Dennis Walker: Manchester United's first and only black Busby Babe

A fluent Farsi and Arabic speaker, Walker became in 1963 the first black player to make a senior United appearance

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On 19 September 1981, 20-year-old Remi Moses became the second black footballer to play in the league for Manchester United in a 1-0 home win over Swansea. But Moses had been just two years old when United’s first and only previous black player had debuted in 1963.

A lot of people, including Viv Anderson when we interviewed him, think that Tony Whelan was United’s black pioneer, but the club’s current assistant academy director never made it into the first team. In fact, Tony regularly corrects people when they cite him as the first black player to pull on the famous red shirt – an honour which goes to Dennis Allen Walker.

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Related: Black History timeline

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