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Cass Pennant

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Cass Pennant
Born (1958-03-03) 3 March 1958 (age 66)
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England
OccupationWriter
Period2002–present
SubjectFootball, Football hooliganism

Carol "Cass" Pennant (born 3 March 1958), is an English writer and former football hooligan.[1][2][3]

Background

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Pennant's mother emigrated from Jamaica while pregnant and he was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire. Six weeks old, he was abandoned and was placed into a Dr. Barnardo's Home. As a black baby, Pennant was fostered by an elderly white family in Slade Green, Greater London where he was the only black person, and where he states he was "bullied from day one" year after year, and beaten persistently - "Not just from rivals or other kids, the whole town. Imagine as a kid, you're picked out; people in vehicles shouting out at you, total strangers".[3]

Pennant had been christened Carol, a common masculine name in parts of the West Indies but unusual as a masculine name in the UK; this was also a source of bullying for him, particularly at school. After seeing legendary boxer Muhammad Ali (then known by his birth name of Cassius Clay) beat Henry Cooper, he adopted the name Cass.[3]

Pennant, who stands 6'4 (193 cm)[2], was a member and leader of the Inter City Firm (ICF) associated with the English football club West Ham United in the 1970s.[2] Cass Pennant's story is remarkable given the level of racism that was prevalent during the 1970s, 1980s and early 90s in Britain. Cass managed to rise to the top and become one of the generals of the ICF despite being black. He was eventually sentenced to four years in prison in 1980, and was the first person to receive that long a sentence for football hooliganism.[4] After a second time in prison he started running a night club security firm in London.[5] While working at one such nightclub in South London he was shot three times.[5]

In 2002, Pennant appeared on the Channel 4 documentary, Football's Fight Club about football hooliganism in the 1970s.[6] He has been a consultant on television programmes such as The Real Football Factories and The Real Football Factories International.[3] He also worked as a consultant and played a cameo role as a riot police officer in the 2005 drama film about football hooliganism, Green Street.[1][7]

In 2006, he had a documentary made about him, Cass Pennant - Enough Said (Gangster Videos) directed by Liam Galvin, and in 2008 a film was made based on Pennant's life story, Cass, starring Nonso Anozie as Pennant, and directed by Jon S. Baird.[2] In 2010, he played a leading role in the movie Killer Bitch.[8] He also wrote the foreword for Manchester United football hooligan Colin Blaney's book Undesirables and contributed a short piece about Manchester United's rivalry with West Ham[9][10]

Bibliography

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  • Author
    • Cass (2002)
    • Congratulations, You Have Just Met the ICF (2003)
    • Top Boys: True Stories of Football's Hardest Men (2006)
  • Co-author
    • Rolling with the 6.57 Crew: The True Story of Pompey's Legendary Football Fans (2004)
    • Terrace Legends (2005)
    • Good Afternoon, Gentlemen, the Name's Bill Gardner (2006)
    • 30 Years of Hurt: A History of England's Hooligan Army (2006)
    • Want Some Aggro? (2007)
    • The Story of Barrington 'Zulu' Patterson, One of Britain's Deadliest Men (2013)[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Official website". Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  2. ^ a b c Solomons, Jason (27 April 2008). "Trailer Trash - Fila dealer". The Observer. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d Leitch, Luke (16 June 2008). "Enough with the tough from a boy named Carol". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  4. ^ Live, Birmingham (31 July 2008). "Midland Premiere for Cass held in Broad Street". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  5. ^ a b Buchan, Jamie (4 August 2008). "Article - North-east director scores hit with first film". Press and Journal. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  6. ^ Kilner, Martin (29 April 2002). "Welcome to the Top Ten Rumbles". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  7. ^ Bellos, Alex (1 March 2005). "Hollywood wakes up to the call of the world's biggest game". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  8. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  9. ^ Blaney, Colin (2014). Undesirables. John Blake. pp. ix–xi. ISBN 978-1782198970.
  10. ^ Edmonds, Lizzie (23 July 2015). "Cass Pennant: Notorious former football hooligan now fights against violence". Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 July 2022. Pennant now regularly visits prisons, schools and other groups to relay his story and stop others from falling into violent crime and hooliganism.
  11. ^ Barrington Patterson; Cass Pennant (4 March 2013). One-Eyed Baz - The Story of Barrington 'Zulu' Patterson, One of Britain's Deadliest Men: The True Story of Barrington 'Zulu' Patterson, One of Britain's Most Fearsome Hard Men. John Blake Publishing, Limited. ISBN 978-1-78219-378-4.
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Cass - The Cass Pennant movie review at The Hollywood News

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