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| The son of a wealthy missionary, Arthur Wharton arrived in Cannock, Staffordshire, in the early 1880s as a teenage immigrant from Gold Coast (now Ghana) and sprinted before playing football and cricket |
New light has been shed on the incredible life of Britain's first black professional footballer after his great-granddaughter discovered a long-lost box of memorabilia.
The son of a wealthy missionary, Arthur Wharton arrived in Cannock, Staffordshire, in the early 1880s as a teenage immigrant from Gold Coast, now Ghana, and his talents did not
go unnoticed for long.
He ran the first 10-second 100 yard dash and played for Rotherham Town and Sheffield United - before spending 20 years down a South Yorkshire coal mine and dying a pauper.
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| Wharton,the first professional footballer in Britain and possibly the world. |
Ms Rooney said: 'My mother and I found some old photos (of Arthur) and traced him back. We have actually been to Ghana and met family members, and they didn’t know of Arthur.
'He was a Victorian sporting hero.'
The 6ft teenager was sent to Britain in the 1880s to train as a Christian missionary, but soon took up athletics, winning the Amateur Athletic Association national championships two years in a row.
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| Mr Wharton's granddaughter Dorothy Rooney found a box of memorabilia |
After hanging up his running shoes Mr Wharton went on to become an accomplished goalkeeper.
During his amateur days, which included a debut for Preston North End in the FA Cup, he became known for punching the ball as far as the halfway line and catching the ball with his legs while swinging on the crossbar.
Then, in 1889, he made history by signing professional terms for Rotherham Town and playing in the Football League.
The move made him the" first black full-time paid footballer in the history of Britain, and quite possibly the history of the world".
He later joined Sheffield United and played in the First Division, which is now the Premier League.
The trailblazer played some 80 years before the likes of Bermuda-born Clyde Best played for West Ham United.
His career did not stop there. Mr Wharton also became a professional cricketer, being recognised as a great all-round sportsman.
He was the token professional player for local Yorkshire Greasbrough, but in 1914 he turned down a cricket coaching role at Durham to work as a miner.
He spent 20 years down a coal mine in South Yorkshire and died a pauper aged 65 in 1930, having spent all his earnings from professional sport.
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| Mr Wharton (pictured as an amateur with Darlington FC) became known as a goalkeeper who would indulge in punching the ball as far as the halfway line and catching the ball with his legs while swinging on the crossbar |
Howard Holmes, of the Football Unites, Racism Divides campaign which installed a headstone on Mr Wharton's grave, went with his great-granddaughter to the event.
'You think of black footballers in England and you think of Clyde Best and Laurie Cunningham,' he said. 'But Arthur was 70 or 80 years before their time.
'That is why his story is so important because it shows there was a black presence in English football right at the very start of the professional game.
'But Arthur’s was a real riches-to-rags story. He would have been quite well-paid when he was a goalkeeper but after that he had to earn a living as a miner.
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| Riches to rags: In later life Arthur Wharton became a coal miner, dying a pauper aged 65 |
'He did that in an overwhelming white community in Yorkshire.
'Can you imagine some of the multi-millionaire Premier League footballers of today having to do that?'
A sad story of a trail blazer indeed.It must have been very tough for him as well at that time playing football and being the only black man.I mean now with the world so liberal somewhat,we still get terrible racist incidents in football,we see footballer being called names and all sorts.It was worse for black footballer in the 70's and 80's .The footballer were spat at,called monkeys and all sorts,so imagine what it was like over 100 years ago when many parts of the world still engaged in slavery?
Black Footballers of now today should be paying attention more to their history,to those who paved the way ,made sacrifices and find a way to honor them permanently..monuments for these great men will not be too out of place.Something like a monument with names of the first 100 black players for example.It will cost these guys nothing.
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