Joe Nyame, Jackson’s Park and Cricket Park

I know the topic of my piece this week may appear odd and queer. I must confess I never planned for it, even though it was my intention to write something about the once famous Jackson’s Park in Kumasi, on whose turf some of Ghana’s great footballers of the 50s and some well-known foreign players of that era plied their trade.

I had to conjure this topic after attending the burial mass of the late Joseph Yaw Nyame-Kusi, popularly called Joe Nyame, at the Christ the King Catholic Church at Cantonments in Accra on Thursday, September 21, 2017.

Joe Nyame had died on August 18, 2017 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. I read the bad news in the social basket column of the Daily Graphic during the week. I was shocked because I had not seen or heard of Joe Nyame for about a decade. The last time I saw him was at the Old Assembly Press near the Graphic when I parked my car in front of a big shop owned with his wife. We hugged and exchanged pleasantries.

Joe Nyame was a childhood friend. We grew up together at Allabar in Kumasi. Our houses on Tamale Street were not more than 100 metres apart. Even though we did not attend the same primary school, his younger brother whom we used to call Kojo Mensah, but now Dr Hubert Kojo Nyame-Mensah, was some three years my junior at Salvation Army Primary School at Ash Town.

Education

Interestingly, Joe Nyame attended St. Paul’s Primary School at Amakom in Kumasi and was a year behind me when I moved to St. Paul’s Middle School in January 1958. Unfortunately, Joe Nyame had his middle school education at State Middle School, which we used to call “Division” in those days and, therefore, did not join me at St. Paul’s Middle.

However, he met a lot of my school mates from Salvation Army Primary at Division not far from the Suame Roundabout since that was the destination for most pupils from Salvation Army Primary.

But Allabar brought us together. Joe Nyame, his brother Kojo, Johnson Addae my own mate at Salvation Army who was also at the mass last week Thursday and Kwasi Afriyie, a cousin of Johnson, now deceased, and was also our mate were always seen playing together.

After our basic school in Kumasi we all scattered and most of us came to stay Accra. I enrolled at WASS while Joe Nyame went to Tema Secondary School after a brief stay at Ebenezer Secondary School at Mamprobi. Kojo Mensah also followed his brother to Tema.

During this period I hardly had contact with Joe Nyame. He and his brother moved away from Allabar and we no longer saw each other.

It was not until I entered my final year at Legon in October 1969 that Joe Nyame joined me at Commonwealth Hall where he instantly became a popular student through sports, continuing from his days at Tema where he was an outstanding sportsman.

After a year, we parted ways again but by the time I came back to Legon for my postgraduate studies Joe Nyame had also graduated and joined SIC, where he built a career from 1973 to 1995.

As we grew up and pursued different careers, our meetings were no longer frequent. We hardly met to socialise but in our hearts we remained friends and brothers.

Shocking death

It, therefore, came as a shock to me when I learnt about Joe Nyame’s death. It was too late to attend his one-week celebration at his residence but I made sure I was at his burial mass, especially so when fellow Vandal Dr Yaw Kuranchie, called to give me details of the funeral arrangements before they were published in the Daily Graphic and Daily Guide.

I informed our Allabar friend, Johnson Addae, who was also at Christ the King Church that day.

I was overwhelmed by the gathering at Christ the King, with so many sympathisers who had come to pay their last respects and give him a final farewell. It was a congregation of who was who in Ghana, from politicians to school mates, from business associates, to family members and other well- wishers.

After the service, I interacted with so many friends who grew up in Kumasi before making Accra their base. There were also many Old Vandals in attendance. One particular man surprised me by telling me he knew me at Salvation Army Primary in Kumasi. I couldn’t recognise him.

One person I talked to at length was Mr Poku Kyei, who happens to be the junior brother of one of the best friends I made at Commonwealth Hall, the late Bob Kyei, a lawyer who died as a High Court Judge sometime in 1996 when I had just returned from Nigeria.

