JIM'S COLUMN 7.11.09

Steve Mokone pictured with George Raynor, City's manager in 1956.

James Hunt wrote to me last week wanting to know more about Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone, Coventry City’s first ever black player in the 1950s. Not only was he the first black South African to play first-class football in England but also the first to play outside his native country. Although he only played five games for City his story is an amazing one that has been the subject of two books and a film.

There was a real buzz in 1956 when Mokone arrived at Highfield Road. He hailed from Doornfontein and played for Home Stars FC, also appearing for the Natal Province XI and the South African Bantu XI- the highest honour at the time for a non-European in the country. He wrote to City for a trial after seeing their name in his local paper and Charles Buchan, the legendary Sunderland, Arsenal and England player, put up £100 for his fare. It took the South African authorities almost a year to issue Steve with his passport. ‘Kalamazoo’ as he was nicknamed had wonderful dribbling skills and devastating pace. His touch and trickery was something rarely seen in Division Three and sadly were not appreciated by the club’s management at the time. He played just four first team games and one friendly for City, scoring one goal before a disagreement over the long-ball tactics with manager Harry Warren saw him given a free-transfer. I have heard stories of how, after training at Highfield Road, Mokone would lay bets with Reg Matthews, City’s England international goalkeeper, that he could score penalties against him, and usually won handsomely.

He joined Dutch club Heracles of Almelo, a small town near the German border, and in the 1957-58 season he helped them win the championship of Division 3 B and was voted player of the season by the fans. He played for Heracles for two seasons becoming a local legend, even appearing in a friendly game against Santos of Brazil for whom Pele appeared. There is a street named after Mokone in Almelo and one of the stands in Heracles’ Polman Stadion is also named after him.

In 1959 he tried his luck in the Football League again and joined Cardiff City, then a Second Division side. He played only two games for the Welsh side, including a 3-2 win over Liverpool when he scored the opening goal. The club tried to force him to play through an ankle injury and Mokone refused; he was not selected for the first team again. Next stop was Barcelona who loaned him out to Marseille. He never appeared for either club but in the south of France he ran a small factory manufacturing ‘Mokone’ football boots. In 1961 in a spell with Barnsley, he made a solitary appearance.

He married South African Joyce Maaga in 1961 and after a year in Rhodesia they moved to Italy where he had a brief period with Torino. In one match he scored four goals against Verona and was hailed as the new Eusebio (then the top African player in the world).

In the mid 1960s he moved to the USA and became a mature student, ultimately gaining three degrees and qualifying as a Doctor of Psychology. Mokone was arrested - and reportedly brutalised - by police in 1977 on a charge of credit card fraud which Mokone says was fabricated. A day after his release, police arrested him and charged him with assaulting his wife. Mokone was found guilty and served nine years in jail. He has maintained his innocence all along. Journalist Tom Egbers later discovered evidence that South African authorities had asked the American CIA to bring Mokone, who had been increasingly political in the US, to heel. After leaving prison – where he ran the library and the football team – he took up his psychology again before retiring with heart trouble in 1992. Now aged 78 he lives in Virginia, USA and is on the waiting list for a heart transplant. In 2006 he was inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame.

My statistics on the number of players Coventry City have used since they were relegated in 2001 caused fellow historian Paul O’Connor to point out the number of debutants in each of the nine seasons.

2001-02	14
2002-03	23
2003-04	21
2004-05	19
2005-06	15
2006-07	18
2007-08	12
2008-09	15
2009-10	11

He says: ‘With an average of over 17 per season (excluding this season as I expect more yet!) it truly demonstrates what a revolving door we have had. What is most compelling is that 2002-03 and 2003-04 (the truly awful McAllister seasons) saw the two highest seasons for debuts apart from 1919-20 (when City started from scratch and were thrown in at the deep end). To throw in the likes of Mackey, Noon and Bates and hope they swim was awful and thankfully Isaac Osbourne lived to tell the tale.’

Paul continues: ‘To put it in context, across City’s Football League history since 1919 there is an average of 10 debutants per season, so there has not been a single season below that average since relegation. It is not surprising that we have performed so badly.’