Clyde Best
Clyde Best was one of the first black footballers to succeed in the English Football League and paved the way for a whole generation to make their way into the professional game. Clyde Best made 186 appearances for West Ham United in a six year spell at Upton Park and bagged a respectable 47 goals. Clyde moved to the United States in the 1980′s and started up a cleaning business in California.
However, he gave it all up in 1997 when he returned to his native Bermuda and answered their call to take control of the national football team.’ Clyde was a big, bustling centre-forward who scored goals for fun. Clyde Best took a lot of stick as one of the pioneering black footballers ( racism was rife in until the early 90′s at football grounds, and still is to a degree in the lower leagues), but he was a firm favourite of most of the Hammers fans. Clyde played alongside the greats of Upton Park such as Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Trevor Brooking.
Best was inducted into the Bermuda National Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. He was awarded an MBE in the January 2006 New Year’s Honours list for services to football and the community in Bermuda.
Related Links
Clyde Best – football Unites Racism Divides
Clyde Best – Southend Echo
One of the first black football players was Walter Tull who played for Tottenham and Northampton before WWI. He also served with distinction in the first world war as an officer and was killed in 1918. A remarkable man.
http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.9857
There are several articles about Walter Tull on this site.