Tony Collins: Football League’s first black manager and ‘true pioneer’ dies aged 94

Tony Collins - the first black manager in English professional football - has died at the age of 94.

Collins became the first non-white manager to take charge of a Football League club when he was appointed as Rochdale boss back in 1960.

He spent seven years at Dale after initially being appointed as player-manager, guiding them to the League Cup Final in 1962, where they were defeated by Norwich.

Collins was also a scout for England and several clubs including Manchester United, Newcastle, QPR, Millwall, Leeds and Bristol City, while he also served as assistant manager and caretaker boss with the latter.

As a player, left winger Collins began his career with Acton United and also represented the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, York, Watford, Norwich and Torquay before scoring 16 goals in 61 appearances for Crystal Palace between 1957-59 and then moving onto Rochdale.

"It was always a pleasure to meet Tony at the training ground and be a part of his humorous way of dealing with most situations and with a very sunny personality that he had," Palace manager Roy Hodgson recently said of Collins, whom he hailed as a "enormous pioneer".

LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson also called Collins a "true pioneer" in football, while Sir Alex Ferguson said: "I was really saddened to hear the news about Tony and send my deepest condolences to all of his family.

"As well as being a valuable, knowledgeable and respected scout, he had such an engaging personality and I always enjoyed our conversations... His family should be very proud of all that Tony achieved."