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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:25 am

Firstly, apologies to those seeking refuge in RDVC from that other world struggle going on Germany currently. However, given that my post is so highly topical, I couldn't resist.....

I haven't come across this before and couldn't find any previous references to it in RDVC although it was picked up by a SA soccer site. Sent to me by a mate of mine from Dundee, SA - Anyone else heard this ocurring? Another 'zulu' first - professional footballers?

Extraordinary but true stories from over a century of football.
By Andrew Ward_____________________________________________________________________

Sheffield, November 1879

Just ten weeks after the Wolseley's settlement had ended the Zulu War, a team of Zulu warriors arrived at Sheffield's Bramall Lane by Hansom cab. They bore names like Cetewayo, the great king himself, Sirayo, a famous chieftain, and Dabulamanzi, Cetewayo's brother. They left their assegais and shields on the touchline, took on the best players in Sheffield, which was the centre of world soccer, and beat them 5-4. Cetewayo, now in his 50s, did very well against Mosforth, the England international winger.

Perhaps I should point out that the Zulus were only Zulu in name. They were not black men but white soccer players, faces and hands corked, bodies covered with black jerseys and stockings, feathers round their heads and white beads around their necks. The Sheffield players complained that some of the burnt cork rubbed off during their jostling in the match; they needed a better bath than normal.

The players were announced with Zulu names, but Dabulamanzi, for instance, was really Jack Hunter, one of the best Scottish players of the generation. The game was played to raise money for the widows and orphans of soldiers killed in the Zulu War, and a crowd of around 2,000 contributed to the cause. The Zulu warrior team, formed by Mr Brewer of Fargate, had already played one game at Scarborough. Now, encouraged by the success in Sheffield, they began to tour the region, visiting places such as Barnsley and Chesterfield. It became an exhibition team, masquerading, experimenting more and more with war paint, frolicking and clowning. They never lost a game.

After a few months the Sheffield FA began to disapprove. A storm broke when Jack Hunter was dropped from a North-South representative game, because he had played in a Zulu game in Scotland. W. Pierce Dix of the Sheffield FA wrote to the local newspaper in January 1881 to explain the action: 'The Zulus were going about the country playing matches in a manner which in the opinion of the committee was calculated to degrade the game and bring discredit upon those connected with it; and further, that these players were receiving payment for playing'.

Zulu players were warned that they would be barred from representative games and FA cup ties. The team disbanded. They hung up their assegais and shields forever. The next year, Cetewayo visited London as part of his temporary exile. Dressed in European clothes, he was a popular figure with great authority, dignity and adaptability. In another life he might have made a football manager.......

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:04 am

Fascinating, Simon - and entirely relevant I'd say. I suspect other ways were also used to raise money for the fund.

Not sure if the "costumes" would meet with approval these days - a bit evocative of the Black & White Minstrels!!

Had the whole affair occurred only half a dozen or so years later, it is likely that they would not have been forced to "lay down their assegais" quite so easily. This was the decade during which the industrial north began to loosen the grip which the public schools, universities and military elite in the south had so far exercised over the control of Association Football (or "soccer", as the universities were increasingly beginning to call it). Two players had been suspected of taking money for playing in 1879 and by the late 1880s professionalism was well established. With the Sheffield club being the very first in the world one can imagine how popular this 1880 match would have been.

In the past I have checked the Royal Engineers FA Cup Final teams of 1872 and 1874 to see if any of those players went on to serve in the AZW, but they didn't as far as I can see - although I daresay a careful trawl of the Army List or perhaps JY's notes would dig up an interesting military career for some of those players. It would have been nice to have discovered John Chard or Anthony Durnford appearing in an FA Cup Final (it could very easily have happened!) and then there would be a different sort of medal to watch out for on eBay. (I suppose Major Ferenc Puskas would be the nearest equivalent).

Astonishing to think that the current worldwide World Cup hysteria originated in the clash between those old Victorian amateur diehards at Lancaster Gate and the determined, gritty pros of Lancs and Yorks. Let's hope all our friends in RSA know what's going to hit them in four years time!

Peter

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:14 pm

Great stuff Simon...I enjoyed that football post

Those early days of football were something in England... so tell me what did Sheffield and the Zulus play surely not 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or 4-4-3, eh?? Had to be probably 2-3-5 or 2-3-6, eh????.....
Saw one of the first FA laws:
"No player shall be allowed to wear projecting nails, iron plates or gutta percha on the soles or heels of his boots". heh heh I know they were trying to clean up the game!

And also do you think they took photographs of the players at those "Zulu" games? Would love to get one. I do know some football photographs of those very early days in the 19th are around.

You guys have done well.....took a while but yer on the board. Rooney will help now. Good luck.....er....we have some work to do against Italy! It would help if the guys run... Wink