West Ham Online

Fred Corbett | West Ham United's first Black footballer16 hours agoAs Black History Month 2024 begins on 1 October, we share the story of Fred Corbett, who remains a hugely important figure in the history of West Ham United, one hundred years on from his death.For Corbett was the first Black player to represent the Club as he played 38 games and scored 15 goals between September 1899 and December 1901.Reportedly born in Stepney in August 1880, the young Corbett played his first football for the youth team of Old St Luke’s FC in Canning Town. In 1894, church-based Old St Luke’s merged with Castle Swifts, the football team based at the Castle Shipping Line repair yard in Bow Creek, and the new club, Old Castle Swifts, played its home matches at Hermit Road in Canning Town.After turning professional in November 1894, Old Castle Swifts went bankrupt in March 1895. A few months later, Hermit Road became home to a newly formed works team, Thames Ironworks FC, and a number of Old Castle Swifts players moved from one to the other.At the time, Corbett was just 14 and playing for Old St Luke’s youth team, which continued to operate and provide an unofficial pathway to Thames Ironworks FC’s senior squad. Among those who ‘gradated’ from this ‘academy’ in 1899 was an 18-year-old Corbett, who also worked as a labourer at Arnold Hills' shipyard.Playing as a right winger, Corbett debuted for Thames Ironworks, wearing the No7 shirt in a 1-0 Southern League First Division defeat by Reading at Elm Park on 16 September 1899. Two days later, he started his first win as a Hammer in a 4-0 home win over Chatham at the Memorial Grounds.Fred Corbett (front row, centre) with his West Ham United teammates in 1901In the summer of 1900, Thames Ironworks FC was wound up and relaunched as a professional club named West Ham United, and Corbett was one of the many players who moved from one to the other.He scored his first goal on his second appearance for the ‘new’ Hammers, grabbing the winner in a 1-0 Southern League First Division victory at Swindon Town on 6 October 1900, and netted again the following weekend in a 2-0 home success against Watford.Corbett netted in both ties as West Ham overcame New Brompton in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round after a replay, and by the season’s end he had scored nine goals in 23 appearances.The 1901/02 season saw Corbett find the net on six more occasions, including his first career hat-trick in a 4-2 home victory over Wellingborough Town and two in a 4-2 win over Luton Town.With interest in football booming, a crowd of 9,000 watched Corbett and his teammates face Millwall on 26 October 1901, and 17,000 turned out to see FA Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur edge out the Hammers a week later.Corbett’s playing opportunities dwindled thereafter, and he would turn out just twice more before joining Southern League rivals Bristol Rovers in December 1901.He would turn out, and score at a rate of around one goal in every three appearances, for Bristol Rovers (in three separate spells), Bristol City, Brentford, Worcester City and New Brompton before closing out his nomadic career with Merthyr Town, Tranmere Rovers, Croydon Common and Winsford United.Fred Corbett passed away in west London in April 1924, aged just 43, but his premature death does nothing to diminish the historic mark he has left on Thames Ironworks FC, West Ham United and English football as a whole.

Vexed wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 19:32 It's highly debatable whether you can shoehorn the preference for receiving schlongs in your hoop in the same category as by birth having a factory fitted suntan. 

However neither are particularly special or not special and neither should be afforded special fucking treatment in a world that is desperately trying to be oh so accepting of everything regardless of the level of stupidity involved (I am a zebra because I say I am type shit). 

You can't have it both ways, cunts. 

Will we be seeing a South Asian or a South-East Asian History month any time soon? If not, why not?

How about a Those-enslaved-by-the-Barbary-pirates history month?

And for the ignorant pedants, an Islamic History month, a Buddhist history month, a Jewish history month, a Scientology history month or an agnostics history month?

"full blooded commitment"?  Are you sure you're talking about Antonio?

He strolls around the pitch half the time barely giving a shit.

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑09 Oct 2024, 13:47 Oops, forgot one..

Oops, forgot one..

BRANDED wrote: ↑09 Oct 2024, 12:08 West Ham United centre-forward Michail Antonio has now scored the same number of league goals as the combined tally of the 13 strikers brought into the club since his arrival in September 2015.

West Ham United centre-forward Michail Antonio has now scored the same number of league goals as the combined tally of the 13 strikers brought into the club since his arrival in September 2015.

When's it Spurs History Month so to celebrate all the Premier League's they carry on like they have won, or is that still every month?

