'Unparalleled' story of black rugby [league] star Cec Thompson

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Not sure if this article is worth its own thread but it's definitely worth a read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14252055

'Unparalleled' story of black rugby star Cec Thompson

"His story is probably unparalleled in British sport, never mind rugby league."

Tony Collins, of the International Centre for Sports History at De Montfort University, has no doubt about the significance of Cec Thompson, who died on 19 July at the age of 85.

In 1951 the Hunslet and Workington forward won two Great Britain caps, the high point in the sporting career of a man who overcame prejudice and illiteracy after a difficult start to life.

Mr Collins said: "Where he came from and then ended up is almost unbelievable."

Theodore Cecil Thompson was born in 1926 in County Durham, where his mother came from. His Trinidadian father was working in Leeds but died before his son was born.

Due to poverty, and the early death of his father, the future rugby player's early childhood was spent in orphanages.

In 1938 the family was reunited when he finally returned to his mother's house in Leeds. He went on to serve with the Royal Navy during World War II.

He was working in Leeds after the war when he tried rugby league for the first time with a works team. Within just a few games he had signed as a professional for Hunslet, his local team.

Rugby league enabled him to change the complete arc of his life.

Tony Collins
Sports historian

In The Glory of Their Times, his book about black pioneers in rugby league, Thompson wrote: "Little did I know that rugby league would bail me out of a bottomless pit."

He described how his memories of being treated as a second-class citizen spurred him on to succeed.

He recalled that people would not sit next to him at the cinema or on the bus - yet he said no Hunslet player made mention of his colour and the team were "like siblings" to him.

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