Last night I watched a really good documentary on ITV1 about the late great Laurie Cunningham who was an amazing footballer who played for the great West Brom team of the Mid to Late 1970s. He had all the skills, pace and finesse you could want in an attacking player and in some ways he was way ahead of his time. He made his debut for Leyton Orient in 1972 as a 16 year old and he became a revelation after joining Ron Atkinson at West Brom in 1974 along with the great Cyrile Regis and Brendan Batson. They soon became known as the 3 degrees! These were amongst the first black players to play in the football league and they had an amazing influence on other black youngsters such as John Barnes, Luther Blisset, Justin Fashanu, Ricky Hill, Brian Stein et al. Laurie Cunningham was the first black player to win full England Caps and I have to admit that he was a hero of mine as he was an amazing player to watch. Laurie later went onto play for Real Madrid and played against Liverpool in the 1981 European Cup final. After a series of nasty injuries he joined Ron Atkinson at Man Utd for a loan spell and this is when his career began to decline as he lost his blistering pace. He played for Wimbledon in the 1988 cup final win over Liverpool. Just 1 year later he tragically died in a car crash in Madrid at the tender age of 33. I watched him many times when he played at Portman Road and he was just an outstanding player who scored amazing goals and set up loads for Regis. Around about the time 1977/78 there were a few other black players starting out like Viv Anderson at Notts Forest, Bob Hazell and George Berry (huge afro hairstyle) at Wolves, Justin Fashanu at Norwich and a 19 year old Terry Connor who was a striker at Leeds Utd. I watched Terry play for Leeds in a few games at Portman Road. Luton Town also had the great Ricky Hill and Brian Stein in their ranks in 1970s. These days we take for granted the fact that the game is now rightly fully inclusive amongst the players (not managers yet unfortunately) and the vile racist abuse has been virtually erradicated since the bad old days of the 1970s/80s. Yet there is still much work to do! I can't remember who the first black player was who played for Town maybe Romeo Zondervan in 1984 although I stand corrected. It was just worth remembering the huge contribution that players like Cunningham, Batson, Regis et al have made to our game over the last 30 or 40 years. [video=youtube;Llxoa_E9TLw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llxoa_E9TLw[/video]
JWM Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis....those were the days for WBA fans. They probably look back on that team as fondly as we do the 78 and 81 Town teams. Mind you, I'de forgotten he came on as a substitute in the 88 cup final ! I believe the first coloured player to play for Town was Steve Stacey back in the late 60s? Easily forgotten as he only made 1 appearance (apparently he was that bad). I seem to remember a story that his wife accused SBR of racism after Stacey was dropped and never played for us again..... Anyway, I think Romeo Zondervan was the next and that was about 15 years later ! I prepare to stand fully corrected if I'm talking utter garbage ! (first post guys, so go easy on me ...although I do read the posts every day with great amusement)
Nice first post Sussex and welcome onboard the madhouse! I live in the Crawley massive btw whereabouts in Sussex are you mate?
Crawley Down...... we like to think of ourselves as a completely seperate place to Crawley - we associate with the toffs in East Grinstead over here ! Far too many Chelsea "supporters" in Crawley for my liking !!
Crawley Down eh! Now that is posh My youngest is a Crawley Town season ticket holder and he's taking the piss something rotten atm! He reckons we will be playing them next season Glad to know that there are a few other Townies in my neck of the woods outside of the mother county!
Welcome to the Ipswich board Sussex. New faces are always welcome, and I take it you know the regulars already if you've been reading a while. Some great players mentioned here, pioneers who paved the way for the british black players of today. Just think how much abuse they probably took around local and european grounds.
Going slightly off topic, but i remember a game back in the 80's, and spent about 80 minutes wondering who the hell one of our players was.... The programme notes told me it was a 6'2 South African forward...so i spent most of the match looking out for a black guy..needless to say, it was Mich D'avray, and he wasn't black at all! Anyway, back to the origianl post... i saw that programme too, and i kinda forgot how skillful he was. I was also at the Wimbledon cup final back in '88, and i have to say that he looked liked a sunday league player then..the injuries and loss of form totally destroyed him.
John Miller would have been the next black player to play for us after Stacey, an Ipswich lad, made his debut in 1969, we sold him to the Budgies in 1974... http://www.tmwmtt.com/sql/players/profile.phtml?fullname=John Miller
I just about remember Johnny Miller playing for us and with some shame (even at the time) the reaction Town fans gave to black players on opposing sides in the early 70s e.g.Clyde Best of West Ham(some things have definitely changed for the better). Also JWM did Dalian Atkinson precede Zondervan as a Town player? Edit:RZ debut 1984 ......DA " 1985!
When I used to collect the Pannini football stickers back in the ealry 80s I always used to get a sticker for a black kid named David Barnes who they claimed played for Ipswich! I've never heard of him and yet there he was wearing the Ipswich kit. Does anybody know if this David Barnes ever played for Ipswich?
Him? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barnes_(footballer) Like you I remember the sticker but not the player!
Stand to be corrected, but think that after about thirty minutes into his debut, Steve Stacey badly tore a hamstring, and he was refered to after this as thirty minute Stacey. Have not heard anything about his wife accusing SBR of anything however.
