Clyde Best And True Meaning Of Greatness
[Written by Patrick Bean]
“It was never about me. It has always been about my country and the young people coming after me. If they get to see what I have done, it might help them and it’s going to help our country.”
Clyde Best
Clyde Best‘s upbringing, gratitude, and community devotion showed that success does not equal greatness.
Thrust into the racially charged English First Division in 1968, Best knew that greatness comes from uplifting others. Helping others achieve greatness helps one achieve it oneself.
As in life, sports require conviction and determination to challenge bigoted networks; talent alone rarely transforms.
The forthcoming documentary, *Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story*, will illustrate that resilience is critical to enduring and transcending inequities.
Adaptability, resilience, and emotional intelligence are essential traits to ensure one excels and inspires others. Such is the essence of greatness.
Greatness isn’t just being the best; it’s prioritising others over yourself. Greatness dismantles barriers, broadens pathways, and makes marginalised aspirations real.
Sporting greatness favours experience over youth, draws from diverse global talent pools rather than small locales, and favours powerful nations over disadvantaged former colonies.
Jackie Robinson, for example, transcended racial barriers to become MLB’s first Black baseball player in 1947. He was 28, in his prime, when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Many saw him not as the most talented Black player, but as the most likely to thrive in a flawed system, paving the way for others with less fortitude.
Best remarkably showed these qualities at 17. His ability to navigate difficulties inspired others from disadvantaged backgrounds, and his talent pushed the sports establishment to accept him.
Former West Ham team-mate Ade Coker, a co-star in the upcoming documentary and arguably the first to perform the Marseille turn, aptly articulated this sentiment at a recent launch dinner, recalling feeling reassured when signed in 1971.
“I was 17 and quite apprehensive, but then I saw Clyde, a giant, and he became my protector… I knew I would be alright.”
Award-nominated actor Tony D. Head, narrator of the Dan Egan film, wondered why Best’s story has been largely ignored in sports.
“This is the greatest story I’ve ever read,” said head of Best’s tale. “I don’t know why it’s not talked about more.
“A 17-year-old travels thouands of miles to a foreign country and he not only enters the league, makes the team, but becomes the first Black football superstar … and we don’t know about it?
“I will take this story and stack it up against any athlete in any sport. At 17-years-old can anybody raise their hand say that they have done what Clyde Best has done?
“It has not been done before and must rate as one of the greatest athletic achievements of all time.
“Many mention Jackie Robinson, but I have to say this, because it needs to be said.
“Jackie Robinson was supported by Brandt Richie, who was president of the Dodgers. He and other executives of baseball decided that they wanted to integrate the league.
“But they had to pick the right one to do it. And I can tell you that Jackie Robinson was not the best player. He was one of the, without a doubt, one of the best, but not ‘the’ best.
“They needed someone who coul take racial taunts, institutionalised racism, who could not be baited or pulled into a fight like that … that was Jackie Robinson.
“He was 28-years-old … 28 when he broke into major league baseball. But imagine 17-years old, having to face a stadium not just filled with hostile people, not just against his team, but against him personally just for the colour of his skin.
“Who has done that? It hasn’t ever been done and likely never again.”
Team-mates’ Bond Inspires A Legend’s Story
Without a teenage relationship between film producer Dan Egan and Jerry Best [the legend's nephew], ‘Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story’ might still await production.
Formed among the classrooms and soccer fields of Bridgton Academy, located in North Bridgton, Maine, the pair’s association as team-mates blossomed into a deep friendship.
Initially, Egan was enamored by Best’s supreme athletic ability, which he had displayed at Warwick Secondary School and in the Bermuda Football Association youth leagues for Somerset Trojans.
“I’ve known the Best family since 1983,” revealed Egan during a sold out dinner launch of the film. “I played soccer at a small school called Bridgton Academy, and I played with Jerry Best, the best player I had ever met.
“He lit it up and we won the state championship and beat everybody in our path.
“And every time I came back to Bermuda, whether I was sailing here in the Marion Bermuda Race of working on the Americas Cup I would always touch base with Jerry.
“During the America’s Cup Clyde and I got to know each other.
“I later called my coach from Brdgton Academy and he said I should call a certain alumnus on the island and he was Speaker Dennis Lister.
“Dennis went to Bridgton Academy in 1974 and is in the Bridgton Academy Hall of Fame.
“At the time Speaker Lister said, ‘hold on I’m going to get – the then – Minister Peets on the line and he also went to Bridgton Academy in 1978.”
And so fate intervened travelling a course with Egan as its point man, but with a slew of contributing characters formulating a true tale of triumph over massive odds.
Jerry preferred to remain in the background, where he offered strong support. It was his friendship that ultimately unlocked a long-overdue story.
Just Call Him ‘Sir’!
Numerous career accolades have been bestowed upon Clyde Best of Bermuda; however, one significant honour continues to elude the individual who singularly elevated Bermuda onto the international sporting stage through his contributions to professional sports and the embodiment of professionalism.
It is notable that Best remains the youngest player to have participated in Cup Match, having debuted for Somerset in 1966 at the age of 15.
Furthermore, both a street and a sports complex are named in his honour.
Best was inducted into the Bermuda National Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded an MBE in the 2006 New Year Honours list for his services to football and the community in Bermuda.
He received an Honorary Doctorate of Sport from the University of Sunderland in London and won a silver medal with the national team at the 1967 Pan Am Games.
Despite Best’s achievements, he has not been knighted.
While the plea from Bermudians for Britain to recognise Best with the ‘Knight Commander of the British Empire’ [KBE title – just as Flora Duffy was recognised with the title’ Dame Commander of the British Empire’ [DBE] – is not new, the clarion call is increasing, with House Speaker Dennis Lister continuing as a lead voice.
“The title is long overdue,” said Lister. “This man changed the world of football.
“We need the country to stand up collectively so that those that make the decision understand that this recognition is long overdue.”
Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story will premiere in London, England, from March 25-29, 2026, followed by showings in Bermuda [April 21-27], Tampa Bay, Florida [May 7-9], and Portland, Oregon [May 14-16].
I believe that anyone can put a person forward for a knighthood. The form is available online some place. In fact, here’s the link. What? You waiting for Govt to do it?
https://www.nominate-uk-honour.service.gov.uk
I am very proud of this young boy who took steps to climb the mountain of uncertainty. His courage alone drove him to stand taller and stand out in a time zone that seemed out of reach. But his beliefs and drive drove him to excelence and he never looked back. Today many look up and young men and young people continue to climb the ladder to success
. One boy became the Man many a parent pray their young children would seek to climb the ladder of success as he did.