Cyrille Regis. Gone but will never be forgotten.

Jan 15th 2018. 9-30 to 10-15.

The article was written in a 45 Minute teaching break between lessons.

I'd heard the emotional news of Cyrille's death two hours before.

Here are my words from that article.

Great players resonate.

Their influence has an impact.

A tactility that becomes a layer of you.

Losing Cyrille Regis today, is simply for all West Brom fans like losing a little bit of yourself.

To appreciate Cyrille's impact, you need to understand the times..

92 League clubs

50 black players

West Brom had three of those black players, Batson, Cunningham and Regis.

It made us as exotic as our yellow and green stripes...

Brazil in the Black Country.

Batson was dependable.

Cunningham was panache.

Regis was raw, unadulterated power.

Each dovetailed the other perfectly and became the anathema to the many obstacles in their way.

A battering ram for right versus wrong, for wrong was in many, many towns.

Games were not the live, worldwide events they are now.

How would the media 'sell' a product with routine 'monkey noises', when black players were in possession of the ball from a vocal pocket of rival fans??

These three were at the vanguard of defiance of the time, and set in stone a vision for black kids to see that they to could make it.

The tributes from the likes of Mark Bright and Andy Cole clearly show Cyrille led a trail that they too could walk.

Visions create this, a debt many recogonize on this sad day.

To see Cyrille was inspiring, even his name was exotic, the league back then was full of Billy's and Frank's..

I recall, in very small print seeing WBA had signed Cyrille for 5 Grand from Hayes and he was born in French Guyana in a daily newspaper.

Things like this never happened to my club, indeed to most clubs back then.

I recall Cyrille's early days, and simply no on filled a shirt like him, barrel chested, bicep bursting through what ALWAYS seemed to be a short sleeved shirt, this build fitted as the personification of pace and power.

All you wanted as a fan was a 1 v 1.

A hapless defender trying to match Cyrille either in the air or on the ground.

Any fan who was there will know the moment Cyrille unleashed, took the ball to a defender and burst through the gap.

Cyrille's cousin John was an Olympic 200 Metre runner.

Cyrille would have destroyed him over 20 Metres...

The run was always a prelude to the blast, the gorgeous unleashing of a shot, Exocet in it's nature, Cyriile seeemingly captured in midair in the unleashing of this missile.

The same with his headers, hanging in time, muscles bulging, captured in photos, in films, in our minds...

To wake up to this news has with all Baggies fans had a huge impact.

The death of a hero, so young impacts massively.

Cyrille of course graced many other teams, he somehow bridged the West Midlands gap, playing for Villa, Wolves and winning the FA Cup with Coventry.

I was ecstatic for Cyrille, but would have loved to see him in his majestic, 'power inducing pomp' win the cup, rather than use his experience and guile.

Yet of course Baggies fans forgave him.

He was and always will be one of us.

Indeed a quote by Cyrille describing WBA as 'my club' is painted on a wall at The Hawthorns..

In later life, Cyrille became a zen like figure, embracing Christianity and was the model of humility.

An incredible human being who competed in a time of indecency.

To create a path takes courage and Cyrille's path was one many, many have taken since, but the first steps are always the most improtant.

Big man, your steps have stopped, but your path wil never, ever be forgotten.

January 14th 2018. 9-30 to 10-15.