So how do we summarize Francis’ career? He clearly feels that under Raich Carter he was not given enough opportunity, maybe not because of Carter but he did feel that someone at the club was not happy with him being in the team because of his race and at times he became angry about this with Carter¹.

Racism was rife in Britain at the time, in particular on the terraces, Francis says he didn’t really take much notice of what fans said, but that’s not to say things weren’t happening, he just ignored it. Rob Hughes said this about football racism in his New York Times obituary of Johanneson² ‘South African apartheid had its English abettors. There were spectators who bated Johanneson with vile Zulu chants, full-backs who kicked him because they thought black men lacked courage. This would eventially get to Johanneson. After a series of leg injuries, he slipped down to lower division soccer with York City, and succeeding blacks were branded cowards.’ The same fate that had befallen Gerry Francis before him.

Perhaps the best comparisons we can make are against the 2 other South African black players in England at the time, as good a place to look as moving from the bone dry dirt pitches playing with no boots to the heavy grass/mud pitches must have been tough for all concerned.  

Of course, we know that fellow countryman Albert Johanneson went on to score 48 goals in 172 appearances for Leeds in a storied career including being the first African footballer to appear in the FA Cup final. His goal ratio was better than Gerry Francis at a goal every 3.58 games. (Cf 5.77) The emergence of Eddie Gray and a series of injuries limited his chances at the end of his time at Leeds and it seems Francis might also have suffered because of the arrival of another club legend in Billy Bremner. In another neat little symmetry, both Francis and Johanneson joined York City upon leaving Leeds.

Another reference point is Steve Mokone, whose move to Coventry sparked Francis and Johanesson’s migration. Mokone was signed by Coventry when he wrote asking for a trial after seeing their name in a newspaper. However, despite having well reported skill and flair, Mokone failed badly at Coventry, Cardiff, and Barnsley and only ever played a handful of games in the lower divisions for them (4,3 and 1 respectively). Bizarrely he then went on to sign for Barcelona, Torino and Marseille but doesn’t seem to have appeared in a 1st team game for any of these clubs. In between his Coventry and Cardiff stints though he became a hero at 3rd division Heracles in The Netherlands where the club would eventually name a stand after him! It is perhaps also interesting to note that a disagreement over being in a team playing long ball football at Coventry led to his departure and being asked to play with an ankle injury led to his departure from Cardiff. As mentioned, early match reports for Francis note similar injuries early in his time at Leeds. Nothing unusual for wingers to suffer this type of treatment at that time of course but..

Francis’ career sits in the middle of his two compatriots experience and his stop start career and limited number of appearances is one mirrored by many, many players over the years.

Gerry Francis was well liked by some Leeds fans as evidenced by the letters presented here and there were plenty of match reports praising him. As as with all wingers at the time he was on the end of some crunching tackles which left him injured for periods and despite the stop start nature of his career a goal every 5 games isn’t such a bad return for an out and out winger. However, the 9 goals he scored for Leeds all came before December 1960. Before that in 21 appearances he was scoring at a goal every 3.44 games, after that, in a further 21 appearances, he didn’t score…If only we had assist stats for the 1950’s and 60’s. Even under Taylor, Francis was used on more than a few occasions out of position on the left wing and sometimes he missed out to the two-footed George Meek before a young Billy Bremner played initially in the right-wing berth. Raich Carter should probably have used him more and Don Revie apparently saw enough in 10 games as manager (after having played with Francis as Captain) to decide to move him on. Based on contemporary reports this does seem harsh, but managers have their favourites, and the reasons are rarely clear.

For sure we know that Francis did create two pieces of history in his football career: He was the first black footballer at Leeds United and the first black South African to play in the first division, both very significant claims as it is. But there is more..

During the course of this research we realised that Francis and Johanneson played only 3 games together for Leeds and after further research through the excellent Football’s Black Pioneers website and other sources we now believe that Francis and Johanneson were the first two black foreign players to appear for a professional team in the UK. This happened on April 15th 1961 in a 0-0 draw away at Stoke City. They next appeared together on 30^th August 1961at Elland Road in a Division 2 match versus Brighton, a frustrating 1-1 draw according to this account in the YEP. Both were mentioned in the match report and Francis was involved in the Leeds goal. They also appeared together in the next home game Vs Rotherham on the 2^nd September before Francis’ career at Leeds faded from view and he was transferred to York in October 1961 for £4,000

The microfilm search also revealed remarkable photo that appeared in the YEP on Saturday 22^nd July 1961. We believe this is the oldest photo available of a Leeds team in their all-new white strip but more importantly for this blog it is one of very few photos of Francis and Johanneson together.

At the time of writing Gerry Francis is 90, still alive and well and living near Toronto in Canada with his wife of over 50 years. There is a tremendous interview by Adam Pope with Gerry Francis on BBC sounds, well worth your time, Francis really does sound like a fantastic character. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09js1f5

They moved to Canada in the late 1960’s after his career ended with non-league Tonbridge Angels in Kent where he said he spent his happiest time in Britain. He was clearly enjoying his football at the time and was considered for the South African squad for the 1966 world cup qualifiers.

According to this article from the Kent & Sussex Courier on January 31^st 1964 Francis found out when reading a South African newspaper! (He had appeared 9 times as an amateur for South Africa) South Africa were eventually disqualified from the tournament because of apartheid. 

Tonbridge’s name is associated with a pub as with Leeds nickname, The Peacocks, a lovely little coincidence in this story related to Leeds United.

When Phil Masinga found the net three minutes into the 3-2 defeat by Chelsea on 27 August 1994 Sky went into overdrive with their history washing machine hailing Masinga as the first black South African to play in the Premier League. (He had made his debut a week before in a 0-0 draw vs West Ham) There is an oft used phrase about history being written by the winners, the origins and countenance of this are apocryphal as is much of Sky’s coverage of football. Gerry Francis made the huge leap from South Africa to the top division 37 years before, the first black South African to play in England’s top division and Leeds United’s first black player of any sort, nearly 4 years before Albert Johanneson arrived.

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