Anytime I bumped into Poku he would comment about some of the things I have written in my column. When we met at Christ the King two Thursdays ago, he told me I left out the name of Sandy Osei Agyeman, a great Sportsman, when I wrote about some of the top athletes produced by the Schools and Colleges Sports.

I understood him since Sandy is an old student of his school, Opoku Ware. I told him it was an oversight and I apologised.

Cricket Park

But Poku asked me why I have still not written anything about the old Cricket Park near the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi. He really surprised me but I told him I was rather thinking of the Jackson’s Park and promised to write something about Cricket  Park too.

I was not, however, too much surprised about Poku’s request. I knew he and his senior brother, Bob Kyei, were living close to Cricket Park and I used to visit Bob there when we were students at Legon, precisely at Commonwealth Hall. Cricket Park was not too far away from my house at Allabar.

When I got to know about Bob Kyei’s demise I went to the house to meet the family and to express my condolences. Even though I did not see any familiar face I was satisfied I had gone to show my love.

Now back to the Cricket Park. It was one of the popular features of Kumasi in the years before independence. It was a big round park with green grass fenced by iron sheets. When we were growing up in the 50s they had stopped playing cricket there but it was a venue for many social gatherings. I remember before the Kumasi Central Mosque, which is not too far away from the Cricket Park, became the permanent venue for ID prayers by Muslems in Kumasi, the Cricket Park was used by Muslems for their prayers on festive occasions.

Later, if my memory serves me right, the park became the training ground for Asante Kotoko Football Club. We even learnt the place was to be turned into a permanent home ground for Kotoko. The plan was probably shelved following the construction of the Kumasi Sports Stadium, which was opened in 1959.

Today, the Cricket Park has disappeared, completely. It has given way to the Manhyia District Hospital, a beautiful health facility, which is probably next in size and importance in Ashanti to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

What about the Jackson’s Park? Elderly football loving fans in the Garden City cannot forget the place that was the most popular entertaining centre in the 50s before the construction of the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

In its place today stands the Jubilee Park, which is now a very popular venue for outdoor activities in Kumasi.

But in the 50s, as we used to say, all roads led to the Jackson’s Park on Sundays during the football season. Weekends were very busy periods for residents of Kumasi, as on Saturdays, the place to be was at the race course, where people from far and near gathered to enjoy horse racing and did some gambling to make or lose same money.

When the popularity of the Jackson’s Park was at its oak in the 50s, I was still in my early teens. No Sunday will pass without me and my friends going to the park to watch league matches.

In those days, the two Kumasi clubs playing in the national league were Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Kumasi Cornerstones. Clubs from elsewhere in the league, such as Hearts of Oak and Great Olympics from Accra, Hasaacas and Eleven Wise from Sekondi, and Dwarfs and Vipers from Cape Coast, were regular in Kumasi on Sundays, to honour league watches.

No matter which clubs were playing, my friends and I would find our way to the Jackson’s Park, which was a walking distance from home, every Sunday.

A very interesting aspect of the whole thing was that we never had money to pay as the gate fee. We would either go and wait for gates to be opened free, with only 15 minutes left for play or we would use the adjacent Prempeh Assembly Hall and look for any opening though the asbestos sheets that served as fence to get entry.

It was sometimes risky as we were chased around by security men, who would catch us and throw us out of the park. But to us it was all fun.

During my middle school days at St. Paul’s at Amakom, we would always make sure we passed through the Jackson’s Park on our way home to watch the training sessions of Kotoko on weekdays.

Jackson’s Park also played host to clubs such as Real Madrid, featuring Di Stefano and others, Santos with Pele while Blackpool also came calling but not with its greatest ever player, Stanley Matthews, who came during the same period as guest player for Accra Hearts of Oak.

Today Jackson’s Park is no more but some of us remember with nostalgia, the role it played in the development of soccer in Ghana.