March 23, 2005
Arthur Wharton
was Britain's first Black professional footballer and also an accomplished sprinter. He lead an eventful life, but died in poverty and obscurity.
Walter Tull had a career that was if anything even more remarkable than Arthur's. As well as becoming the first Black outfield football professional he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the First World War. Britain's first Black Army officer to lead white troops in battle was killed in action on the Western front just months before the war ended. A quirkier tale from the history of Black footballers in Britain is that Gil Scott-Heron's dad played for Celtic, scoring on his début, no less.
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Great post, Abiezer. I'd never heard of Wharton or Tull, but the stories of their lives are fascinating (if a bit sad in places - what a lot of human potential was wasted in WW I). Don't know whether you've seen any of that hoard of old fim which was discovered recently and feature on TV, but there was footage of Fatty Foulke in action (an impressive sight). Alas, I don't think Wharton featured.
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I think I saw the odd bit on the web plegmund but not much of the actual footage. Now I feel bad about mis-spelling Mr. Foulke's name in the sidebar! Arthur had one hell of a 'tache going on a one point by the looks of it - odd that a champion sprinter ended up in goal. maybe his ball control was a bit lacking. The Football Unites, Racism Divides are a great bunch - Blades fans I think -they raised the money to mark Arthur's grave.
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Good post Cheers
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Interesting still that there've been no Asians to play professional Premiership football yet in the UK ...
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Top post!
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Gil Scott-Heron's dad played for Celtic Ace factoid!