SAFC has teamed-up with the African Caribbean Community Association North East, which is based in Sunderland, to help launch a new junior football team named Windrush-Sunderland Football Club. The team is named after the arrival of HMT Windrush in 1948 into the port of Tilbury with hundreds of people from the British colonial islands of the Caribbean onboard who’d answered the UK Government’s call to help rebuild the country in the post-war years. Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our daily newsletter Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Sunderland Echo, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
The relationship first developed back in October (2023) when youngsters at the Academy of Light were studying about the Windrush, including hearing from Black Cats legend Gary Bennett whose own parents travelled to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. As SAFC head of education Don Peattie explained: “We first got involved with the Association as part of the Premier League’s annual Academy under 12s Christmas Truce project. The project had a focus on Windrush as celebrations had just taken place around the 75th anniversary.
“Our project centred around Walter Tull, who was a professional footballer and the first black serving officer during WW1. “He was also of Caribbean heritage, with his family originating from Barbados. Our boys decided to create some t-.