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Gillie Heron: The forgotten J'can pioneer of US soccer
BY LESLIE GORDON GOFFE
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Jamaican Gilbert 'Gillie' Heron, who died on November 27, 2008, aged 86 in Detroit, was the first black person to play professional football in the United States and Scotland.
Gillie Heron in action for many-time Scottish champions Celtic Football Club.
Signed by Celtic FC in 1951, Heron, a striker, scored a goal on his debut.
"Right now he is Scottish football's golden boy," said a newspaper of Heron, who was discovered by Celtic while on a US tour in 1951.
"Fifty thousand supporters hail him as the greatest thing seen at Celtic Park since goalposts."
Indeed, so beloved was Gillie Heron - whom Celtic fans called 'Black Flash' and 'Black Arrow' - Scottish singer, Michael Marra, in 2007, wrote a song in tribute to the Jamaican called The Flight of the Heron.
"He crossed the ocean to the other side/To play for Celtic with the
noble stride/The Arrow flew, he's flying yet/His aim was true so we don't forget."
And Celtic fans have not forgotten what one newspaper described as Gillie Heron's exceptional "ball control, magnificent headwork" and "camera-shutter speed".
Gillie was fast off field, too. A sharp dresser, Heron, according to writer Gerry Hassan, lit up dull, post-war Glasgow with his zoot suits, broad brimmed hats and colourful shoes in 1951.
"Here is a city about the size of Detroit," Heron told the Daily Record, comparing Glasgow to the American city his Jamaican family migrated to in 1939 when he was 17 years old. "It drops dead at 9:00 pm".
Still, for Heron, who had spent most of his football career at small clubs in the US, the chance to play for Celtic was a dream come true.
"Gee, I was tickled," Heron told a newspaper after arriving in Scotland from Detroit, where following a stint in the Canadian armed forces during the war he worked in an auto plant while playing football. "Glasgow Celtic was," Heron said, "the greatest name in football to me".
Before making a name for himself in Scotland, Gillie had made a name for himself in the United States playing for the US all-star team, for semi-pro teams like the Detroit Corinthians and for pro teams like the Detroit Wolverines.
In 1946, Gillie's team, the Wolverines, won the North American Professional Soccer League championship. The Jamaican - the only black player in US pro football at that time - was the league's top scorer with 29 goals. "He's smart" said Wolverines manager John McInness of Heron, "just like a cat".
In a 1947 profile, Ebony magazine described Heron as the 'Babe Ruth of soccer'. "The ancient Old-World game of soccer boasts a New-World star," Ebony said.
Gilbert St Elmo Heron was a sporting renaissance man. He was a Golden Gloves welterweight boxing champion. He played pro cricket in Scotland and he was a top long jumper, high jumper and sprinter.
As a schoolboy in Jamaica, Gillie Heron defeated Herb McKenley, who would go on later to become a world record holder and an Olympic gold medallist.
In 1937, aged 15, Gillie Heron led St George's College to victory in the Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield. And in 1952, he played on the Jamaica Football Association XI against the Caribbean Combined XI at Sabina Park.
Gillie Heron was not the only one in his family, who hails from Manchester, to achieve sporting distinction. A cousin, 'Morty' Heron, was a well-known racehorse trainer and Gillie's brothers - Cecil and Gerald - played on the Michigan State University football team. In 1948, Cecil earned a place on the US Olympic team but could not participate because he was not yet a US citizen.
Cecil, who was also a tennis pro and a scuba diving instructor, helped popularise volleyball in Jamaica in the 1960s.
As for Gillie Heron, though he'd been a success in Jamaica, and in the US, his time in Scotland was brief. He stayed only a year at Celtic, playing only four first team games and scoring twice.
It's claimed the club felt Heron was not robust enough for the Scottish game and their tough tackles and rough play.
Heron was criticised in newspapers as "lacking resource when challenged", according to sports historian Phil Vasili.
Out of favour, Gillie Heron was demoted to Celtic's reserves. And though he scored 15 times in 15 matches for them, he left the club, which he called "the greatest name in football", a year after he first arrived there for the lowly Scottish side, Third Lanark.
In 1953, he moved to Kidderminster Harriers, a semi-professional club in England. He got off to a good start, scoring "a goal worthy of inclusion in any FA text book", a newspaper reported.
But in 1954, Gillie Heron returned home to Detroit. With a family to support, he took a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Car Company, staying 30 years. Any dreams he had of football as a career were over. The year he spent with Celtic was the best of his life.
Years later, Gillie wrote a poem, The Great Ones, about his time there.
"I'll remember all the great ones/Those that I have seen/Those that I have played with/Who wore the white and green."
There are several reasons why Gillie Heron's time at Celtic was so brief. He was too stylish a player for the rough and tough football played in Britain in the 1950s and aged 29 when he arrived at Celtic, he was probably past his best, anyway.
Americans sportswriter Frank Dell'apa believes Heron was unlucky to have been born when he was. Today Heron, whom he calls 'the forgotten pioneer of US soccer', would, he says, have had a long career at Celtic and then earned a good living playing in the North American Soccer League. Dell'apa also suggests Gillie Heron was hamstrung by racism.
Though the Jamaican was the top goal scorer in US pro football in 1946, he was paid only $25 a game compared with the $100 a game paid to white player Pete Matevich, who scored far fewer goals than did Heron.
Gayle Heron, who along with the singer Gil Scott-Heron, is one of
Gillie Heron's four children, said her father was not bitter he got such little recognition. "He knows he was a pioneer," she says.
Still, Gillie 'Black Flash' Heron, the US' first black professional footballer, has not yet been inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Leslie Gordon Goffe, a correspondent for BBC's Caribbean Service, is completing a book on Gillie Heron and Gil Scott-Heron called, Pieces of a Man.
