During the early 1960's - an era of considerable racial tensions, it is remarkable, now, to think that Prescot Cables featured two black footballers in the same side.
In another feature, I have focussed on Elkanah Onyeali. In this feature I examine the career of Onyeali’s friend and compatriot, Fabian Duru, who actually preceded him by a few weeks at Prescot Cables.
I originally published a feature about Fabian Duru on this blog in October 2018. However, since then I have learned more about his career, so this feature replaces the earlier version. It is featured in the digital matchday programme for the Northern Premier League, Premier Division match between Prescot Cables and Ilkeston Town on 26th October 2024.
Fabian Duru was an established, and respected footballer in his native Nigeria. He captained the national team - the Red Devils - against the Black Stars of Ghana on September 10, 1960. In October of that year, he led the Green Eagles, to the West African Games, the first time that the national team of, the newly independent Nigeria, had worn their, now familiar, green jerseys.
He was also fully involved in Nigeria’s qualifying games for the 1960 Olympic Games, although they did not make it to the finals.
Duru was nicknamed ‘Mechanic’ because of his ruggedness. In an interview in 1992, he recalled his performance in a friendly against Moscow Dynamo in Lagos. “In 1960, during a friendly with Dynamos of Moscow, I stopped a goal bound shot with a sliding tackle and the following day there was a newspaper headline, ‘Duru bites the dust’. I also got a miniature Sputnik along with the other Nigerian players.”
Duru ended 1960 as Sportsman of the Year. It was the first time a footballer would win the award in Nigeria.
Like many Nigerians during the time of civil unrest in their home country after independence, Fabian Duru came to England to further his education. Duru had originally trained as a teacher in Kafanchan but had moved to Lagos where he got a job with the National Energy Company. In 1961, the National Energy Company sent Fabian to England to study electro-engineering at Liverpool University.
However, alongside his studies, Duru was keen to maintain his football and, in August 1961, he was signed on a part-time basis by Lancashire Combination side, New Brighton. He made his first team debut for the Rakers in January 1962 against Netherfield and, although nominally a left-half, he was played mostly as a left-winger at New Brighton.
Fabian Duru spent the season playing on the Wirral, and had a trial at Southport, before he made the switch to Prescot Cables, at the start of the 1962/63 season. He had already established a place in the Cables’ starting line-up, playing two games, before the arrival of Elkanah Onyeali in September 1962. Former Tranmere man, Onyeali, had begun the season at Newport County, although, as he was still studying on Merseyside, he had been training at Prescot, but had found the travelling to South Wales too much. Bert Taylor, writing as “Bon” in the Prescot Reporter, noted at the time that Onyeali was anxious to join his friend Duru at Prescot.
The pair of Green Eagles quickly formed a formidable, and productive, left-wing partnership, with Onyeali at inside left, and Duru outside him. Onyeali scored two goals on his debut, and bagged eight goals in his first five games, with Duru also contributing a couple of points and several assists.
Unfortunately, Fabian Duru suffered a serious leg injury which kept him out of the Cables team between October 1962 and February 1963 (although not many games were played during that snowy, frozen winter), only to suffer a further injury in his comeback game at Chorley, which kept him out almost to the end of the season. In that 1992 interview, Duru spoke of his injuries as a player, saying, “I had a terrible time as a professional footballer, so I swore that my kids will not play football”.
Elkanah Onyeali finished the season as the club’s leading scorer, and he and Fabian Duru were two of only six first-teamers named on the retained list at the end of the 1962/63 season. However, Fabian Duru left the club at the end of the season.
A feature article on the Banbury United Football Club website in October 2022 has enabled me to fill in some more details of Fabian and his football career after Prescot Cables.
He moved to Banbury in the summer of 1963, having secured a job at Switchgear & Equipment, based in Southam Road but travelled to Leamington Spa one day a week to continue his education. He joined Banbury Spencer at the beginning of the 1963/64 season, making his first team debut for Spencer in October 1963, and would go on to make a total of 27 appearances for the club that season. He remained with the club for season 1964/65, but made just four first team appearances, the last being in April 1965.
Whilst in Banbury, Fabian met a Dutch girl, Ronni van der Eem, and they married in August 1964. After eventually losing his job with Switchgear in a restructuring of the business after a merger, Fabian subsequently worked for a number of companies including British Leyland in Cowley before, in the summer of 1976, he secured a job more suited to his qualifications with the local water supply company.
Banbury United chairman, Ronnie Johnson has very fond memories of Fabian. “Fabian was a larger than life character. As I started my football career in youth football Fabian took charge of the Under 18’s at Easington Sports and also Sinclair United for whom I both played and he was a fantastic coach and mentor to all the lads.”
At the end of October of 1976, Fabian received a letter from the Nigerian Embassy offering him a job back in Nigeria as the head of the Electric Department of Public Works for the entire Benue State of Nigeria. Fabian accepted the offer and so after 15 years in England he returned to Nigeria in December 1976, settling in Makurdi, with his wife and two sons and adopted daughter following him the following summer when suitable accommodation had been sorted.
However, in retirement, Duru did not completely abandon his involvement in football. He served on the Nigeria Football Federation Board and settled down at Lobi Bank football club, Makurdi.
It appears that Fabian Duru was a very private man, as there was little local press coverage of his lauded past as a footballer back home, suggesting that he did not talk much about it. Reports in the Liverpool Echo and the Wallasey News when he was signed by New Brighton, both stated that Duru had played for, and captained, the Nigerian National side, but went no further. (Several contemporary newspaper reports also spell his unfamiliar name as variations of Fabian/Fibian Duru/Durru/ Douru).
Biographical details for Fabian Duru are limited and, it was only through a Nigerian website feature published in 2020 (www.nextedition.com.ng), that I have been able to verify, with absolute certainty, that the player who journeyed to England in 1961, the last captain of the Red Devils and the first captain of the Green Eagles, were, indeed, one and the same man. This was, subsequently, verified by the aforementioned feature on the Banbury United website.
I am grateful to both sources for the information.
With the benefit of hindsight of 60 years, it is remarkable that, in 1962-63, Prescot Cables regularly featured two black players in the same side. Even more remarkable is that those two Nigerians were both International football superstars in their own country!
Comments