The Journey to Yorkshire

In the late spring of 2025, the Leeds Central Library will present an exhibition about football fanzines and culture. As part of that project the research team decided to look at football and football supporting in Leeds before fanzines existed. What were fans thinking about, talking about and how was this and football generally reported? One of the key parts of fanzine culture was an incredible passion for protest against all sorts of topics and the fight against racism was an important part of this in Leeds through Marching Altogether fanzine in particular. With this in mind we started to look back at key time periods pre fanzines and one of those key points in time was the first black player to feature for Leeds United. During that research we uncovered some interesting facts about Leeds’ first black player, his and Leeds United’s part in a piece of history celebrated during black history month.

Francis played a key role in helping Johanneson settle in Leeds, they are seen together in the picture of the official signing of Johanneson heading this article and spent a lot of time socialising together. Francis tells the story of teaching Johanneson how to run in English conditions on Beeston hill and they appeared for Garforth council of Churches cricket XI on the August bank holiday, 1961 according to this article from the time from the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP). A lovely little picture of the past.

Before we go further let’s find out how “Gerry” Francis came to England from Johannesburg in apartheid era South Africa, a story which he tells himself in an excellent interview with Phil Hay from 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1554340/2020/01/25/gerry-francis-leeds-first-black-player-interview/)

Francis and his brother both played in the segregated leagues in Johannesburg and he worked as a boot maker, tiring work earning £15 a week. Both were reportedly extremely talented players and gained a lot of attention, but their careers would always be limited by apartheid as only white players were allowed in the national league.

Francis takes up the story “Then these English teams came across and I hear about the footballers and what they do. The money they earn! And for playing two times a week, sometimes only once. I decided it was time to strike out” All of a sudden Steve Mokone, another talented player, left the country and signed for Coventry City becoming the first black South African to play in Europe and the future changed. Francis is quoted as saying that the reason he didn’t go at the same time as Mokone was that he didn’t have a passport, and didn’t know that Mokone did “Just like that, he buggered off. But I wasn’t far behind”

Encouraged by a friend, a letter was sent to Leeds United, and they invited Francis over for a trial. All of this was facilitated and funded by the Indian friend of the family, chairman of the local football club. He told Francis “Why I want you so badly to go, I want you to show people what non whites in South Africa can do” Leeds was chosen by Francis as he was fascinated by John Charles, a man whose physique would have made him a rugby player in South Africa.

Francis quickly found fans in Leeds, John Charles amongst them Charles who asked Francis ‘Who taught you this?’ I said, ‘No one. It’s what we grew up with.’ Francis puts down his early success to the style of play and 4-2-4 formations he was used to in south Africa, very different to what was played in Britain at the time. 

Whatever it was, the microfilm archives reveal the outcome of Francis’ journey: this article from the YEP reported that an amateur contract was offered and that Francis subsequently turned professional in 1957.

The rest as they say, is history. In the next blog in this series of 3 we’ll look at Gerry Francis’ playing career at Elland Road.

art black-history books britain championship colours comics Creativity culture design efl fa-cup Fandom fanzine fanzines football football-history football-kits Football History history kit leeds leeds-united library Media middlesbrough Music news Non-League nostalgia playlist premier-league publishing research scotland self-publish self-publishing soccer sport sports statistics team-sports travel writing zine