In BBC NEWS Black History Month:- "Tony Collins - the first black manager in the English Football League" "BBC NEWS"


"It's 26 April 1962 and 11,123 fans have packed out the Spotland stadium in Rochdale.In BBC News Two teams take to the pitch for the League Cup final "Fourth Division Rochdale" are in the first major final in the club's history after an astonishing run, their first chance at silverware". BBC News dale manager Anthony 'Tony' Norman Collins has made history as the first manager in the game to reach the final from the "Fourth Division" but he is about to achieve something else, something that cannot be put in a trophy cabinet In BBC News He leads the team out as the first black man to manage Rochdale In BBC News Dig a little more and you'll find out that he is the first black man,  manage at an English major final In BBC News Go through all the archive possible and you'll learn he's actually - the first black man to manage in the English Football League at all In BBC News From growing up in London to being stationed in Italy during World War Two and then lighting up, the left wing for a handful of clubs - Collins' rise to the top of the game wasn't simple In BBC News Today, there are still only seven black managers among the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs, but Collins was doing it almost 60 years ago BBc news In a decade in which support for Britain's National, Front party gained momentum and Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech was delivered, Collins' achievement of being the Football League's first black manager in the 1960-61 football season should not be understated In BBC News But yet, outside of the clubs that "Collins" managed or played for, his story has often been marginalised In BBC News Many know the names of the first black players in "Britain and heroes" from the "1960s and 1970s" like "Viv Anderson or Clyde Best" - less celebrated is the story of the first black manager".


"In BBC News Due to the stigma of having a child out of "wedlock in Kensington in 1926", with a white mother and black father, Lou Collins decided that her parents "Kit and Wilfried Collins" would be better suited to raising her child".In bbc news it was here that early family life at their rented property of 397 Portobello Road began to shape a football pioneer:- "He was the same as his brothers and sisters and the rest of his family, as far as they were concerned, apart from an obvious difference," Collins' daughter Sarita says In BBC News Collins always referred to his five 'brothers and sisters', though they were his aunties and uncles In BBc news With them being older, they protected him, and he was a very strong character and very charismatic. He became head boy at school, so he led all the way through his life," "Sarita continued".

In BBC News: Head boy became Private 14735335 when Collins was enlisted in the army upon a receiving his call-up letter in 1944.