Vincent Julius

The first coloured footballer to play in the whites-only league

“WITHIN MONTHS THE NFL AMALGAMATED WITH THE NPSL AND RACISM IN FOOTBALL WAS DEAD.”

In the dark days of apartheid, you would have expected the reaction would have been one of shock and horror. Instead it was surprisingly positive. The newspaper headline was relatively bland: “Arcs Field Black”. But the copy was effusive. “The National Football League went multi-racial at the Caledonian Stadium last night,” wrote Denis Hands in the Pretoria News. “Arcadia Shepherds, one of the pioneers in professional soccer in South Africa, scored another first when they fielded a coloured player, Vincent Julius, against Guild-Apollo in a League Cup tie.” Hands added the crowd were thunderstruck “but delighted” as Julius tore down racial barriers on a quiet night in February, 1977. Never before had the strict rules of mixing on the sports field been broken. There had already been competition, between white and black teams but never had a mixed side been fielded in a proper competitive match. The Pretoria club were looking for better players to revive the glories of three years earlier when they had swept the board in the whites- only National Football League and chairman Saul Sacks made a conscious move to change matters. “It wasn’t supposed to be a big political gesture, but we knew apartheid was wrong and things had to change. Plus our coach couldn’t find any decent players. I told him to go and look for a black player and he found Vincent,” said Sacks, in an interview with KICK OFF before he died aged 88 in mid-2015. Julius was one of the stars of the Federation League, indeed their top scorer, and had also played for the Kaizer XI in 1969, before Chiefs was launched. He could not play for the new club in the Blacksonly National Professional Soccer League because ‘coloureds’ were not allowed. But eight years later, Julius took the plunge as Arcadia offered him a chance to make some decent money from the game. “I was a bit nervous, I had butterflies in my stomach,” Julius said. “But I wasn’t scared about playing with white players. Arcadia didn’t tell anyone before the game I would play. I didn’t know myself, although I had trained with the club for a few days before that. I was a little worried that the police would do something, but once I came out the people were happy and cheered. “I found they played disciplined football, they played for the team and stuck to what the coach had planned for them.” But things soon turned nasty. “White players used to call me names and tell me I had to remember who was my ‘baas’. Arcadia had warned me before the game, ‘they are going to call you names, just get on with your game’.” Arcadia had only registered Julius 10 minutes before kick off to avoid the administrators saying no. The game ended goalless, but Julius was an immediate hit with his skills and touches. He scored in next game against Highlands Park and quickly became one of the league’s most feared marksmen. Julius, now 68, still lives in Eersterus today, largely forgotten for his role. “Of course it was historic, but I just said I wanted to play. We used to think the white league was better and all black players wanted a chance to see how they could do there. Playing there was the highlight of my career, I loved the team and the players.” Arcadia had a liberal owner in Sacks, a Pretoria businessman who kept the club going for years after, even when the Pretoria City Council booted them from their home and sent them to play in Atteridgeville. He had been to see the National Party government about allowing players from other races to compete in the NFL, but got a lukewarm response from Sports Minister Piet Koornhof. “I decided let’s just do it anyway. Our coach Kai Johannsen wasn’t worried about the politics of it all,” said Sacks. “He was just happy to get a good player. Kai had been watching him in the township. I had told him we needed a black player, we needed to make a statement. “All the other clubs were happy we did it, they saw it as an opening of the gates.” Not long after Julius’ breakthrough other clubs followed suit and then players from across the racial barrier were invited to play as guests in a special knockout competition. Within months the NFL amalgamated with the NPSL and racism in football was dead. Sacks said it is a pity that Julius’ contribution was forgotten. “He was tremendous, he mixed, he was sociable, shy, a quiet and reserved gentleman. His personality stood out.”