Ade Coker’s name is forever etched into football history.
A young lad born in Nigeria, who made his home in London, would not only score on his debut for West Ham United but also be a part of the first trio of Black players to feature in the same Football League team.
That momentous outing against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 April 1972, 51 years ago, saw the then 17-year-old feature alongside Clyde Best and Clive Charles. The teenage forward would even get on the scoresheet, netting the second in a 2-0 win over Spurs.
Over half a century on from that history-making afternoon in east London, Coker returned to West Ham United and the place that gave him the tools to be the man he is today, the famous Chadwell Heath training facility, for a trip down memory lane.
“It was eons ago that I was last here,” he laughed, looking at his name immortalised on the prestigious Graduates Wall. “It was back in the 1990s, when the first team were still at Chadwell Heath. But outside of that, I hadn’t been back since I left England to go to the United States.
“Coming back to the old stomping ground has been great. Being back at West Ham and seeing the new training facilities at Rush Green, and then coming back to Chadwell Heath, I am so glad to see that the culture from long ago is still here at the Club today.”
The importance of his time developing at West Ham, under the likes of Ron Greenwood, John Lyall and Bill Lansdowne, is clear to see on Coker’s face even to this day.
Learning from the Club’s World Cup icons – Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Sir Geoff Hurst – was a privilege for the young man.
“The word I keep coming back to is ‘family’. And it was a family. The Club puts so much effort into a player as a person.
“West Ham, to me…I go back to coming all the way here from Nigeria. A young boy, aged eleven, who went to school in London and, even though I lived in Fulham at the time, West Ham meant so much to me that I would travel here for training at 13, 14 years old. Ever since then, I’ve stayed with the team, and everyone was like family. We had boys from different areas of London but the closeness we had just incredible.
“As a young boy, I was scouted by so many teams, and I was fortunate to go and train with other teams, but when I got to West Ham it was just a different class. It was a different level. West Ham was the team of the First Division back then! The names were big. You can’t get any bigger than Bobby Moore, Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Clyde Best and John Charles. Then this little runt called Ade comes along and it was a big family.”
Months before the afternoon where Coker wrote his name into English football history, the then-youngster would make his debut for the Hammers in Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace.
At 17, Coker had no expectation of being in the squad, let alone starting. But named in the starting XI he was, less than an hour from-kick off!
With no time to truly think, Coker was walking out onto the pitch with men who had inspired his West Ham career so far. Just a few minutes in, the forward found himself in dreamland, popping up to score the opening goal in a 3-0 win.
“Sir Geoff Hurst was injured,” he explained. “The team list would go up the day before the game but you still don’t know who is actually going to play. I realised I was named to the matchday squad but I didn’t think anything of it. I was just happy to be involved in the first team, I wasn’t even thinking of playing.
“I got to the ground and, about 40 minutes before the game, Ron said ‘get dressed, you’re playing.’ If you had seen me, I turned as white as a ghost! I was in total shock!
“I can remember being sat down and Bobby Moore and Geoff both came over and told me I deserved it. It meant so much to hear those words of encouragement from them. That was all I needed as a player.
“We got out on the pitch and, just coming out of the tunnel and listening to the crowd, it was heaven. We got the ‘Bubbles’ sang and, any time that happened – still to this day – I will sing along when it starts. When you step on the pitch and hear that, it makes me want to run forever and play like a mad man possessed.
“I was in heaven. I probably played the first 15 minutes of that game floating in the crowds. When I scored, I ran all the way to Bobby Moore!”
Coker would make eleven appearances for the first team, scoring three goals in a two-and-a-half-year spell before taking the opportunity to switch to the USA.
The forward would spend the remainder of his playing career in America, representing the likes of Boston Minutemen, Minnesota Kicks, San Diego Sockers, New York Arrows, Baltimore Blast and St Louis Steamers.
To this day, Coker still resides in the States but will always consider his first home to be in east London, at Chadwell Heath.
“Driving here, you start remembering things and seeing little bits and pieces that are still there. Of course, a lot has changed, but you remember bits. You come over the hill outside of the training ground, and you remember the fence.
“Coming in the building, I was told they left the original entrance the way it was. You walk in and go to the left, which would have been the physio’s room, and it all brings back memories just by having those little pieces there.
“Memories were created when I joined the first team, and those memories have been recreated in my mind. Memories were created for a young lad who came from Nigeria and became somebody in the home of the Hammers. That memory has been recreated and brought back thanks to this visit.”
