‘Kammy’ was invited to send a message to a special event organised as part of Black History Month. With the 40th anniversary of his first League game coming up in late October conversations started between Bees United and the club about an appropriate way to mark the occasion. The idea was simple: invite to black footballers from different eras to talk about what life was like for them during their Brentford careers. Chris is so buy as a TV personality he was fully booked up but Club Ambassador Marcus Gayle arranged for Chris to send this video message
The event was held at the London Museum of Water and Steam, the home of the ‘Farewell Griffin Park- the Fans Story exhibition (curated by Bees United). Chairing the panel was Deji Davies, a new Brentford FC board member and a former non-league player himself. The panel members were Marcus Gayle, Marcus Bean and Brentford Women ‘s midfielder Rebekah Edwards.
Former Bees striker Francis Joseph who was scheduled to join the panel was prevented by illness. Event organiser Kevin Coleman, Brentford’s Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion had a special guest from America.Joe Briggs is the legal and policy counsel for the NFL Players Association and he told the story of how NFL player Colin Kaepernick first ‘took the knee’.
Marcus Gayle has kindly loaned the exhibition at the Museum his England under-18 cap and the shorts -with the name ‘Gayle’ sewn on – which he wore on the successful 1991-2 season when Brentford won promotion from what was then the Third Division. The shirts were reunited with Marcus’s signed shirt which was in the club archive. The three panelists visited the new Black History Month section of the exhibition and saw Marcus Gayle’s very shprt shirts.
The Black History Month exhibits also include three panels with facts and figures about the contribution black players have made to Brentford.The displays were created with the help of Brentford fan statistician Jonathan Burchill.
Clayton Donaldson and Toumani Diagouraga both tweeted their pleasure at being included.
