The Gleaner's all-time top 10

[Sickko]

The Gleaner's all-time top 10

published: Saturday | September 9, 2006



Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport



PICKING A 'Best Of' anything is always fraught with danger because, basically, you can never be right but, heck, ain't that part of the fun?



When The Gleaner sport team sat down to brainstorm over Jamaica's 10 greatest athletes of all time it didn't know in which direction the votes would fall.



Cricketers and track stars were expected to dominate but when you look at our final list, five sports are represented: cricket, track, boxing, netball and football. That is a tribute to our island's athletes' all-round talents.



Three stars walked straight through the door and on to our list, cricket immortal George Headley and track legends Herb McKenley and Merlene Ottey (yes, we still call her a Jamaican), but then the debates ensued.



There was no hard and fast criteria, just who we thought was the best - and even that got tricky.



Was Courtney Walsh a better fast bowler than Mikey Holding - no way, I'd pick 'Whispering Death' on my team any day but you simply can't ignore the fact that 'Cuddy' more than doubled Holding's Test wicket total.



Lindy Delapenha over Ricardo Gardner? A blast from the past against a current star is always difficult because it's hard to compare eras. However, Delapenha was the first Jamaican to play top-flight football in England and was a star with both Portsmouth and Middlesbrough while Gardner shines bright but does not stand above his peers at Bolton.



Olympic medals



Donald Quarrie over Asafa Powell? In a few years, when this list may be revised, Powell will probably be a lock but, for the time being, Olympic medals count for more than world records and Asafa's still yet to win a race/medal of substance.



'Ottey never won Olympic gold', you may counter, but do you really believe that Veronica Campbell, at this stage and despite two Olympic medallions around her neck, was a greater sprinter than the most durable athlete track and field has ever seen?



Of course, there are some unlucky omissions because we could only pick 10.



Boxer 'Bunny' Grant was KOd by 'The Body Snatcher', Mike McCallum. Olympic medal winning cyclist David Weller was unseated because he competed at a Games (1980 Moscow) which was boycotted by most of the western world's top riders.



Football great Alan 'Skill' Cole, cricketers Holding, Jeffrey Dujon and Alfred Valentine, netballers Connie Francis, Oberon Pitterson and Elaine Davis and a plethora of track and field stars were all thrown up for nomination but, at the end of the meeting, only ten could be chosen and they didn't make the cut.



As you may have noticed, this story is littered with 'buts' and question marks but (there I go again) we stand by our picks.



Then bottom lines is we are not wrong and we are not right; it's a purely subjective exercise, but (jeesh) one thing from all this really stands out, and it is captured in the great and accurate Jamaica adage: "Wi likkle but wi tallawah".

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DEON HEMMINGS



DEON HEMMINGS was the first woman to win an Olympic Games gold medal for Jamaica.



The historic feat came at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta where she out-ran and out-leapt her opponents to win the 400m hurdles.



Now Hemmings-McCatty, she started her athletics career as a nine-year-old doing the sprints. She moved to Vere Technical but didn't enjoy a successful high school career.



However, she managed to get into Central State University in Ohio, and it was during her days at that institution that she found coach Josh Culbreath, the 1956 Olympic 400 metres hurdles bronze medallist.



From then on, Hemmings' career rose to another level.



A licensed real estate agent, Hemmings' career also includes a second-place finish at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and the 1997 W

[Lazie]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

True word Sickko .... Tappa nuh deh pon it .. it nuh relevant.

[Bricktop]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

TAPPA has no business being on that list.

[Lazie]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

My apologies sir! Yuh right .... him in a class by himself. I find it comical when people refuse to give the youth his dues.

Yes, his inconsistency was obvious, but a di best we ever produce.

[Bricktop]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

Go back and read the article again and look at what LINDY did then ask people who saw him play about him. If TAPPA is the best we ever produced that's not saying much for JAMAICAN football.

[Sickko]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

Mind you blaspheme..heathen:laugh:

