In light of the recent Vicarage Road centenary celebrations, writers from The Watford Treasury magazine look back at players who performed great feats on home soil.
First featured in last season’s matchday programme, Geoff Wicken writes about Watford’s first black-heritage player, who also became the Football League’s first black manager.
A 1-1 home draw against Nottingham Forest on October 28, 1950, wasn’t a bad result - Forest were the leaders of Division 3 South, while Watford were second-bottom. Of greater significance though was that the match marked the first time a black player stepped onto the Vicarage Road pitch in Watford’s colours.
Tony Collins, who passed away in February 2021, wasn’t the first non-white player to represent Watford - Jack and Edwin Cother had preceded him by more than 50 years - but few clubs had previously fielded black-heritage players. Their scarcity before and during the 1950s is illustrated by his also being the first at York, Norwich, Torquay and Crystal Palace. Tony’s life in football was remarkable.
After a playing career spanning the 1950s, he became the first black manager in the Football League in 1960 when appointed at Rochdale, who he led to the League Cup final as a Fourth Division club. He then moved into scouting, in which capacity he would watch England’s future opponents during the managerial reign of Don Revie in the 1970s, and later became chief scout at Manchester United for six years.
His biography, ‘Tony Collins: Football’s Master Spy’, co-authored by his daughter Sarita Collins, leads on these later achievements. Of course his playing career is covered too, and it’s clear that he looked back fondly on his time at Vicarage Road. Indeed, Watford was where Tony truly established himself in football. It was also the club for which he played the most: 107 of his 333 League games.
His early life hadn’t been easy. Born in London as a mixed-race child to a white teenage single mother, he was brought up mainly by his grandparents. As a teenager he lived through the Blitz, then found himself called up for the Second World War, where he served as an army driver in Italy.
On leaving the army Tony signed for Sheffield Wednesday, but never made the first team. He moved on to York, playing 10 League games, but the attitude of a new manager caused him to leave. Watford paid £250 for his services in August 1950.
He was among the more skilful players of the day: introducing him, the Watford Observer Football Handbook described him as ‘an attractive ball player’. His breakthrough season was 1951/52. Watford struggled near the bottom of Division 3 South again, but Tony was a regular, making 38 League appearances and scoring twice.
Then in 1952/53, with the team much improved following the injection of finances and new players, he was chosen for all 46 League games, scoring six goals. Reports on his play were sufficiently positive to attract a visit to Vicarage Road by Walter Winterbottom, manager of the England side, who can’t have been a regular at Third Division games.
In June 1953 Watford signed another black player, Roy Brown. Speculation that Tony and Roy would play together was brief however, as Tony moved to Norwich before the next season began - a decision that disappointed both fans and the local press. However, when the Canaries’ manager decided that all his team should be over six feet tall, Tony lost his place and transferred to Torquay.
In the summer of 1957 Tony returned to Vicarage Road. Roy Brown was still here, and thus Watford did become the first Football League club to field two black-heritage players in the same team. Tony and Roy both appeared in the season-opener at Bournemouth, and against Swindon on August 27, 1957, played together at Vicarage Road for the first time. That Swindon game was also noteworthy for another Vicarage Road first: the floodlights being used for a League match.
The Vic’s first set of lights had been installed in 1953, but they were only permitted for friendlies and reserve games until 1957 - the Football League’s position being that they might disadvantage visiting clubs who didn’t have them.
Tony’s second spell was short - he found manager Neil McBain hard to work with, and after just five months switched to Crystal Palace. From there he moved to Rochdale as a player, then player-manager, then manager.
Tony’s achievements in the game aren’t as widely recognised as they should be. But in 2019 he returned to the public eye. For the Premier League’s ‘Football Remembers’ project, filmmakers were seeking footballers who had served in the Second World War, and Watford historians helped to put them in touch with Tony. His intelligence, charm and storytelling stood out, even bringing about an interview for BBC Breakfast. His story is also prominent in the recent book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’, by Bill Hern and David Gleave.
Tony may not consciously have set out to be a hero or role model, but that is what he became. His time at Vicarage Road kickstarted the career of a very significant figure in the country’s football history.
