The story behind the Whites v Blacks West Brom game
In 1979, an innocently novel football match was played at The Hawthorns that would now never be allowed.
In order to encourage more fans to attend the testimonial of Albion midfielder Len Cantello, an all-White team captained by Cantello played an all-Black team captained by Baggies legend Cyrille Regis.
It was proposed as a light-hearted friendly designed to give Cantello a well-earned pay packet.In hindsight though, the match meant a lot more to one team than the other.
Lifelong Albion fan and broadcaster Adrian Chiles has made an hour-long documentary about the game for the BBC's Black and British season to be aired later this month.
At a screening at Mac Birmingham this week, former Albion centre-back John Wile admits he can't remember much about the match as a spectacle.
Perhaps it's unsurprising considering he made a club-record 75 appearances for the Baggies that season. "It was just another a game," admitted Wile, who is white.
Not so for the opposition. At the end of the 1970s it was a struggle to get together a squad of 13 black players.
Albion's famous Three Degrees - Regis, Brendon Batson, and Laurie Cunningham - were joined by Wolves' no-nonsense centre-backs George Berry and Bob Hazell. Stoke City's Garth Crooks featured, but then it got tricky.
Stewart Phillips, a striker from Fourth Division Hereford United played, as did a timid 19-year-old Albion trialist named Vernon Hodgson.