BY LESLIE GORDON GOFFE
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Jamaican Gilbert 'Gillie' Heron, who died on November 27, 2008, aged 86 in Detroit, was the first black person to play professional football in the United States and Scotland.
Gillie Heron in action for many-time Scottish champions Celtic Football Club.
Signed by Celtic FC in 1951, Heron, a striker, scored a goal on his debut.
"Right now he is Scottish football's golden boy," said a newspaper of Heron, who was discovered by Celtic while on a US tour in 1951.
"Fifty thousand supporters hail him as the greatest thing seen at Celtic Park since goalposts."
Indeed, so beloved was Gillie Heron - whom Celtic fans called 'Black Flash' and 'Black Arrow' - Scottish singer, Michael Marra, in 2007, wrote a song in tribute to the Jamaican called The Flight of the Heron.
"He crossed the ocean to the other side/To play for Celtic with the
noble stride/The Arrow flew, he's flying yet/His aim was true so we don't forget."
And Celtic fans have not forgotten what one newspaper described as Gillie Heron's exceptional "ball control, magnificent headwork" and "camera-shutter speed".
Gillie was fast off field, too. A sharp dresser, Heron, according to writer Gerry Hassan, lit up dull, post-war Glasgow with his zoot suits, broad brimmed hats and colourful shoes in 1951.
"Here is a city about the size of Detroit," Heron told the Daily Record, comparing Glasgow to the American city his Jamaican family migrated to in 1939 when he was 17 years old. "It drops dead at 9:00 pm".
Still, for Heron, who had spent most of his football career at small clubs in the US, the chance to play for Celtic was a dream come true.
"Gee, I was tickled," Heron told a newspaper after arriving in Scotland from Detroit, where following a stint in the Canadian armed forces during the war he worked in an auto plant while playing football. "Glasgow Celtic was," Heron said, "the greatest name in football to me".
Before making a name for himself in Scotland, Gillie had made a name for himself in the United States playing for the US all-star team, for semi-pro teams like the Detroit Corinthians and for pro teams like the Detroit Wolverines.
In 1946, Gillie's team, the Wolverines, won the North American Professional Soccer League championship. The Jamaican - the only black player in US pro football at that time - was the league's top scorer with 29 goals. "He's smart" said Wolverines manager John McInness of Heron, "just like a cat".
In a 1947 profile, Ebony magazine described Heron as the 'Babe Ruth of soccer'. "The ancient Old-World game of soccer boasts a New-World star," Ebony said.
Gilbert St Elmo Heron was a sporting renaissance man. He was a Golden Gloves welterweight boxing champion. He played pro cricket in Scotland and he was a top long jumper, high jumper and sprinter.
As a schoolboy in Jamaica, Gillie Heron defeated Herb McKenley, who would go on later to become a world record holder and an Olympic gold medallist.
In 1937, aged 15, Gillie Heron led St George's College to victory in the Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield. And in 1952, he played on the Jamaica Football Association XI against the Caribbean Combined XI at Sabina Park.
Gillie Heron was not the only one in his family, who hails from Manchester, to achieve sporting distinction. A cousin, 'Morty' Heron, was a well-known racehorse trainer and Gillie's brothers - Cecil and Gerald - played on the Michigan State University football team. In 1948, Cecil earned a place on the US Olympic team but could not participate because he was not yet a US citizen.
Cecil, who was also a tennis pro and a scuba diving instructor, helped popularise volleyball in Jamaica in the 1960s.
As for Gillie Heron, though he'd been a success in Jamaica, and in the US, his time in Scotland was brief. He stayed only a year at Celtic, playing only four first team games and scoring twice.
It's claimed the club felt Heron was not robust enough for the Scottish game and their tough tackles and rough play.
Heron was criticised in newspapers as "lacking resource when challenged", according to sports historian Phil Vasili.
Out of favour, Gillie Heron was demoted to Celtic's reserves. And though he scored 15 times in 15 matches for them, he left the club, which he called "the greatest name in football", a year after he first arrived there for the lowly Scottish side, Third Lanark.
In 1953, he moved to Kidderminster Harriers, a semi-professional club in England. He got off to a good start, scoring "a goal worthy of inclusion in any FA text book", a newspaper reported.
But in 1954, Gillie Heron returned home to Detroit. With a family to support, he took a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Car Company, staying 30 years. Any dreams he had of football as a career were over. The year he spent with Celtic was the best of his life.
Years later, Gillie wrote a poem, The Great Ones, about his time there.
"I'll remember all the great ones/Those that I have seen/Those that I have played with/Who wore the white and green."
There are several reasons why Gillie Heron's time at Celtic was so brief. He was too stylish a player for the rough and tough football played in Britain in the 1950s and aged 29 when he arrived at Celtic, he was probably past his best, anyway.
Americans sportswriter Frank Dell'apa believes Heron was unlucky to have been born when he was. Today Heron, whom he calls 'the forgotten pioneer of US soccer', would, he says, have had a long career at Celtic and then earned a good living playing in the North American Soccer League. Dell'apa also suggests Gillie Heron was hamstrung by racism.
Though the Jamaican was the top goal scorer in US pro football in 1946, he was paid only $25 a game compared with the $100 a game paid to white player Pete Matevich, who scored far fewer goals than did Heron.
Gayle Heron, who along with the singer Gil Scott-Heron, is one of
Gillie Heron's four children, said her father was not bitter he got such little recognition. "He knows he was a pioneer," she says.
Still, Gillie 'Black Flash' Heron, the US' first black professional footballer, has not yet been inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Leslie Gordon Goffe, a correspondent for BBC's Caribbean Service, is completing a book on Gillie Heron and Gil Scott-Heron called, Pieces of a Man.
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