Anyone Remember This Fellow?

[White Noise]

http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/A_pioneering_black_footballer.asp

A pioneering black footballer


Monday October 19, 2009



ONE of the first black footballers to play for Fulham Football Club returned to the club's training ground in Motspur Park this week.

Tyrone James, now 53, was just 19 years old when he walked onto the pitch to play for Fulham in 1975 as a first team defender.

He moved to Australia in the mid 1980s and took up coaching football for disadvantaged kids and he now only returns to the UK occasionally.

This time, it was to bring a group of children he coaches to see his former stamping ground. We meet, almost by accident, in the reception office at Motspur Park when I give my name to an official and say that I am here to meet Tyrone James.

"That's me," says a voice from behind me, and I turn to see a tall man with hints of grey in his close cropped beard and a gentle yet intense look in his eyes.

Coaching has kept him in shape. Here is a man for whom middle-aged spread is clearly someone else's problem.

He is thin and rangy but with defined muscles, a bit like a tough game bird. I get the feeling that, despite being almost 20 years his junior, he would beat me in a sprint.

When he speaks, it is in soft, clear tones, as if he is trying to mollify a recalcitrant teenager, which is perhaps a good strategy for dealing with a reporter.

We talk about the old days, about growing up in Newham, Essex, as a second generation immigrant - his father was from Trinidad and his mother from Barbados.

"I went to one of the roughest schools in London," he said. "It was all Doctor Martin boots and braces and there were only a few other black kids so that made you a target sometimes but it also made you tough."

The older boys at school were one of the first to spot his talent for football and demanded he play on their side at lunchtime. In this way, he began to win the respect of his peers.

A turning point came when he was approached by West Ham juniors scout Wally St Claire, after he was spotted playing for Newham Football Club under-16s.

The West Ham junior team did well that year and won the junior team cup final. "I came home that day with the cup in my bag," he remembered.

"My dad had never taken any interest in my football. He didn't want to bring any unwanted attention on us. He asked where I'd been and I told him. He said 'How did you get on' and I took out the cup and said 'I won this'.

"From that moment on, he took an interest." He wasn't the only one. Not long afterwards, another scout phoned Tyrone and asked if he would like to try out for Fulham FC as an apprentice.

He did and, in a few short hours he was a member of the squad. He was surrounded by some of the best footballers of his generation: Bobby Moore, Alan Mullery and George Best, who had only recently joined the club himself creating a buzz in the changing rooms.

"I walked in and Best was there and he asked me what it was like at the club," said Tyrone. By sheer good luck, for Tyrone, a few of the first team players had been injured before a major match with Luton FC and Tyrone was called into the manager Alec Stock's office wondering what he had done wrong.

Nothing was wrong. It was to be his first chance to play in the big time. "I was nervous as hell. All the supporters were looking at me but when the match started all I could hear was the opposing team and the referee," he said. Fulham actually lost the game, 1-0, but it did not mean the end of Tyrone's first team career.

1970s Britain was not fully at ease with racial integration but when I ask how he was treated, Tyrone becomes reticent. "Sometimes the opposing supporters would shout out names during a match but it just made me stronger," he said.

"When I walked among our fans though, I was Tyrone James and nobody gave me any trouble because I gave every game 110 per cent."

His teammates stuck by him too. During an away match to Holland, the team went out to a club one evening but Tyrone was stopped at the door by the bouncer because he was black. The whole team turned round without hesitation and promptly left the club.

"If I was on the pitch I was treated as a good player but off the pitch, I was just a black man and I had to deal with that," he said. "I didn't achieve things because I'm black and I wanted to prove myself, it was just my moment."

The newspapers began to make a fuss of him in the sports pages. Did it go to his head?

"It was just good that people out there thought I had played a good game," he said. "It's only someone's opinion though and it didn't make me think I was a star."

A stint at Plymouth Argyle followed his departure from Fulham FC for reasons Tyrone is not keen to discuss. From there, he left for Australia.

"A lot of players were going overseas to play," he said. "I was only going to go for six months but I ended up staying. "I find it too crowded over here now when I come back.

"Melbourne has so much more space." I wonder what Tyrone regards as his legacy with Fulham FC and Plymouth Argyle in the 1970s. He says it is quite simple.

"[Black players like me] opened the door for others to follow and if it was not for us we would still be waiting for players to come through the ranks," he said.

Tyrone James spent the evening at the training ground meeting children from one of Fulham FC Foundation's Kickz project and answering questions about what it was like to be one of the first black players in English football in the 70s.

Tyrone's talk was part of the club's activities for the Kick Racism out of Football week of action, which runs until October 27.

[wadey]

yep...for some obscure reason he gained the nickname "tyrone the tiger"

[McBridefan1]

yep...for some obscure reason he gained the nickname "tyrone the tiger"

that's tiger with one "G" right???