In a career that spanned six seasons he never had a black team mate or saw a black player on any opposing team
Peter Foley joined Chesterfield just before the start of the 1969/70 season. He had previously been Scunthorpe’s first black player and on 9th August 1969 he achieved the same status at Chesterfield. Before Scunthorpe he had played in 80 games for Workington (in the League in those days) between 13th February 1965 (his debut) and his last game for them on 13th May 1967 – in a nice piece of symmetry both games were against Reading.
Peter’s Chesterfield debut took place at Swansea’s Vetch Field and ended in a goalless draw before 7,939 people. He played on the right wing. As we shall see, the Nottingham Football Post’s pre-season prediction that “the coloured winger signed from Scunthorpe has shown signs that might well be usefully channelled on the right wing” was to prove over optimistic.
It had been almost 12 months since Peter’s last League game and he had joined Chesterfield on a three-month trial basis. He seemed to have proved his fitness by starting four games in the space of 11 days in August 1969. This included his first home game for Chesterfield, a 1-0 defeat against Port Vale. Sadly, it also included his last ever game as a full-time professional, another 1-0 defeat, this time at home to Bradford City in a First Round League Cup replay. In that final game he suffered a serious injury and was replaced by Ernie Moss who would go on to become a Chesterfield legend.
Having only just avoided having to apply for re-election in 1968/69, Chesterfield went on to win the Division Four title in 1969/70 but Peter wasn’t around to share that glory. At only 25 years of age his League career was over. It was a career that spanned six seasons during which he made a total of 104 appearances and scored 21 goals, a respectable return for someone who played most of his games on the wing,
Peter has commented that at no time did he play in a team with a black team mate, nor did he ever see another black player in any opposition team.
While Chesterfield were celebrating their title success, Peter was plying his trade at Bacup Borough in the Lancashire Combination League. He had signed for the non-league club in November 1969. Incidentally, he was also Bacup’s first black player.
Peter also played for non-league clubs such as Netherfield, Morecambe and Rossendale after leaving League football. In addition, he had a spell managing Workington after they had dropped out of the Football League. Football management is a precarious career and with a family to support it was probably just as well that he found a new career working with the Windscale Nuclear Power Station, known as Sellafield since 1981.
But his greatest and most lasting impact was through the work he performed to fight racism. Peter was particularly active as a Trades Union representative and held senior positions with the General Municipal Boilermakers’ Union (GMB) including chairing the GMB Northern Region Race Committee, being president of the Union’s National Race Committee, being a member of the GMB and TUC’s National Race Committees and playing a crucial role in developing the Union’s equality and diversity policies.
In 1998, he received an award from the Professional Footballers’ Association for being a Pioneer of Black British Football.
In the New Year’s Honour’s list 2003 he was awarded the MBE for his anti-racism work both through the Union and the Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football campaign.
He also worked for Show Racism the Red Card and was admitted to their Hall of Fame on 9th October 2013.
On the occasion of Peter’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame, Tommy Brennan, the GMB Regional Secretary, said: “Peter has been a fantastic ambassador for GMB over his many years of service gaining the respect of all concerned in the battle against racism generally and in football particularly.”
Although Peter retired from full-time employment, his valuable anti-racism work continues and he is chair of AWAZ Community Interest Company an organisation which helps Black and Minority Ethnic groups in Cumbria where he lives.
In case you wondered, AWAZ is not an acronym but a word that means ‘voice’ in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages.
Peter was indeed a pioneer. It is said he was one of only five black players in the English Football League when he made his debut for Workington in 1965. Fast forward 50 years and quite possibly every individual Football League club has at least five black players on its books. He was the first black player for Workington, Scunthorpe, Chesterfield and Bacup and has continued to use what he experienced to improve the lives of other minority groups fully earning the accolades he may not have achieved as a footballer but he has earned as a strong and caring defender of the community.
You can read more about Peter, including the remarkable story of his long lost brother, in ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ where he features in the Scunthorpe chapter.
