The Colour Of Football

Steve Stacey became the first African-American to play professional football in England when he made his debut for Bristol City in 1962. This poignant, funny and at times deeply moving tale, takes you behind the scenes as a professional footballer working up through the ranks while at the same time searching for his roots.

Steve Stacey rose from kicking a ball in the gaslit streets of post-war Bristol to running out in the top flight of English football. Often the only black face in the team he was the first African-American to grace the professional English game.

This poignant, funny and at times deeply moving tale, takes you behind the scenes as a professional footballer working up through the ranks while at the same time searching for his roots.

The son of a GI from Kemper County, Mississippi, the killing fields of black America and a woman from Bristol, UK he was given the middle name Darrow, after a black rights advocate.

His 40-year ancestry search underpins his rise through the football leagues. It’s all here, the dressing room banter, the famous names, the injuries as Steve plied his trade with Bristol City, Wrexham, Ipswich, and Exeter then breaking more boundaries as one of the first black footballers in Australia playing for Floreat Athena in Perth.

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