75th anniversary of Gil Heron's Celtic debut 'From Jamaica to the Kingston Bridge, he was inclined to roam,Drawn by the flame of the beautiful game,Here was a brother who could not stay home.'
This was how Scottish singer-songwriter Michael Marra, in his song ‘Flight of the Heron’, described the pioneering career of Gilbert Saint Elmo (Gil) Heron, the first black footballer to play in a competitive match for Celtic and one of the first black players to feature in Scottish football.
Heron was born in Kingston, Jamaica on April 9, 1922 and he would go on to establish himself as one of the finest young footballing talents on the island, winning multiple awards and being selected for a Caribbean all-star team.
After his parents’ separation in 1938, Heron moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his mother and, because of his British citizenship as a result of being born in Jamaica, he was enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.
During that time, the man who would make history in the Hoops continued nurturing his love for sports, turning his hand to boxing and athletics as well as continuing to develop as a centre-forward on the football pitch.
In 1946, Gil Heron’s name entered the pantheon of revolutionary black athletes who defied the odds in the USA and established themselves at the highest level.
For Jack Johnson, it was boxing’s heavyweight world title that immortalised his name. For Jesse Owens, it was his three gold medals won at the 1936 Olympic Games and for Jackie Robinson, becoming the first black athlete to play professional baseball in the States means that his name still resonates to this day. Perhaps Gil Heron, who became the first black professional soccer player in the USA when he made his debut for the Detroit Wolverines in 1946, should be a name which is more widely celebrated, given the resistance he would have had to face to achieve such a feat, and the relentless racial abuse he was subjected to throughout his career in America. At Celtic Park, however, his name lives on.
Heron joined the Hoops in 1951 after being spotted by a Celtic scout during the club’s tour of North America that same year. He made his debut for Jimmy McGrory’s side 75 years ago today, on August 18, 1951 in a 2-0 victory against Morton in the League Cup at Celtic Park, a game in which he grabbed Celtic’s second goal.
In total, he would make five appearances for Glasgow’s green and white, and he would find the back of the net again in his second appearance, the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Airdrie in the League Cup.
During his spell at Celtic Park, he became good friends with a few of the Hoops’ main men at the time such as Bobby Collins and Sean Fallon, and he was known for enjoying the nightlife in Glasgow as it gave him a chance to don his colourful and unique attire, with the legendary Charlie Tully even recalling Heron’s yellow shoes in his autobiography.
After leaving Celtic, Gil Heron went on to have spells with Third Lanark and Kidderminster Harriers before moving back to America and finishing his career with the Windsor Corinthians.
However, it was his time with Celtic that would ultimately stand out as his greatest achievement in the game, something which he recognised himself in his poem ‘The Great Ones’ in which he recalled his time in Scottish football: 'I’ll remember all the great onesThose that I have seen,Those who I have played withWho wore the white and green. There was Tully and Bobby EvansNo greater ones you’d see,And Celtic Park was our havenTo win was our destiny.'
Just as Gil Heron was a revolutionary figure in his own right, his son Gil Scott-Heron would go on to revolutionise the music scene in the USA, becoming widely accepted as the ‘Godfather of Hip-Hop’.
His influential and impactful single ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, released in 1971, has been described as one of the greatest protest songs of all time.
In the early 2000’s, Scott-Heron revealed that Celtic remained close to his dad’s heart, telling a Scottish journalist: 'My father still keeps up with what Celtic are doing. You Scottish folk always mention that my Dad played for Celtic, it’s a blessing from the spirits!' Gil Heron passed away in November 2008 in Detroit, but his pioneering journey through professional football, a journey which saw him break through barriers everywhere he went, has ensured that his legacy lives on.