Black History Month Players: Ade Coker

 As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link. But today's post and thread on X is on the final of West Ham's "three degrees" from the history-making game in April 1972 to be covered this month in Ade Coker. 

Born in Lagos, Nigeria on the 19th of May 1954, Coker grew up in the African nation until the age of 11 when he moved to the UK in 1965, joining his father and older brother, who had moved a year earlier. Moving to Fulham in West London, Coker’s abilities were clear from a young age, playing for his school team as well as the West London district team by the age of 14, which obviously caught the interest of professional clubs, who wanted to sign the talented teenager.

Coker would go on trail with a few professional clubs, where at one trail, he was racially abused. Obviously Coker did not want to sign with the club in question, not wanting to return to a club where his colour would be a barrier to him having a professional career. Speaking to West Ham’s website this year, Coker said: “I won’t name which one, but I went to a team for a trial before I came to West Ham and I was even called names by people there. I never went back because of that”. But a few days after that trail, Coker would sign with West Ham after being spotted by the famous scout Wally St Pier, claiming that it was fate, stating in the same interview with the club that: “it was just coming home. I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Coker loved his time at West Ham, signing professional terms with the club at 17 and joining a group of black players at West Ham that included the Charles brothers, John and Clive, as well as Clyde Best. Coker believes no other club par West Ham would’ve had such a group at that time stating: “They didn’t see a player’s colour. They saw & developed his talent. They developed that person as a player & human being, and gave him a chance on the pitch. They saw the person, not the colour”.
In fact, it was fitting that when Coker did get his debut in October 1971 at the age of 17, he would make it alongside his fellow black professional & his mentor/ surrogate big brother in Clyde Best in a game against Crystal Palace, which became a debut to remember for Coker.

Not knowing that he would be playing until half an hour before kick-off due to a late injury to Geoff Hurst, Coker took the most of the opportunity, scoring 6 minutes into his debut with a beautiful left-footed volley into the top corner of the Palace net. But it was his technical abilities that mesmerised everyone not just in the stadium, but at home as well as the game was being shown live on TV on the big match programme, highlighting Coker’s limitless potential to the masses. In fact, Coker’s amazing debut came as a shock to everyone except Ron Greenwood, who had known of these abilities since Coker was 14 as Wally St Pier’s report to Greenwood on Coker had listed his dribbling & technical abilities as “exceptional”.

However, Coker would struggle to capitalise on this debut, due to having his creative abilities stymied by the unforgiving, physically brutal nature of 70s football, suggesting Coker was definitely a player ahead of his time and could’ve been a star if he had debuted in later years. In his 4 years as a professional with West Ham, Coker found first team opportunities limited, only making 11 appearances, scoring 3 goals, before initially on loan to join the Boston Minutemen in North American Soccer League in 1974, where Coker would really reach his potential. But it should be mentioned that one of Coker’s three goals for West Ham came in that history-making game in April 1972 when he, alongside Clyde Best & Clive Charles, became the first three black players to appear in the same team, with Coker scoring the second goal in a 2-0 win over Spurs.

Moving to America in the close season at the end of the 1973/74 season, Coker would sign with the Boston Minutemen, making 19 appearances & scoring 7 goals before a brief loan spell with Lincoln City, where he’d make 6 appearances, scoring his only goal for the club on his debut. In 1975, Coker would leave West Ham on a permanent basis, moving to America again with the Boston Minutemen, where he would play alongside the Portuguese legend Eusebio, spending one season with them making 29 appearances and scoring 14 goals.

Due to the Boston Minutemen facing bankruptcy, Coker would join the Minnesota Kicks, where he’d spend 2 years scoring 11 goals in 28 appearances and earned a runners up medal in the NASL in his first season with the club. Coker would move from Minnesota to San Diego in 1978, joining the San Diego Sockers, where a very serious knee injury would see Coker tear all of his cruciate ligaments & miss 14 months of action, where  Coker’s determination saw him return to playing, scoring 7 goals in 13 games. However, San Diego did not want to take a risk on Coker’s fitness & he was moved to the Rochester Lancers where he’d make 6 appearances before moving into indoor soccer, playing for the Baltimore Blast, scoring 14 goals in 35 appearances, which inspired San Diego to sign him back. Coker would spend the final 2 years of the NASL with San Diego, finally realising all of that potential he’d shown on his debut in 1971, scoring 33 goals in 62 games and gaining international honours, earning 5 caps for the US men’s national team, scoring twice in 1984. 

After the NASL collapsed in 1984, the San Diego Sockers would carry on as an indoor soccer team and became the dominant team of the era, winning 7 indoor soccer championships in 8 seasons between 1985 and 1992 with Coker scoring 48 goals in 74 appearances between 1984-87 and winning two titles in 1985 & 1986. Coker would leave San Diego in 1987, retiring a year later at the age of 34 after a brief spell with the St.Louis steamers, bringing down the curtain on an esteemed career in America that’s been recognised as one of the best in American Soccer history.

The recognition in question came from the famous Sports Illustrated magazine which listed Coker, who scored 74 and assisted 38 goals in 156 games in the NASL at 15th in a list of the most influential players in US soccer history. To put this into comparison, Coker finished higher than legends of the game such as George Best, who came in 23rd and his mentor/big brother at West Ham in Clyde Best, who was 36th.

After retiring, Coker has led a quiet life away from football, working a normal 9-5 at Home Depot (which is like America’s version of B&Q) and continues to live in the United States to this day. But he is proud of the legacy he has in football and the legacy that West Ham has created in pioneering black representation in English football. However, he recognises that whilst we’ve come a long way, we’ve still got a long ways to go.

Speaking to the club in February of this year, Coker stated that the education around racism is a key tool in helping us combat it and highlighting that combatting it at its roots is the only way we can eradicate it permanently, stating: “Change is coming. It’ll happen. It may not completely happen in my lifetime, but it’ll happen because the wider community are made aware of the problems. People are being exposed to it & the people who are saying racist things & committing racist acts are being exposed as well”. And Coker is right! Whilst some people try to use anonymity to hide themselves, they are being rightfully  rooted out and demonised to eradicate racism within football and within society. If we can call it out and stop it, then its eradication will be achieved quicker.

Whilst Coker was never able to establish himself at West Ham, he did leave a great legacy in football both on & off the field, having a stellar career in the USA on the field & helping to break down racial barriers in this country both on & off the field too.

Thanks for reading today’s thread!

Today’s sources were:

These two interviews with West Ham:

https://www.whufc.com/news/ade-coker-family-culture-yesteryear-still-west-ham

https://www.whufc.com/news/ade-coker-its-us-be-part-racism-solution

As well as Brian Belton’s “The Black Hammers” and Daniel Abraham’s ‘71/72: football’s greatest season?’