The Sunday Column: Jeff Brown
The search for Sunderland AFC's first black footballer led to one of the most powerful stories of the North East journalist's career. Here, he introduces the resulting documentary
I didn’t expect to have to wait almost 44 years into my journalistic career to tell my most important story. It is, though, one which has nagged away at me for even longer than that…
In February 1980, Sunderland AFC cancelled the contract of 21 year-old Roland ‘Roly’ Gregoire, the first black player to wear the red and white stripes in the football club’s long history.
Just two seasons and 10 games into his career with the then Second Division (Championship) team, Roly – born in Liverpool to Windrush generation parents from the Caribbean - wrecked his knee in a reserve game at Murton CW in August, 1979, and never kicked a ball again.
What happened to him after that has, for almost half a century, been a subject of conjecture. Did he become a bus driver? A disc jockey? A postman? Is he even still alive?
As a fan, then – from the Autumn of 1982 – a reporter, it’s a question I’ve long been wanting to answer.
Phone calls, conversations with old teammates and library research revealed next to nothing, and even the advent of the internet brought only the bare details of Roly’s brief flirtation with the football scene.
He’d only played five games, as a teenager, for Fourth Division Halifax Town when Sunderland forked out a mere £5,000 for his services on Bonfire Night, 1977.
The breakthrough came last year, in the shape of Sunderland autograph hunter and cabbie Kevan Ball. Using the good old-fashioned journalist’s method of combing the electoral rolls – why didn’t I think of that? – he had tracked Roly down to Bradford.
When letters failed bring a response Kevan jumped in his taxi, drive to West Yorkshire and knocked on Roly’s door for a signature.
Kevan kindly passed on Roly’s address, with the warning: “I don’t think you’ll get far – he’s a bit grumpy. He doesn’t really want to talk about Sunderland.”
Watch the BBC iPlayer documentary, read his story on the BBC website, hear about the racism and ridicule he faced – inside the dressing room as well as outside - and you can understand why.
I wrote to Roly, explaining how – as a 16 year-old fan - I’d watched him play at Sunderland’s old Roker Park ground, and imagined how difficult life must have been for a black man in what was then still an overwhelmingly white town.
Fortunately, it struck a chord. And nine months after that initial contact, we’ve managed to tell Roly’s painful but, ultimately, heartwarming story: the racism followed by redemption. In the current political climate, it’s a topic which is still very relevant.
The reaction has been overwhelming. For a time the story was the top item on the BBC Sport website, and at the last count has been viewed around 700,000 times. The IPlayer documentary is also attracting a lot of attention.
Roly’s story wouldn’t have been told without the backing of my former BBC Look North boss Sarah Driscoll, who saw the potential and commissioned me to give him his voice. And if you think the documentary looks good, that’s down to my amazing shoot-editor Darren ‘Jaz’ Alberts.
It’s been a nine-month process to bring it to life, from that first contact with Roly. Arranging his first trip back to Wearside in 46 years took months of discussion with the football club, who have been on board with the project from the start.
Naturally concerned about the historic allegations of dressing room racism, Sunderland AFC have been very supportive throughout. The final piece in the jigsaw was only recently slotted into place when Roly was their guest for the recent home game against Manchester United.
With the Champions League final and the World Cup about to dominate the BBC Sport website, the window of opportunity to give Roly some profile was open only briefly.
Fortunately, we made it.
I called him, the day after the documentary went live, and asked how he felt watching it?
“For so long I couldn’t talk about I went through” he said. “I locked it all away – but you opened the door. Thank you.”
I think I might have had something in my eye, just then…
You can watch Finding Roly: Sunderland’s First Black Footballer on BBC iPlayer here.
Hear Roly Gregoire talking about the impact of racism on BBC Sport, here.