Jim Baxter died today. His real name and picture are in Sports, sin and subversion. I’m glad now that I got the chance to talk to him before the book went to press. Jim Baxter was one of the football personalities who made the MCC Grounds such a wonderful, exciting experience on weekends in the 1960s and 1970s. He loved football and he lived football.
The reason I’m penning this is because I have to tell you about Jim’s great break, his great moment in 1974. The liquor man Cuello from Pickstock Street gave Jim the Green Stripe team to run. Cuello was from Orange Walk, and he wanted to feature Enrique Carballo and give Belize City the sense. While attending the Zamorano School of Agriculture in Honduras, Carballo, a native of Orange Walk, had proved that he was a big time striker, a natural goal machine. Cuello knew this, and invested money so the team could be built around Carballo.
Jim Baxter built a great team, with superstars like Harry Cadle and Mandingo Barnett and Baby Flowers in his forward line. I guess Ripper Coye, Tang Coye, Winston Denton, Oliver Estell, Gas McField, and all the stars from the BEC team moved to Green Stripe. But once Enrique was included, the chemistry wasn’t right for Green Stripe. Almost all the Green Stripe players were Plaza massive, guys who had grown up together in that area. They were so close that Green Stripe alternated Noel Ferguson and Puerto Alvarez as goalkeepers. You can’t alternate guys who are so good unless the core of your team is really solid in their unity. Cuello was right. Carballo later became a national superstriker. But he didn’t fit in with Green Stripe. He was an outsider.
By the second half of the season, in the early part of 1975, it became evident that Berger 404 would be the new regular season champions of football. I was with Berger at the time, because my younger brother, Miguel, was one of their wings. Before the Knockout tournament, Carballo, disappointed, went back to Orange Walk, and Green Stripe played Berger 404 in the Knockout finals with their Plaza core. Green Stripe bombed Berger that Sunday afternoon. 6-0 was the score. What I don’t remember is if Jim Baxter had walked when Carballo left, or even if Cuello himself was still involved with the team. All I know is Green Stripe put a bad hurting on the Lake. It was a massacre.
The following season, I took over Charger and stole Harry Cadle and Noel Ferguson from Green Stripe, which became White Label. Label beat Charger, in an emotional game, 2-1.
Only we who were football fanatics then will recognize today that a football icon has passed. Baxter added a special flavor to the Barracks. He was a part of our football life, thus we can truly say that something of us has moved on. This is one of the reasons Amandala exists, for moments like these when someone whom society ignored, yea contemned, deserves his respect. Respect, Baxter.