Stephen Madi Mokone OIG was a South African football player who was the first black South African player to play in a professional European league.
Background
Mokone was born in Doornfontein, a suburb of Johannesburg, but his family moved to Sophiatown before settling in Kilnerton in Pretoria. The Durban Bush Buckinghamshire player was close to signing for English side Newcastle United but for the intervention of his father, who wished him to continue his studies.
Career
He was nicknamed The Black Meteor and Kalamazoo. Mokone attracted much attention in his native South Africa, making his debut for a South Africa Black XI at the age of just 16. Mokone began his professional career in 1955 with English side Coventry City, where he made four league appearances, scoring one goal in the process.
He was the first foreign professional player in Dutch football.
A stand in Heracles" Polman Stadion is named after him. He later joined Cardiff City, making a goalscoring debut on the opening day of the 1959-1960 season on 22 August 1959 during a 3–2 victory over Liverpool.
He made just two more league appearances for the side, before being signed in 1959 by Spanish side Football Club Barcelona. However, because Barcelona had filled their quota of foreign players, he was loaned to French side Marseille.
In 1964 Mokone moved to the United States.
He was subsequently sentenced to serve between 8 and 12 years in New Jersey State Prison. In 1980 Mokone stood trial in New York County, New York, accused of having orchestrated an attack on his wife"s lawyer, Ann Boylan Rogers, in which sulfuric acid was thrown in her face outside her home in Manhattan on 8 October 1977. Mississippi Rogers was left seriously disfigured and blind in one eye.
Mokone was found guilty of Assault in the First Degree in May 1980 and later sentenced to serve 5 to 15 years in New York State Prison after having completed his New Jersey sentence.
He was released from custody in August 1990. In 1996 he founded the Kalamazoo South African Foundation.
Dutch sports journalist Tom Egbers wrote a novel based on Mokone, which was made into a movie in 2000. Both novel and movie are called The Black Meteor (De Zwarte Meteoor).
Mokone died in Washington on 19 March 2015.
Court documents
1. Mokone v. Kelly, (habeas corpus proceeding in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York), reported at 680 F. Supp. 679 (SDNY 1988) -- shows basic facts of case and, in discussion of "Evidence of Other Crimes and Bad Acts," the New Jersey Case.
2.
Mokone v Fenton, (habeas corpus proceeding before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit), reported at 710 F. 2d 998 (3d Cir 1983) -- shows the length of the New Jersey Sentence. 3. New York State Department of Corrections website. "Inmate Lookup" for Deutsches Institut für Normung # 85A5876, Mokone, Steve—shows correct date of birth, crime of conviction, length of sentence, and release date.
General
SouthAfrica.info
Knowledge Network
Hayes, Dean (2006).
The Who"s Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books.