



Let Arthur Wharton come back from the dead
To see the man in black blow the final whistle.
Let the game of two halves be beautiful,
Not years ahead. Let every kissing of the badge,
Every cultured pass, every lad and lass,
Every uttered thought, every chant and rant,
Every strip and stripe – be free of it.
Then football would have truly played a blinder,
And Arthur returned to something kinder.
Let the man in black call time on racism.
And Arthur will sing out on the wings,
Our presiding spirit – the first black blade.
Imagine having everything to play for.
This is our pitch. Now hear us roar.
The Big Book of Football Champions 1951
Picked up a lovely old football annual on eBay the other day. A couple of pics are shown above - the rest you can see on my flickr.
*EDIT 01/11/12 - More fabulous fifties footballers
24th October 1857 - Happy Birthday Football

Painted Goalposts in a Derelict Schoolyard - East Riding of Yorkshire
Image Some Rights Reserved: Copyright Paul Glazzard and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Nat Lofthouse smoking & boozing after the 1958 FA Cup Final
Source: fourfourtwo.com via Footysphere on Pinterest

Two flying Dutchmen, there’s only two flying Dutchmen
Ipswich Town fans proclaim their love for Arnold Muhren & Frans Thijssen in 1981
via retrofootball
There’s something deeply unsavoury about a black man being publicly threatened with disciplinary action by his white boss for failing to protest against racism in the prescribed manner.

Only the ducks can use this Amazonian football pitch at high tide
(image credit: flickr / Alexandre R. Costa)