first black player at Newport County too. Mark would go on to play for England (8 caps) and is the father of another England international, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (35 caps). Not a bad legacy for a family who could trace their ancestry back to the days of slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation.