Thought you guys might like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRX27aw ... e=emb_logo

Thought you guys might like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRX27aw ... e=emb_logo

Thanks for that Jack. Fascinating viewing.

We all should be immensely proud that we were the first professional club to have appointed a black coach and if I'm correct have the first black captain of any national side in this country.

My favourite comment is that the players didn't recognise his skin colour. That's how it should be but after watching the demonstrations in London there is still a long way to go.

Totally agree. Should the club do more to highlights Roy's contribution to Hull FC?

I’m going out on a limb here and I hope what I’m trying to say is taken correctly. You say should FC not honour Roy more but it’s my opinion that he was accepted as a great player and future thinking coach and his colour didn’t come into it. I was brought up in Hull and had black friends, you just took it for granted. It would be great for the club to celebrate his achievements as a MAN not because he’s black. Sully had a Road named after him that links West and East for his achievements playing for Hull and Rovers, incidentally, the only player to win a Challenge Cup winners medal with both clubs. Didn’t Roy achieve more success whilst at Leeds? Basically what I’m trying to say is they’re both remembered fondly for being outstanding not being black, honouring them for being black highlights a difference.
I must say that the attitude of the Aussies at the time shocked me. Also the bigotry of The Welsh RU but that was carried over to Rugby League in general, David Watkins being a prime example.

I take your point that he should be remembered for his achievements and not his skin tone. However, it isn’t sensible or even really possible to tell his story without the context of the social history. So, I agree, absolutely, that we can ignore race of the man - we just shouldn’t forget the racism of his time. Not that I’m implying you are suggesting that.

Before starting I should say that Roy Francis was a friend of my father who worked for Roy when he had a hotel/pub in east Hull. I met Roy at that time and caught up with him in Sydney in 1969 shortly after my dad died and my arrival in Australia in 1968.

I started watching Hull FC in 1946 and Roy arrived in 1949 as the player/coach and I went to almost every home game until I left Hull in 1960. The 50's decade was for me the greatest period in Hull FC's history which included appearing in 3 consecutive League Title finals and winning 2, reaching 4 Yorkshire Cup finals(3 in succession), being at Wembley for 2 consecutive CC finals and winning the first(and last) European Cup. A truly great memorable period to be a Hull fan.

Roy achieved a CC win at his 3rd attempt when coaching Leeds. He sent my dad a ticket for that Wembley game but dad died suddenly a week or so before the final and having come back from Aus.for the funeral, I went in his place.

Race relations in Aus. shocked me too and I had just completed a 2 year contract in an apartheid South Africa. The" White Australia" policy had wound down but the race problem remained. Also Roy was on a hiding to nothing in coaching the North Sydney Bears as they had never been near a premiership title. He was the first British coach for an ARL club.

He told me that he took the opportunity partly because of his disappointment with being left out of the 1946 Ashes tour and it would enable him to visit Aus. In the end he didn't enjoy his time here and was glad to leave.

In my brief association with Roy Francis I found him to be a humble man who had a brilliant rugby brain. He loved people and was an ideal coach and manager. He copped so much racial flack but carried on regardless. The first time I saw him play was at the Boulevard the season before he came to Hull. I was only 10 and my dad came with me mainly to watch Brian Bevan but another player at centre also took the eye with dad saying that he was a player he would like to see play for Hull. It was Roy Francis and of course he received the racial abuse but Warrington won the match.

Finally for me it is heart warming to read the comments below the video about Roy. He lives in my memory and he will remain there forever.

Lovely eloquent story, fascinating account of memories from the 40/50s.

I wasnt really talking about the racial side. I was thinking that Arthur Bunting is well known and rightly praised for his time as coach.

And I would imagine his name is well known by young and old FC fans..Should not Roy's be too??

How many of our supporters do you think know who Roy was and what he did for Hull and RL in general.

Probably older fans, I get your point. My dad and a lot of my older friends waxed lyrical about Roy and Gentleman John and their team, much the same as I do about Arthur and Knockers team. I know Wilf (Pete Allen) has done several exposes about the Panzer Pack era. I guess it’s a generation thing, living memories and all that.