| Colin Viljoen 08:55 - May 22 with 35636 views | Lord_Lucan |
I started watching Ipswich late in 1975 and don't remember much about Viljoen, I think he must have been injured a lot?
Since the Blue Heaven thing I have been thinking about him. I always got the feeling that he never really mixed much with the rest of the team and was a bit aloof.
Anyone got any stories or comments on him? |  |
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| Colin Viljoen on 09:58 - Jul 13 with 483 views | WeWereZombies |
| Colin Viljoen on 08:06 - Jul 13 by mikeybloo88 |
I was never aware that Viljoen was unpopular, but I was probably too young to worry much about anything other than the football. He was in my mind a stylish midfielder who I loved to watch, and I always just assumed he left as we upgraded to Muhren.
As to Ipswich being known as be white club, I'm surprised we'd be called that given most of the big clubs at the time such as Leeds, Derby, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa etc were also totally white as I recall. Maybe again I was too young to even think about those things, I just assumed our scouts were the best at signing the best players for the club given how good they were at it... |
Leeds United had a very good black left winger, Albert Johanneson, playing for them from 1961 to 1970. Like Viljoen, he was South African but, unlike Viljoen, he played in an FA Cup final. In fact he was the first black player in an FA Cup final when Leeds lost to Liverpool in 1965. Here's what George Best had to say about him:
"Albert was quite a brave man to actually go on the pitch in the first place, wasn't he? And he went out and did it. He had a lot of skill. A nice man as well ... which is, I suppose, the more important thing, isn't it? More important than anything." https://web.archive.org/web/20071206055800/ http://furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=26
Leeds also had mixed race Paul Reaney around the same time and he became the first non-white England player in 1968. |  |
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| Colin Viljoen on 11:36 - Jul 13 with 422 views | FBI |
| Colin Viljoen on 09:58 - Jul 13 by WeWereZombies |
Leeds United had a very good black left winger, Albert Johanneson, playing for them from 1961 to 1970. Like Viljoen, he was South African but, unlike Viljoen, he played in an FA Cup final. In fact he was the first black player in an FA Cup final when Leeds lost to Liverpool in 1965. Here's what George Best had to say about him:
"Albert was quite a brave man to actually go on the pitch in the first place, wasn't he? And he went out and did it. He had a lot of skill. A nice man as well ... which is, I suppose, the more important thing, isn't it? More important than anything." https://web.archive.org/web/20071206055800/ http://furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=26
Leeds also had mixed race Paul Reaney around the same time and he became the first non-white England player in 1968. |
Just an aside really but the talk about racism reminds me of being 12 or so and hearing lots of Town fans in Churchman's singing a call-and-response that went "Trigger Trigger Trigger!... Shoot that N...!"
It was there in the late 70s for sure, and although we might shudder at it, I think it's also important to acknowledge past mistakes if only to understand how far we've moved on since then. And we HAVE moved on: now it's a minority, albeit a vocal one, but the onrush of condemnation is far louder than it would have been in 1979.
Oh, and what a shame CV's thread has gone down this particular rabbit hole. No need to comment on my post, just keep on talking about Colin :-) |  |
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