The shame for John Charles was his constant problem with thigh injuries, problems which ended his career prematurely. He was at his best a first class left back.

, wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 16:41 John Charles played for West Ham several years before Clyde Best. Does he not get a mention because he was mixed race?

Vexed wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 19:32 It's highly debatable whether you can shoehorn the preference for receiving schlongs in your hoop in the same category as by birth having a factory fitted suntan. 

However neither are particularly special or not special and neither should be afforded special fucking treatment in a world that is desperately trying to be oh so accepting of everything regardless of the level of stupidity involved (I am a zebra because I say I am type shit). 

You can't have it both ways, cunts. 

 

It's highly debatable whether you can shoehorn the preference for receiving schlongs in your hoop in the same category as by birth having a factory fitted suntan. 

However neither are particularly special or not special and neither should be afforded special fucking treatment in a world that is desperately trying to be oh so accepting of everything regardless of the level of stupidity involved (I am a zebra because I say I am type shit). 

You can't have it both ways, cunts. 

I hope I am still around when the first current player come out as gay!

, wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 16:41 John Charles played for West Ham several years before Clyde Best. Does he not get a mention because he was mixed race?

Vexed wrote: ↑03 Oct 2024, 06:39 Who was the first person with ginger hair to play for the club?
Who was the first person over six foot tall to play for the club?
Who was the first person with green eyes to play for the club? 

Nobody knows. 

Why are none of these facts deemed as important to know in 2024 but this is? 

John Charles played for West Ham several years before Clyde Best. Does he not get a mention because he was mixed race?

Nice to hear of any old West Ham history in general and this is no different. However I'm just not a fan of x celebration month. Everything's a fucking month to celebrate these days be it black history month, gay pride month, cycle in to work month. All a bit much and draining as if modern society needs constantly reminding of how oppressed everyone once was. What next, Free Gear Keir Month..

wils wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 14:23

Fauxstralian wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 14:10 Given the level of abuse Clyde Best got in the 70's (did they ever find the bloke who sent him a bullet and told him if he stepped on the pitch again he'd shoot him?) you can imagine what this bloke put up with decades earlier.
Might not have been an outstanding player but he was a pioneer
To imagine he was just another player and was treated the same as his team mates is fanciful. 

I don't think Clyde Best was unique in getting death threats. Wasn't an effigy of David Beckham hung from a lamp post before his first match after getting sent off for England? 

And I don't find in fanciful that this bloke in the article didn't put up with much. There is no evidence of it in the article which sets out to make his skin colour an issue. And if West Ham was such a horrid place for black footballers why have so many aspired to play for the club over the years? For most black footballers playing for West Ham is a dream outcome. Not something they avoid or dread. 

I would tend to agree. Didn't matter what colour your skin was, where you came from or even if your parents were married or not. If you were good enough to play the West Ham way, you were in.

Best copped a dog's load of abuse when he first started playing, but within 3 or 4 games he became "one of us".

The racist comments took a while longer to fade, but fade they did. If anyone deserves an accolade suggesting he was a pioneer in English football at the time it is Clyde Best.

Fauxstralian wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 14:10 Given the level of abuse Clyde Best got in the 70's (did they ever find the bloke who sent him a bullet and told him if he stepped on the pitch again he'd shoot him?) you can imagine what this bloke put up with decades earlier.
Might not have been an outstanding player but he was a pioneer
To imagine he was just another player and was treated the same as his team mates is fanciful. 

I thought Les Ferdinand was our first ever black player

Fauxstralian wrote: ↑07 Oct 2024, 14:10
To imagine he was just another player and was treated the same as his team mates is fanciful. 

Lee Trundle" wrote: ↑03 Oct 2024, 14:23 Anti-racism campaigner and founder of Kick It Out Lord Herman Ouseley has kicked the bucket aged 79.

Given the level of abuse Clyde Best got in the 70's (did they ever find the bloke who sent him a bullet and told him if he stepped on the pitch again he'd shoot him?) you can imagine what this bloke put up with decades earlier.
Might not have been an outstanding player but he was a pioneer
To imagine he was just another player and was treated the same as his team mates is fanciful. 

wils wrote: ↑02 Oct 2024, 11:43
 I can't see any justification for 'hugely important figure' in that article. A squad player no different to any of the others.

Anti-racism campaigner and founder of Kick It Out Lord Herman Ouseley has kicked the bucket aged 79.