Football's Pioneers: Eddie Parris

On 5 December, 1931, Parris (1911-1971), a young left-winger with Second Division side Bradford Park Avenue, made his one and only appearance for the Welsh national team.

Although he was a highly-rated forward, his selection owed much to the tendency at the time for leading Football League clubs to refuse the release of their non-English players for Saturday internationals due to their own fixtures. Caps for players with lower league or even amateur clubs were thus not uncommon.

The match did not go well for Parris. Wales lost 4-0 to Ireland and he was judged by one newspaper as ‘not up to international standard’.

Parris enjoyed a long career in which he amassed 268 league appearances and scored 60 goals but was never picked for Wales again.

Indeed his achievement as the first black player to be capped by Wales was barely mentioned at the time and was forgotten for many years.    

He was born in the village of Pwllmeyric near Chepstow. His father, originally from Barbados, worked as a telegraph wireman for the Post Office.

Eddie joined Chepstow Town at the age of 16 and was scouted by Bradford Park Avenue within a couple of seasons.

He scored his team’s only goal in his senior debut in January 1929, an FA Cup tie against Hull City. Over the next few seasons he played regularly and scored freely.

He was Park Avenue’s top scorer in 1931/32 and formed an impressive partnership with future England international Albert Geldard on the other wing.

According to Martin Johnes of Swansea University, an expert on Parris, the Welshman was regarded as talented but inconsistent.

His main strengths were his speed, dribbling and ball control; ‘selling the dummy’ was his speciality.

During the early 1930s, First Division outfit Everton were interested in signing him and in 1932 the Daily Mail praised his skill and called him ‘not a little football genius’. 

During the 1933/34 season, Parris suffered a serious injury, lost his first team place and was sold to Bournemouth, then in the Third Division South.

He had two seasons with the Cherries, followed by spells at Luton Town and Northampton Town in the same division.

When war broke out in 1939, Parris was in his late 20s. He moved to Gloucester and found a job at a local aircraft factory.

He continued to play football with his factory team and Southern League clubs Gloucester City, Bath City and Cheltenham Town.

In 1947 he was made player-coach at Gloucester in what seems to have been his final playing season. Parris stayed in the aeroplane industry after the war and died in 1971, aged 60.  

For several seasons, Leicester City Football Club has worked with De Montfort University’s International Centre for Sports History & Culture on various heritage projects. This season, staff and students at the Centre will feature those players who were pioneers that contributed to the growth and development of the game. 

For more information about sports history at DMU please click HERE.