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Laurie Cunningham (March 8, 1956 - July 15, 1989)
was an England national football team|England
international association footballer, the first
black player to represent England in a competitive
football match.

Born St. Mary's Archway, London, Cunningham joined
Leyton Orient F.C.|Leyton Orient after a start in
schoolboy football. He joined West Bromwich Albion
F.C.|West Bromwich Albion in 1977, where, under
maverick manager Ron Atkinson, he teamed up with
fellow black players Brendon Batson and Cyrille
Regis. Never before had an English team
simultaneously fielded three black players. The
Three Degrees, as they became known, challenged
the established racism of English football and
marked a watershed that allowed a generation of
footballers to enter the game who would previously
have been excluded by their ethnic background.

West Bromwich Albion became one of the most
attractive and exciting English sides in the late
1970s and Cunningham soon attracted attention. He
became the first black player to wear an England
shirt in the under-21 friendly against Scotland
national football team|Scotland at Bramall Lane on
April 27, 1977, scoring on his debut. He
subsequently earned six full England caps.

In 1979, he moved to Real Madrid for Pound
Sterling|GBP 995,000 though he never recaptured
his early brilliance. His later career saw him
increasingly distracted by off-field interests
and, after leaving Real Madrid in 1983, he was
loaned to Manchester United and Leicester City as
well as having permanent spells with Sporting
Gijon of Spain and Charleroi of Belgium. He
finally returned to the English game on a
permanent basis with Wimbledon at the start of the
1987-88 season. Although he had limited first team
chances, he made a substitute appearance in the
famous 1988 F.A Cup final win over Liverpool. Soon
after that he was transferred to Rayo Vallecano in
Spain.

On the morning of 15th July 1989, Laurie
Cunningham was killed in a crash in Madrid at the
age of 33.

===Bibliography===
*Bowler, D & Bains, J (2000) Samba in the
Smethwick End: Regis, Cunningham, Batson and the
Football Revolution ISBN 1840181885