Lucky Stylianou, the former Kaizer Chiefs player who received the club chairman's special award this week, made history in 1978 when he became the first white to don their famous black and gold jersey.
That was of course back in the dark days of apartheid following the predicted collapse of the whites-only National Football League where Stylianou had starred for Southern Suburbs, Jewish Guild, Lusitano and Wits University.
His move to Amakhosi paved the way in terms of bridging the racial divide as players' attitudes towards each other gradually changed. Some of his early team mates included Ryder Mofokeng, Joseph Mkonza, Eric Ngidi, Computer Lamola, Nelson 'Teenage' Dladla and Patrick 'Ace' Ntsoelengoe.
"I'm not rich money wise but in terms of my experience as a Chiefs player, I'm blessed," Stylianou once told Soccer-Laduma.
"No amount of money can ever buy the kind of love I received as a member of the Amakhosi. You must remember, I played at Chiefs when we tried to be normal in a very abnormal society.
"As soccer people, I think we were way ahead of the politicians."
The defender won the 1979 Mainstay Cup and another handful of trophies during the early 1980s while in 2009/10 he served as the club's technical manager of youth development.
