Here are two contrasting team photos from the 1973/74 season. In the first we see the West Ham United squad.[1]Courtesy of The West Ham Years, an absolute must read for any West Ham fan, for more information contact: Tim Crane (timcranetwhy(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com) Reflecting the ethnic diversity of London even in those days, the photo includes at least eight Black or mixed heritage players (four of whom played in the first team at some point in their West Ham career).
Meanwhile in Nottingham, the team photo for the. same year showed future England international, Viv Anderson, as the lone Black player among the forty faces who lined up for the pre-season team photo. Nottingham had hosted a small but vibrant Caribbean community for many years but at the time of the 1971 census it was still a predominantly white city with just five per cent of the population coming from an ethnic minority.
There is no doubt which of these two photos is the more typical of the period. Being a Black professional footballer in the 1970s could be a lonely experience, if there was racist abuse (and there was) a player had to deal with it alone.
Viv Anderson commented to Bill Hern, co-author of Football’s Black Pioneers, that:
I put up with the abuse because I had no choice. I wanted to be a footballer more than anything in the world and if I had let racism affect my play I would have been dropped. Walking off was never an option.
Courtesy of The West Ham Years, an absolute must read for any West Ham fan, for more information contact: Tim Crane (timcranetwhy(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com)
Well done to the West Ham Years team[1]Find out more about the West Ham Years here:https://thewesthamyears.com/ for producing a fantastic tribute to Jack Leslie. Although Jack never played for the Hammers, he was an East End boy and he worked for many years in the boot room at Upton Park and many players who knew him have contributed their memories of Jack. A truly fitting tribute that hopefully will be enjoyed not just by West Ham fans. You can read it by clicking on the link here:
It was a privilege to be invited to attend the unveiling of the plaque commemorating Jack Leslie at the site of his childhood home in Gerald Road, Canning Town.
Councillor Terence Paul did the honours and West Ham United TV were on hand to capture the moment:
It was a great pleasure to support Neandra Etienne when she put on an exhibition celebrating some of the black footballers who are strongly connected with the London Borough of Newham. Staged as part of Newham’s Black History Month activity, Neandra worked tirelessly to pull together an exhibition of photos and other artefacts. Hosted by the Canning Gallery (special thanks to Rachel Hollington) the exhibition attracted some high profile visitors as well as three classes of Year 4 children from a local school.
The exhibition has finished now but it seems a shame not to have a permanent record of a small part of what was on display. The main focus of the exhibition was on three of Football’s Black Pioneers.
Walter Tull
That Walter played for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town is well-known, no obvious Newham link there! But before joining Spurs Walter played for top amateur club Clapton.
Clapton FC (now Clapton Community FC) still exist and had kindly shared their Walter Tull banner with Neandra for the exhibition.
Other exhibits included an entire wall of school work about Walter. When we first saw this we assumed it was the work of a whole class but, no, it was the work of one ten year-old girl, Halima.
Immensely impressive!
Neandra had also arranged for author, Phil Vasili, a leading authority on Walter and his family, to give a talk at the launch event.
Phil Vasili, author and historian
Jack Leslie
The second player to feature prominently in the exhibition was Jack Leslie. Eighteen months ago Jack’s story was known to a relatively small number of, mostly, Plymouth Argyle supporters. Thanks to the outstanding work of the Jack Leslie Foundation his story is becoming increasingly mainstream as recent mentions on Coronation Street and the Antiques Road Trip demonstrate!
The exhibition had a plaque on display that is to be put up at the address where Jack was living when he signed for Plymouth Argyle.
Getting permission for a plaque is no easy matter and so Neandra deserves great credit for having brought this about.
Greg Foxsmith and Matt Tiller from The Jack Leslie Campaign played a prominent role and Matt performed his ‘Ballad of Jack Leslie’ live. Although they had worked together on the project this was also the first time Greg and Matt had met Jack’s granddaughters.
Greg Foxsmith
Jack Leslie’s granddaughters
West Ham United did a very nice piece about Jack that was filmed at the exhibition:
John Charles is one of English football’s forgotten heroes – but we are doing all we can to change the ‘forgotten’ bit of that. As son Mitch commented, his dad is becoming ‘the best known unknown player’!
We have documented elsewhere on this site John Charles achievements but they bear repeating:
West Ham’s first black player of the modern era
the first black player to represent West Ham in the Football League
the first black player to represent England at any level
the first black player to score a goal for England
the first black player to captain a team to a major trophy
And that’s just the main ones! Why is his name not known by all football fans?
The exhibition featured a wall devoted to ‘Charlo’ with his brother Clive, who could boast many achievements of his own, particularly after he moved to America, facing him from the wall opposite.
The gallery hosted an event dedicated to Charlo and it was a delight to meet so many of his family (sons, daughter, grandson).
Charlo’s son, Mitch, entertained us with many stories about his father while Bill Hern, co-author of Football’s Black Pioneers, talked about Charlo’s many achievements on the football field.
Mitch Charles
Bill Hern
West Ham legend, Brian Dear also attended. Brian read from Charlo’s funeral eulogy and was visibly moved as he recalled a dear friend and team mate.
Brian Dear reading from John Charles’ book of remembrance
John’s brother, Clive, also had a prominent place in the exhibition. Clive made only fifteen appearances for West Ham but had a successful spell at Cardiff City where he made 92 appearances. He had even more success in America, initially as a player and subsequently as a coach in both the women’s and men’s games. In 1998 he was assistant coach to the USA team at the 1994 World Cup in France.
Clive was one of the three black West Ham players who made history on 1st April 1972 when they played against Tottenham Hotspur, pre-dating West Bromwich Albion’s ‘Three Degrees’ (Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis) by several years.
West Ham’s ‘Three Degrees’: Clyde Best (back row), Clive Charles (front row, 3rd from the right) and Ade Coker. Coker scored one of the goals in a 2-0 win
Conclusion
It always seems a pity when an exhibition is taken down at the end of its run, this was a splendid effort by Neandra and we look forward to the unveiling of the Jack Leslie plaque.
