Bantams celebrating long history of black footballers at free event
Bradford City will be celebrating over a century of black footballers prior to their dedicated One Game, One Community weeks of action fixture against Northampton Town this Saturday (22 October).
In line with Black History Month, the club’s bantamspast museum is hosting a free event, which kicks off at 1:15pm, focusing on the long history of black footballers in Bradford.
The bantamspast museum curator, David Pendleton, will give a presentation about the visit made by a team of black South African players to face a Bradford & District XI in 1899, the arrival of the show Savage South Africa at Valley Parade in 1901, and Bradford’s first black player, Billy Clarke, who joined the club in 1905.
Professors Matt Taylor and Tony Collins, both from De Montfort University, Leicester, will be speaking about pioneering black footballers of the 1970s, including Ces Podd and Joe Cooke, who both played for the Bantams, and the contribution made by black sportsmen and women to the culture of the north of England.
Cooke, who featured nearly 300 times over two separate stints at Valley Parade, and Des Hamilton, scorer of Bradford’s opening goal during the old Division Two play-off final victory over Notts County in 1996, have been invited along as guests of honour.
