When we were doing our research to identify the first black player at each of the 92 Football League clubs, we identified Fred Corbett as the first black player to represent West Ham (Fred actually made his debut in 1899, in the days when ‘West Ham’ played under the name of Thames Ironworks). We were well aware that not everyone is convinced that Fred was black or of mixed heritage and so we took the precaution of identifying the Hammers 2nd black player. That man is John Charles.
John made his debut in a home game against Blackburn Rovers on 4th May 1963.
Often people making their debut aren’t actually named in the programme as they are a late choice, replacing a more established player.
That is not the case with John Charles, clearly manager Ron Greenwood had made the decision to include him before the programme went to the printers.
John’s unique place in football history is often overlooked, in addition to being West Ham’s first black player of the modern era, he has a number of other ‘firsts’ to his name.
On another page of the Blackburn Rovers programme there is a report on West Ham’s progress in that year’s FA Youth Cup. A win over Portsmouth on 25th April had been followed by a win over Aston Villa on 30th. John was in the team on both occasions so the game against Blackburn was John’s third appearance in ten days.
West Ham fans of a certain age will recognise a number of those names but you don’t have to be a Hammer to know the name of Harry Redknapp. What the programme doesn’t say is that John Charles was captain of the team and what it couldn’t say because it hadn’t happened yet is that John would go on the captain the side to a 6-5 aggregate win over Liverpool in the final. In doing so, John Charles became the first black player to captain a first class side to a major trophy.
But John Charles has another ‘first’ to his name. You think that Viv Anderson was the first black player to pull on an England shirt? Think again. John Charles played for England at youth level. He made his debut on 20th May 1962 in a game against Israel in Tel Aviv and so became the first black player to pull on an England jersey at any level. England won the game 3-1 and, in another first, John scored one of England’s goals. Viv Anderson was just five years old at the time. John’s second game for England was a 7-1 win over Switzerland in Bienne, a game played on 21st March 1963. He also played in the 16th International Youth Tournament staged at Shepherd’s Bush between 11th and 23rd April 1963. England won the trophy.
John’s final representative game came in 1967 when Young England played the full England team at Highbury in April 1967. The under 23s (John was 22 at the time) ran out 5-0 winners.
Following his debut against Rovers, John would go on to play in a further 141 games for West Ham. Playing in central defence, John wasn’t a prolific scorer, in fact he only scored once in his first team career. The goal came in front of over 38,000 fans at Upton Park against the mighty Manchester United. West Ham were already 4-0 down after a disastrous first half with Bobby Charlton and George Best among the United scorers. Unfortunately John’s goal at the start of the 2nd half did not pressage a storming fight back as the Hammers conceded two further goals, both scored by Denis Law. No doubt the final scoreline, a 6-1 loss, took the gloss off the pleasure of scoring his first goal for his boyhood club.
John’s career was cut short by injury at the age of just 26 but he crammed in more achievements than many players manage in a far longer span. Sadly John succumbed to cancer in 2002 at the age of just 57 but his achievements can never be erased from the record book.