Sport

Orville Edwards is dead

Orville Edwards - file

ORVILLE EDWARDS, ARGUABLY Jamaica's finest ever goalkeeper, is dead.

Huntley Green, a longtime friend of Edwards, says he passed away last Thursday (August 18) at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Edwards, who suffered from kidney problems for several years, was 53 years old.

Green says Edwards became ill Tuesday evening and was taken from his Kingston home to the UHWI where he slipped into a coma.

First-choice 'keeper'

Although he regained consciousness, Green says he died mid-day with his mother and stepfather at his side. Edwards was a member of the Santos team that dominated local football for most of the 1970s. He was Jamaica's first-choice 'keeper' for years and at the peak of his form, also represented the Caribbean All Stars.

"Orville was a humble, jovial person ... a team person," was how Green remembered the man he knew since 1964 when they tried out for the newly formed Santos Football Club's junior team.

Back then, Green says the burly Edwards was a promising midfielder who switched to goal when he moved to Clarendon after attending Holy Trinity Junior Secondary School and played for Vere Technical in the rural daCosta Cup competition.

Striker Kenneth 'Bop' Campbell and midfielder Allan 'Skill' Cole were also members of the Vere team that ruled the daCosta Cup during the early 1970s. Under the guidance of coach Jackie Bell, they would form the core of a Santos team that won the National League title for five straight years that decade.

Low profile

Corsel Blair, Norman 'Guttu' Thompson, Altimont 'Doc' McKenzie, Leonard 'Chicken' Mason and Geoffrey Maxwell were other key figures during Santos' glory years.

Edwards continued to play competitively up to the early 1990s when he turned out for Santos in the Masters League competition. However, as his health deteriorated, he kept a low profile.

"He had fallen on hard times, the cost of taking care of his kidney had taken its toll," said Green.

Edwards is also survived by several children. No funeral arrangements have been made as yet.