That was on telly last Sun night. A long hour's tv. Chilesy egging the black players on to express their outrage and anger which he felt they should feel. He seemed bemused and disappointed most of them weren't fussed. As one of them explained, they were forever playing games in training of random groupings of players for a laugh, so a blacks v whites game for a team mate didn't seem a big deal back then. I never even knew that Len Cantello had a testimonial, so not sure how it changed a nation.
Their title not mine. One thing's for sure, the nation definitely has changed. It would certainly "seem a big deal" now.
The title is absurd as that match changed **** all, despite the desperate hopes of the producers. Football back then was a working class game, largely ignored by the 'intelligentsia' and the chattering classes. There was nothing like the commercial exploitation of the game that there is now, the money a mere fraction of today and coverage on telly restricted to highlights of two games on a Saturday night, and highlights of a regional game on Sunday afternoon. I never saw the NF recruiting at any games City were involved in, and the only banana throwing I heard about involved John Barnes at Goodison. Not saying recruitment and banana throwing did not go on, but it must have been very low key and covert. There were monkey chants at some games involving black players though. You would see things back then that would astound people now, like away fans injured in crowd surges in Kempton being stretchered away in front of Bunkers, and being spat on by youngsters as they passed. Police didn't bat an eyelid. Once saw a group of police down North Road kicking **** out of some arrested fan in the the back of their van with the doors open (against BWFC if I remember rightly), seeing me seeing them another copper said "**** off unless you want some too". Charming. What's the point you ask. Well the point is things back then were very different to now, but Chiles and co are mischievously misrepresenting events back then.
Yes of course things were different back then. That's one of the main points of the film. An interesting retrospective for those of us who were there and some historical context for those who weren't. As for the agenda of the film makers, well it's the BBC! The mouthpiece of the establishment. Of course they would wish to suggest that yes, things were bad back then, but it's all ok now. That's their job. At least they left the Les Ferdinand interview in which suggests that beneath the pc surface, little has really changed. The most striking thing about if for me is that someone thought such a match was a good idea.
Little has really changed? Just turned telly on and Jason Muhammed (PBUH) is doing Final Score on BBC1 with studio pundits Jason Roberts and Dion Dublin.
There is a local play written by Rob Bell doing the rounds and soon to be performed at guildhall called 'the divided cities' or something. Its about the rivalry between Hull FC and HKR. The play bigs up rugby league and the importance of Hull two clubs, obviously, but also contains the usual morale high ground grabbing stuff that the sport of RL was the first to accept black players who up to then had been banned from other sports ???????? I don't remember football banning players from taking part because of the colour of their skin. Have I missed something ?
I don't think that can be true. Although, in the early days it was much easier for a black player to be accepted in rugby league than rugby union. Union was amateur and ran by ex-private school boys, it was very much a closed shop if your face didn't fit. League was professional and simply wanted the best players so the club could win games and make money, that meant they'd take anyone. I can't recall black players ever been explicitly banned though.
I said "beneath the pc surface, little has really changed". The same attitudes of prejudice still exist but have been forced to become more subtle and insidious in their expression. The US has a black president, but only an idiot would suggest that this indicates a less racist society.
The first black player to represent England at rugby union was James Peters in 1906. The first player to get a cap for representing his country at rugby league was Cec Thompson in 1951. Still, don't let facts get in the way of assumptions.
Would that be the same James Peters that was banned from rugby union and moved to rugby league? He was also withdrawn from an England rugby union squad because the opposition refused to play against a black player. I didn't say there were no black players in rugby union but it was a notoriously more difficult to play there than in rugby league.
Of course don't mention the opposition was South Africa. He wasn't banned from rugby union, He was banned is not really the reality of the situation. He left because he and his club broke regulations and the club folded. Nothing to do with his colour, thevwhite players in the team suffered the same sanctions. Rugbly League caught up nearly half a century later.