[Za]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

Lindy was not the first professional black player in England

he may be amongst the first but he wasn't the first

[TDowl]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

<H3 class=headings>3. The Inter-War Years</H3><P class=text>3.1 During the period between 1919 and 1939, a small number of black players came to the fore, playing for a variety of British clubs. Unfortunately, their efforts have either been largely unrecognised or forgotten, even by the clubs they played for. Their experiences suggest that they, too, were the victims of racial prejudice and discrimination, both on and off the field. <P class=text>3.2 Illustrative is the case of Jack Leslie, a London born Anglo-African player with Plymouth Argyle in the 1920s and 1930s. Leslie had made a strong impression as a goal-scorer, managing to score more than 400 goals for Plymouth between 1921 and 1935. He was once, erroneously, informed by his manager, Bob Jack, that he had been selected to play for England. However, he was never to make the national team. 'He must have forgotten I was coloured' Leslie remarked ruefully later (Vasili, 2000: 62). Sixty years on from that humiliation, Leslie was still convinced that it was the fact that he was black that prevented him from making the England side. He was probably right.<P class=text>3.3 In 1938, Northampton Town signed John Parris, who later went on to play for Wales, thus becoming the first black player to represent any of the home national sides. However, his achievements have not been widely celebrated. A player who could have equalled the prominence of Wharton and Parris, had not the war interrupted the early years of his career, is R.H. Brown, who signed as an apprentice for Stoke City in 1938. He didn't make his league debut until the resumption of the League competition in 1946. He spent only a year playing alongside the lauded Stanley Matthews, who was transferred to Blackpool in 1947.<P class=text>3.4 Some Asian and African players arrived in Britain at this time and played in bandaged feet, as was their local custom. One such player was Abdul Salim, an Indian national, who was on the fringe of first team football at Celtic just prior to the Second World War. Tewfik 'toothpick' Abdullah, one of a trio of Egyptians who played in the Football League between 1911-39, also played in bare feet for Sporting Club Cairo and the Egpytian Army. However, he managed to make the transition to boots, signing for Derby County in 1920. His two compatriots were H. Hegazi, a centre forward for Cambridge University, Dulwich Hamlet and Fulham, and M. Mansour, who played in goal for Queens Park Rangers during 1938-39.<H3 class=headings>4. The Post War Years - 1946 to the Early 1960s</H3><P class=text>4.1 As the game became more widely played within the European-colonised areas of Africa and Asia, so the potential supply of black footballing talent from those continents began to increase. In addition to this new development, the late forties saw the beginnings of an influx of immigrants arriving from the British colonies, most of whom had been persuaded to leave their country of origin in order to meet the growing labour shortage in Britain. This was to have an impact (albeit, limited at that time) upon professional football in this country. As is, in many ways, the case with today's transfer market, the shortage of quality home players led to increasing competition and inevitably pushed transfer fees upwards beyond the scope of many clubs. This moved many club scouts to look abroad for less expensive 'foreign' talent and thus, increased the numbers of non-British born black players playing in England.<P class=text>4.2 One of the most popular and successful African-Caribbean players playing in the Football League during this period was Jamaican-born Lloyd 'Lindy' Delapenha, who played for Middlesbrough between 1950-57. A great favourite at Ayresome Park, Lindy managed to score 90 goals in 260 appearances for the club, having previously played for Arsenal (as an amateur) and for Portsmouth during their 1948-49 League championship winning campaign, featuring in seven games. Another black player who made his name during this period was Charlie Williams, who made 158 app

[Karl]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

TDowl (9/10/2006)<H3 class=headings></H3><P class=text><H3 class=headings>4. The Post War Years - 1946 to the Early 1960s</H3><P class=text>4.3 Giles Heron became the first African-Caribbean player to play first team football for Celtic, scoring on his debut during the 1951-52 season. He was nicknamed the 'black flash' because of his speed. However, like many black professionals in Britain playing at this time, his achievements are almost entirely overlooked. Celtic's historical publications make no mention of Heron's time at the club.

<P class=text>Giles "Gillie" Heron is Jamaican

[TDowl]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

His son is "Gil Scott Heron", the musican and singer, "The War will not Be Televised".

[TDowl]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

sickko,does the Gleaner have a research department? Why don't they consult older heads before publishing about the first Black man to play football in England, are they taking a queue from the JFF?

Big tip, tell them to ask questionson the RBSCfirst.

[Jawge]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

This is why the govt. should do their best to get at

least 40% of the island online. The people are being constantly fooled with false information in JA. They painted Lindy as black when it's convenient to them.Due to slavery and clas metality in JA, they would spin and lie just not to give Tappa his due. Go to FIFA or any football Fraternity and ask about JA and football (on the Int'l stage) and see whose name comes to fore. As Isaid long ago the INFO age will surely shatter the remaining shackles that hold our people. Thanks for the post. iwas going to ignore it because a young mind on this forum once said the Gleaner is a comic book and it's being confirmed today.

[Lazie]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

Well quite a few of you here are defying your logic then .. including you. You all have online access, but still act the fool.

[Sickko]

RE: The Gleaner's all-time top 10

Cant comment on what the Gleaner has or dont have but it is incumbent on the reporter/editor to do their own research and put out the truth.



Everytime I am asked to make a presentation on journalism one of the very first things I point out is that journalist have an obligation to present the truth as we are infact writing history that 50 years later people will be using to guage progress or lack thereof.