Beverly Ranger became a star in 1975 with her goal of the month, which was exceptional in many ways. Now the football pioneer is 70 years old.
Beverly Ranger is unstoppable. With sheer determination, the Bonner SC striker got past five opponents, passed the goalkeeper and fired her team back into the race for the German championship at full speed. With the remarkable equalizer against SSG Bergisch-Gladbach, which was voted goal of the month in June 1975, the native Jamaican rose to stardom.
On Wednesday (March 15th, 2023) Ranger will be 70 years old, but the award for her goal to make it 1-1 in the final of the Middle Rhine Championship does not trigger any positive feelings in her more than 45 years later. Because the sports show presenter Ernst Huberty greeted them with a racist greeting that would trigger a justified outcry today.
Discriminatory greeting in the sports show
“All women from Kingston Town are beautiful and coffee brown,” is the lyric from the 1958 song by Vico Torriani, which Huberty quotes. Ranger is “the living proof,” he adds, presenting the medal to the footballer, who was born in the Jamaican capital.
“That really blew my mind. What was that about? What do you want to achieve with it? It was unnecessary,” Ranger said about two years ago in an interview with the sports show. she was there “to talk about the goal and women’s football. Everything else was unnecessary.” And she is “very proud” that she “helped women’s football in Germany get going”.
Second Goalscorer of the Month
Ranger came to England at the age of twelve and moved to Germany in the 1970s, where she suddenly became known to a broad public with her “Goal of the Month”. Her popularity brought Ranger, among other things, a sponsorship deal with a sporting goods manufacturer. She was told she was “the first star” of the sport, according to Ranger.
With the goal that made Ranger the second goal scorer of the month after Bärbel Wohlleben, she also put the BSC on course for the title. In the end, the women from Bonn won the game against SSG Bergisch-Gladbach, with whom Ranger celebrated a championship in 1977, advanced to the finals and later secured the title in the final against Bayern Munich – Ranger scored there too.
Beverly Rangers has lived in the for many years USA. She once vacationed in the States and liked it there very much, so she stayed. “We’re still not where we should be. We’re far from good. But we’re making progress.”she says about fighting racism.