Sporting Heritage Celebration: Tuesday,
The Sporting Heritage Celebration was a memorable evening devoted to celebrating Andrew Watson and others who had broken barriers or challenged racism, providing encouragement to young people today to feel that they too can break barriers.
The evening began with a drink and a pie and peas supper after which Dean Jones, Headteacher, welcomed everyone to the event and thanked those who had made the event possible including those who had travelled from Sunderland and Scotland. He highlighted some of the moves that had been planned to increase sporting activities at Crossley Heath including bringing back the cricket nets, fives, the swimming gala and rugby. He paid tribute to those who had sponsored kit and overseas tours.
Mark Metcalfe, journalist and campaigner, shared his involvement in promoting plaques for footballers and how he had had the idea of one for Andrew Watson. He described how, as an 18 year old in 1977, he had attended a match between Newcastle and Nottingham Forest where Viv Anderson, then playing for Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough, was abused, something that happened at a lot of grounds. On this occasion the abuse had been particularly serious but, after providing an assist for the second goal, Viv Anderson had turned his back on the racists and raised his arms. Mark had been so impressed by the response that it had strengthened his determination to take action to combat racism.
Bill Hern, co-author of Football’s Black Pioneers: The Stories of the First Black Players to Represent the 92 League Clubs Leicester: Conker Editions 2020 ISBN 978-1999900 85 4, had realised that not every club knew who their first black player had been; apart from Viv Anderson, there were 91 others. So he had set about collecting their fantastic stories. Viv Anderson’s parents had come to Nottingham from Jamaica in 1954 because there was family there. His mother was a qualified teacher but her qualifications were not accepted in England; so she trained as a nurse. He mentioned the careers of some other black footballers before making a couple of points about Andrew Watson.
These were taken up by Llew Walker, author of A Straggling Life Andrew Watson: The Story of the World's First Black International Footballer Hove: Pitch Publishing 2021 ISBN 978 1 7853 1820 7, who highlighted the fact that Andrew Watson had been invited to join the exclusive Corinthians, a strictly amateur team, who beat Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End, the Brazilian national team and the French national team. The ‘combination’ style of football which they took all over the world had an awful lot to do with Andrew Watson and his contribution to Scottish football.
Richard McBrearty, from the Scottish Football Museum, focused on how awesome Andrew Watson had been when he had arrived in Glasgow, comparable with Jude Bellingham today and Pele in the 20th century. He came from Heath and Kingston to Glasgow and then joined Queen’s Park. When Queen’s Park had started, it had been the only football club; so it split up to create two teams and, thereafter, there was an explosion resulting in 240 clubs.
In 1872 there was the first Scotland vs England game and soon after there was the Scottish Cup. So Andrew Watson arrived at the right time. He starts at Parkgrove where he becomes captain and the first black administrator — expected to arrange games. So it was a substantial job. Queen’s Park had begun the passing game, had promoted the Scottish Football League and, in Hampden Park, had the largest football ground in the world.
On his debut in the Scotland team in 1881 Andrew Watson was chosen to captain the team — something which was even more important in his day — and they won 6–1; in 1882 they won 5–1. This led to his invitation to join the Corinthians and to play for Swifts, becoming the first black player to play in the FA Cup. He was tall; he played fair and he stood up to racism.
Following the speeches there was a raffle compered by Paul Ramsden, parent of a sporting pupil, after which Dean Jones concluded by thanking everyone present for attending, Becky for organising the event and Andrew Watson for inspiring it.