Racial Minorities in a Marginalized Sport: Race, Discrimination and Integration in British Rugby League Football

Immigrants and Minorities

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 151-169

  Collins, Tony ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0346336178     PISSN: 02619288     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02619288.1998.9974933     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. In 1996 Chelsea appointed black Dutchman Ruud Gullit as manager, although, like Michael Jordan, such was the superstar's reputation that he appeared to transcend the issue of race. For the abundant number of qualified black British candidates, the doors to managership remain locked.
2. Ernest Cashmore, Black Sportsmen (London, 1982).
3. Yorkshire Post, 29 Nov. 1886, p.8.
4. Yorkshire Post, 21 Feb. 1893, p.8.
5. The original intention of the organisers was that the team should be an exclusively Maori side. However, the addition of five pakeha players to the tour resulted in the team being called the New Zealand Native Football Representatives. For full details of the tour see Greg Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks (Canterbury, NZ, 1993).
6. For a comprehensive account of the New Zealand Wars see James Belich, The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (Auckland, 1986). At the height of the war, the British had 18,000 troops in place to oppose a total Maori population of just 60,000.
7. Quoted in Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks, p.94.
8. The Field, 30 March 1889, p.7.
9. Quoted in Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks, p.91. The popularity of the New Zealand side with northern English crowds is also attested to by Greg Ryan in his '"Handsome Physiognomy and Blameless Physique": Indigenous Colonial Sporting Tours and British Racial Consciousness, 1868 and 1888', The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol.14, No.2 (Aug. 1997), pp.78-9.
10. Quoted in Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks, p.91. The popularity of the New Zealand side with northern English crowds is also attested to by Greg Ryan in his '"Handsome Physiognomy and Blameless Physique": Indigenous Colonial Sporting Tours and British Racial Consciousness, 1868 and 1888', The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol.14, No.2 (Aug. 1997), pp.78-9.
11. The NU changed its name to the Rugby Football League in 1922.
12. Arthur Budd, 'The Past Season', in Athletic News Football Annual 1897 (Manchester, 1897), p.194.
13. 'A Member of a Northern Union Club', writing to the Yorkshire Post, 21 Sept. 1895, p.10. Unfortunately for the historian, pseudonymous letters to newspapers were the norm at this time.
14. W.T. Wynyard was also to become the founding treasurer of the New Zealand Rugby League, and another brother, G.A., was also a founding member of the NZRL executive committee. Thus New Zealand rugby league preserved a level of continuity with the 1888 tour which does not seem to have been felt by the New Zealand rugby union authorities.
15. Yorkshire Post, 29 Jan. 1912, p.3.
16. In the process, Banks also became the first American to play rugby league and probably only the fourth black American to play professional football of any code. Only three black American footballers had played professionally up to 1912. See Mike Rathet and Don R. Smith, 'We're Here to Play Football', in Richard Whittingham (ed.), The Fireside Book of Pro Football (New York, 1989), pp.229-36.
17. Yorkshire Evening Post, 26 Jan. 1912, p.3; Yorkshire Post, 29 Jan. 1912, p.3.
18. Yorkshire Evening Post, 26 Jan. 1912, p.3; Yorkshire Post, 29 Jan. 1912, p.3.
19. Yorkshire Post, 17 March 1906, p.11. For details of Peters' signing for Barrow rugby league club, see Barrow News, 11 Oct. and 29 Nov. 1913 and the North West Daily Mail, 6 Oct. 1913.
20. Yorkshire Post, 17 March 1906, p.11. For details of Peters' signing for Barrow rugby league club, see Barrow News, 11 Oct. and 29 Nov. 1913 and the North West Daily Mail, 6 Oct. 1913.
21. Yorkshire Post, 17 March 1906, p.11. For details of Peters' signing for Barrow rugby league club, see Barrow News, 11 Oct. and 29 Nov. 1913 and the North West Daily Mail, 6 Oct. 1913.
22. For black boxers, see Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (London, 1984). Only one black athlete represented Britain at the Olympics during this period, sprinter Jack London in 1928. Although evidence is at best sparse, it appears that very few black players appeared for professional soccer sides in England before the Second World War: three of the most notable being Arthur Wharton, a former sprinter who played as goalkeeper for Preston North End in the 1880s; Walter Tull, who signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1909; and Jack Leslie, who made over 350 appearances for Plymouth Argyle in the 1920s. See Caryl Phillips, 'Can Sport Break Down Racial Prejudice?' The Listener, 24 May 1984, pp.9-10.
23. For black boxers, see Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (London, 1984). Only one black athlete represented Britain at the Olympics during this period, sprinter Jack London in 1928. Although evidence is at best sparse, it appears that very few black players appeared for professional soccer sides in England before the Second World War: three of the most notable being Arthur Wharton, a former sprinter who played as goalkeeper for Preston North End in the 1880s; Walter Tull, who signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1909; and Jack Leslie, who made over 350 appearances for Plymouth Argyle in the 1920s. See Caryl Phillips, 'Can Sport Break Down Racial Prejudice?' The Listener, 24 May 1984, pp.9-10.
