Gil Heron
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gilbert Heron | ||
| Date of birth | 9 April 1922 | ||
| Place of birth | Kingston, Jamaica | ||
| Date of death | 27 November 2008 (aged 86) | ||
| Place of death | Detroit, United States | ||
| Playing position | Centre forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| – | Detroit Corinthians | ? | (?) |
| – | Detroit Wolverines | ? | (?) |
| 1951–1952 | Celtic | 1 | (0) |
| 1952–1953 | Third Lanark | 0 | (0) |
| 1953–1954 | Kidderminster Harriers | ? | (10) |
| – | Detroit Corinthians | ? | (?) |
| Total | ? | (?) | |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Gil 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.
He died in Detroit of a heart attack on 27 November 2008.[1]
Career
Born Gilbert Heron in Kingston, Jamaica,[2] he came from a family of means.[3]
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.[4]
He was spotted by a scout from Glasgow 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,[2] and the first to play professionally in Scotland,[5] 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.[6] He was released by the club the next year after making one appearance in the Scottish Football League[7] and joined Third Lanark where he played in seven League Cup matches, scoring five goals but did not appear in the League.[8] Next he went to English club Kidderminster Harriers before moving back to Detroit Corinthians. At Celtic he earned the nicknames "The Black Arrow"[6] and "The Black Flash".
Personal
While in Chicago, Heron met Bobbie Scott, a singer, with whom he had a son in 1949, the poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron. They separated when Heron left for Scotland[9] and did not meet again till Scott-Heron was 26.[10] Heron had three more children, Gayle, Denis[2] and Kenny, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit.[10] His older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the Norwegian Merchant Navy during World War II and then joined the Canadian army,[11] later moving to Canada, where he became active in black Canadian politics.[10]
References
- ↑ Wilson, Brian (19 December 2008). "Obituary: Gil Heron". London: The Guardian.
- 1 2 3 Frank Dell'Apa, "Giles Heron: Played for Celtic, father of musician" Boston Globe (4 December 2008). Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ "Heroes Remember: Roy Heron" Veterans Affairs Canada. Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ David A. Litterer, "The Year in Soccer: 1946" North America Soccer List (29 March 2005). 2 June 2011
- ↑ "The Gillie Heron story". BBC Caribbean. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- 1 2 Roddy Forsyth, "Celtic's first black player, Gil Heron, dies" The Telegraph (30 November 2008). Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ "Profile". Post War English & Scottish Football League A – Z Player's Database.
- ↑ Gil Heron Scottish League (5 July 2005). Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ Alec Wilkinson, "New York is Killing Me" The New Yorker (9 August 2010). Retrieved 2 June 2011
- 1 2 3 Norman Otis Richmond, "Gil Heron, 81, father of Gil Scott-Heron, joins the ancestors" Celtic graves (Republished 19 January 2011). Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron The Memory Project. Retrieved 2 June 2011
External links
- Giles Heron The Celtic Wiki. Retrieved 2 June 2011