Gil Heron
Jamaican footballer (1922–2008)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gilbert Saint Elmo Heron (9 April 1922 – 27 November 2008) was a Jamaican professional footballer. He was the first black player to play for Scottish club Celtic and was the father of poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron.
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Heron in Ebony magazine, 1947 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gilbert Saint Elmo Heron[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 9 April 1922 | ||
| Place of birth | Kingston, Jamaica | ||
| Date of death | 27 November 2008 (aged 86) | ||
| Place of death | Detroit, Michigan, United States | ||
| Position | Centre forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| – | Detroit Venetia[1] | ? | (?) |
| 1946 | Detroit Wolverines | ? | (?) |
| 1947 | Chicago Maroons | ? | (?) |
| 1949 | Chicago Sparta | ? | (?) |
| – | Detroit Corinthians | ? | (?) |
| 1951–1952 | Celtic | 5 | (2) |
| 1952–1953 | Third Lanark | 7 | (5) |
| 1953–1954 | Kidderminster Harriers | ? | (10) |
| – | Detroit Corinthians | ? | (?) |
| – | Windsor Corinthians | ? | (?) |
| Total | ? | (?) | |
| International career | |||
| Jamaica[2][3] | |||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Career
Born Gilbert Heron in Kingston, Jamaica,[4] to Walter Gilbert Heron and Lucille Gentles, he came from a family of means.[5] He played for St Georges College, a prominent Jamaican high school, and won the Manning Cup and Oliver Shield in 1937 – a statement of island-wide, schoolboy football supremacy. He went on to represent a Caribbean all-star football team and beat Jamaican Olympian Herb McKenley as a schoolboy.[citation needed]
He moved to Canada as a youth and was later enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. As well as being a track athlete and a boxer, he played football and broke through during his stay there. A centre forward, he signed for Detroit Corinthians and the champion Detroit Wolverines, where he was top goalscorer in the 1946 season of the North American Soccer Football League.[6] He then played for the Chicago Maroons in 1947.[1]
After playing for Chicago Sparta in 1949, he played for Windsor Corinthians in 1950 and was twice selected to all-star teams against the touring England national team. After missing the first match with the Ontario All-Stars on May 24 (on account of a league suspension in Detroit), he recorded an assist for the Essex All-Stars in the June 17 match (albeit a 9–2 loss to England). Both Gil and his brother Lee played for the Essex All-Stars.
He was spotted by a scout from Glasgow club Celtic while the club was on tour in North America and he was signed by the Scottish club in 1951 after being invited over for a trial. Becoming the first black player for Celtic,[4] and one of the first to play professionally in Scotland,[2][7] Heron went on to score on his debut on 18 August 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton that Celtic won 2–0. Heron only played five first-team matches in all, scoring twice.[8] He was released by the club the next year after making one appearance in the Scottish Football League[9] (having been unable to displace the established John McPhail)[3] and joined Third Lanark, where he played in seven League Cup matches, scoring five goals but did not appear in the League.[10]
Next, he went to English club Kidderminster Harriers, before moving back to North America.
In 1957, he played for Windsor Corinthians and was again selected to Ontario's Essex All-Stars to face a touring English team, Tottenham Hotspur, on 22 May.
Personal life
While in Chicago, Heron met Bobbie Scott, a singer, with whom he had a son in 1949, Gil Scott-Heron, who became a famed poet and musician. They separated when Heron left for Scotland[3][11] and did not meet again until Scott-Heron was 26.[12] Heron had three more children with his wife Margaret Frize (deceased), whom he met while in Glasgow, Scotland: Gayle, Denis[4] and his youngest child Kenneth, who was killed in Detroit.[12] His older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the Norwegian Merchant Navy during World War II and then joined the Canadian army,[13] later moving to Canada, where he became active in black Canadian politics.[12]
At Celtic, he earned the nicknames "The Black Arrow"[3][8] and "The Black Flash". While living in Glasgow, he played cricket with leading local clubs such as Poloc.[2][3] He later became a published poet,[12] with one of his works, "The Great Ones", describing leading players from his time playing football in Scotland.
Heron died in Detroit of a heart attack on 27 November 2008, aged 86.[3]