24. 'Airlie Robin' quoted in Robert Gate, Gone North: Welshmen in Rugby League, Vol.1 (Ripponden, 1986), p.50.
25. For an account of the racism experienced by Francis at Norths, see Andrew Moore, The Mighty Bears! A Social History of North Sydney (Sydney, 1996), pp.214-26.
26. Tom Nairn, 'The English Working Class', in Robin Blackburn (ed.), Ideology in Social Science (London, 1972), p.198.
27. Cec Thompson, Born On The Wrong Side (London, 1995), p.27.
28. See Neil Evans, 'The South Wales Race Riots of 1919', Llafur, Vol.3, No.1 (Spring 1980); Ron Ramdin, The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain (Aldershot, 1987) and Peter Fryer, Staying Power.
29. See Neil Evans, 'The South Wales Race Riots of 1919', Llafur, Vol.3, No.1 (Spring 1980); Ron Ramdin, The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain (Aldershot, 1987) and Peter Fryer, Staying Power.
30. See Neil Evans, 'The South Wales Race Riots of 1919', Llafur, Vol.3, No.1 (Spring 1980); Ron Ramdin, The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain (Aldershot, 1987) and Peter Fryer, Staying Power.
31. David Smith, 'People's Theatre: A Century of Welsh Rugby', History Today, March 1981, p.37. Despite the emphasis of many historians on the inter-twining of Welsh national identity and rugby union, no work has been done on the relationship of the Wales' black population to the national game. Interestingly, Welsh soccer has often been portrayed, like rugby league, as being antithetical to Welsh national culture and it too has a better record of racial integration, at least at a national level. In 1931 Eddie Paris became the first black player to play for the Welsh national soccer side. I am grateful to Phil Vasili for this information.
32. See Sullivan's biography by Joe Latus, Hard Road to the Top (Hull, 1973), p.35.
33. For C.L.R. James on Constantine and Nelson, see Beyond A Boundary (London, 1963), p.127. After his death in 1985, the local council in Hull renamed the main arterial road into the city 'Clive Sullivan Way'.
34. For a recent example, see 'Monie Digs In', in Rugby League Week (Sydney), 26 Feb. 1997, p.7.
35. Colin Tatz, Aborigines in Sport (Adelaide, 1987), p.80.
36. Much of the detail here is taken from Colin Tatz, Obstacle Race: Aborigines in Sport (Sydney, 1995). Andrew Moore has researched the backgrounds of Green and Tranquille in The Mighty Bears!, Ch.2.
37. Much of the detail here is taken from Colin Tatz, Obstacle Race: Aborigines in Sport (Sydney, 1995). Andrew Moore has researched the backgrounds of Green and Tranquille in The Mighty Bears!, Ch.2.
38. Colin Tatz, Aborigines in Sport, p.83.
39. Phil Melling, 'Definitions for the Definers, not the Defined', The Sports Historian, No.16 (May 1996), p.29.
40. J.W. Loy and J.W. McElvogue, 'Racial Segregation in American Sport', International Review for the Sociology of Sport,Vol.5, No.25 (1970). J.A. Maguire, '"Race" and Position Assignment in English Soccer: A Preliminary Analysis of Ethnicity and Sport in Britain', Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol.5, No.3 (1988). C.J. Hallinan, 'Aborigines and Positional Segregation in Australian Rugby League', International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol.26, No.2 (1991), pp.69-79.
41. J.W. Loy and J.W. McElvogue, 'Racial Segregation in American Sport', International Review for the Sociology of Sport,Vol.5, No.25 (1970). J.A. Maguire, '"Race" and Position Assignment in English Soccer: A Preliminary Analysis of Ethnicity and Sport in Britain', Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol.5, No.3 (1988). C.J. Hallinan, 'Aborigines and Positional Segregation in Australian Rugby League', International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol.26, No.2 (1991), pp.69-79.
42. J.W. Loy and J.W. McElvogue, 'Racial Segregation in American Sport', International Review for the Sociology of Sport,Vol.5, No.25 (1970). J.A. Maguire, '"Race" and Position Assignment in English Soccer: A Preliminary Analysis of Ethnicity and Sport in Britain', Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol.5, No.3 (1988). C.J. Hallinan, 'Aborigines and Positional Segregation in Australian Rugby League', International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol.26, No.2 (1991), pp.69-79.
43. J. Long, N. Tongue, K. Spracklen and B. Carrington, 'What's the Difference? A Study of the Nature and Extent of Racism in Rugby League' (Leeds Metropolitan University, 1995). For Australia, see Hallinan, 'Aborigines and Positional Segregation ... ', pp.74-5.
44. J. Long, N. Tongue, K. Spracklen and B. Carrington, 'What's the Difference? A Study of the Nature and Extent of Racism in Rugby League' (Leeds Metropolitan University, 1995). For Australia, see Hallinan, 'Aborigines and Positional Segregation ... ', pp.74-5.
45. Barry Maranta, quoted in Rugby League Express, 28 April 1995, p.5.
46. For more on racism in English soccer, see Dave Hill, Out of His Skin: The John Barnes Phenomenon (London, 1989).
47. See Cec Thompson, Born on the Wrong Side, pp.29 and 34.
48. Eddie Waring, The Great Ones (London, 1969), p.95.
49. Long et al., 'What's The Difference?', p.3.
50. Caryl Phillips, The Listener, loc. cit.
51. Little work has been done on the relationship of Britain's Asian population to sport. One exception to this is Pnina Werbner, 'Our Blood is Green: Cricket, Identity and Social Empowerment Among British Pakistanis', in J. MacClancy (ed.), Sport, Identity and Ethnicity (Oxford, 1996), pp.87-111.