Gilbert Saint Elmo Heron (9 April 1922 – 27 November 2008) was a Jamaican professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He was the first

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

player to play for Scottish club

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and was the father of poet and musician

Gil Scott-Heron Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American Jazz poetry, jazz poet, singer, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician ...

Career

Born Gilbert Heron in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

Frank Dell'Apa
"Giles Heron: Played for Celtic, father of musician"
''Boston Globe'' (4 December 2008). Retrieved 2 June 2011. to Walter Gilbert Heron and Lucille Gentles, he came from a family of means. He played for St Georges College, a prominent Jamaican high school, and won the

Manning Cup The Manning Cup Football Competition (also currently known as the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Gatorade/Digicel Manning Cup football competition for sponsorship reasons) is an annual football (soccer) contest among Secondary ...

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 The Hon. Herbert Henry McKenley OM (10 July 1922 – 26 November 2007) was a Jamaican track and field sprinter. He competed at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics in six events in total, and won one gold and three silver medals. Born in Pleasant Vall ...

as a schoolboy. He moved to Canada as a youth and was later enlisted in the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

. As well as being a

track athlete Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping event ...

and a

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, he played football and broke through during his stay there. A

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, he signed for Detroit Corinthians and the champion

Detroit Wolverines The Detroit Wolverines were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team that played in the National League from 1881 to 1888 in the city of Detroit, Michigan. In total, they won 426 games and lost 437, taking their lone pennant (and winning the pre ...

, where he was top goalscorer in the 1946 season of the

North American Soccer Football League The North American Soccer Football League, also known as the North American Football League, was a soccer league that operated for two seasons, 1946 and 1947. Fred Weiszmann was the league founder and first president in 1946 while Leslie O'Conno ...

. He then played for the

Chicago Maroons The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as ...

in 1947. After playing for

Chicago Sparta The Sparta Athletic and Benevolent Association Football Club, better known as Chicago Sparta, is one of the longest continually established soccer clubs in the United States. Founded in 1917, it was one of the dominant teams from Chicago, Illinois, ...

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

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, and one of the first to play professionally in Scotland, Heron went on to score on his debut on 18 August 1951 in a League Cup tie against

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton ...

that Celtic won 2–0. Heron only played five first-team matches in all, scoring twice.Roddy Forsyth
"Celtic's first black player, Gil Heron, dies"
''The Telegraph'' (30 November 2008). Retrieved 2 June 2011. He was released by the club the next year after making one appearance in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

(having been unable to displace the established John McPhail) and joined

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...

where he played in seven League Cup matches, scoring five goals but did not appear in the League. Next he went to English club

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

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 Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

, on 22 May.

Personal life

While in Chicago, Heron met Bobbie Scott, a singer, with whom he had a son in 1949,

, who became a famed poet and musician. They separated when Heron left for Scotland and did not meet again until Scott-Heron was 26.Norman Otis Richmond
"Gil Heron, 81, father of Gil Scott-Heron, joins the ancestors"
Celtic graves (Republished 19 January 2011). Retrieved 2 June 2011 Heron had three more children with his wife Margaret Frize (deceased), whom he met while in Glasgow, Scotland: Gayle, Denis and his youngest child Kenneth, who was killed in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. His older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the

Norwegian Merchant Navy The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship) was established in London in April 1940 to administer the Norwegian merchant fleet outside German-controlled areas. Nortraship operated some 1,000 vessels and was the largest shipping company ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and then joined the Canadian army,Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron
The Memory Project. Retrieved 2 June 2011. later moving to Canada, where he became active in black Canadian politics. At Celtic he earned the nicknames "The Black Arrow" and "The Black Flash". While living in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, he played

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

with leading local clubs such as Poloc. He later became a published poet, 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.

References

External links

Giles Heron
The Celtic Wiki. Retrieved 2 June 2011 * http://www.jaweb2.com/jaalumni/stgc/fball3.html * http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2009/01/090108_heron.shtml {{DEFAULTSORT:Heron, Gil 1922 births 2008 deaths Sportspeople from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican footballers Jamaican expatriate footballers Jamaica international footballers Celtic F.C. players Third Lanark A.C. players Scottish Football League players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players North American Soccer Football League players Detroit Wolverines (soccer) players Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland Association football forwards Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Canada Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in the United States Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in England Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Scotland