'We grew up with abuse. There was no defence to it' - The Three Degrees at West Bromwich Albion and their lasting legacy on football
Brendon Batson, Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis will always be symbolically connected. Here's a look at the legendary Three Degrees, who shared common triumph and struggle during their time at West Bromwich Albion in the 1970s and 80s.
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Were Cunningham and Regis still alive, they would still be close friends, brothers even.
They shared common triumph and struggle in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the blue and white stripes of West Bromwich Albion.
Today we launch a major new series looking at their impact on the game, running from today until Monday.
They were Albion's trailblazers but they were not alone. Other teams had black players in that era, too, but it was not common. Across those decades it was still unusual, novel.
The Baggies, however, after West Ham had done so, became famous for The Three Degrees - Batson, Cunningham and Regis - the electricity in a thrilling side built in part by Johnny Giles, to flourish under Ron Atkinson.
Racial abuse on the football pitch was not a new experience to these players. Batson, 72, who now spends time between England and Spain, recalls to the Express & Star how he experienced such vitriol having moved to these shores and London, aged nine.
But, naturally, as their status and profile grew as part of Big Ron's vibrant Throstles, so did abuse.
"I played football in one of the biggest leagues, the Regent's Park League in London, we were a team of players on clubs' books, a good side with people watching us, but we'd still get abused on a Sunday morning," Batson recalls.
"We grew up with it. What changed obviously was the volume of abuse. There was no defence to it."
Batson, the former full-back who is now president of the club's Former Players' Association, referenced abuse at neighbours Birmingham City, and similar at West Ham, where bananas were thrown on to the pitch in his direction.
Those were far from isolated incidents. Those who followed Albion, pioneers and trailblazers with their multicultural line-up, witnessed a range of abuse for several years.
"I remember a home game against Newcastle United. It was the first time we saw a spectre of racism in connection to West Bromwich Albion, and Laurie to start with," says John Homer, chairman of the official supporters' club and match-going regular of 50 years.
"The series popular at the time was Roots (an American television show based on the slave industry) and there was a fair bit of chanting from Newcastle fans at the time.
"Laurie Cunningham that day was absolutely brilliant. It was only for the acrobatics from Mikey Mahoney in the Newcastle goal that we didn't beat them.
"We got to a point around 1977 or 1978 there was an undercurrent of it (abuse), but slowly and surely as more black players came into the game it died down a little.
