IF there was ever a consummate footballer from Guyana it would have to be Earl O’Neal. A master in the defence `The Pig’ represented his club Thomas United and Guyana with distinction and could arguably be labelled one of the finest to wear our national colours.

In his heyday O’Neal shared the field with names that appear in bold letters in the local football history books – Ken Gibbs, Keith `Wiler Niles, Patrick `Labba’ Barton, Geronimo Braithwaite, Rudolph `Chow Hunte and the list goes on.
In those days getting pass O’Neal was tantamount to breaking out of Alcatraz, and many forwards would revert to chanting a psalm and requesting divine intervention when coming up against the stalwart.

O’Neal was born on November 24, 1950 and was the last of six children. His first love was not football but rather cricket. He was also a good athlete having represented Georgetown in the 100 and 200 metres events.
However, at age 16 O’Neal was denied a chance of participating in the BAT cricket competition. So frustrated was the young O’Neal that he forever turned his back on the game of glorious uncertainties. A friend, Morris Smith took him to join Thomas United in 1966 and he never looked back.
The dapper player stayed with that team until 1990 when he finally bowed out of competitive football and turned to coaching. O’Neal remembered that as a youngster in Thomas United he felt the urge to play in the strike position.

“I started out playing as a striker. It was natural as the strikers got all the glamour and the attention most times they got all of the (pretty) girls. They were the ones scoring the goals, so naturally I wanted to be a striker,” he said.

However, his stint in the `Glamour Boy’ position was short lived as the then captain Ken Gibbs reasoned that O’Neal would do much better in the defence. Gibbs must have been clairvoyant . O’Neal made an immediate impact and suddenly goals against Thomas United became as scarce as thunder storms in the Sahara.

“I started out as a right back, then was sent to left back, then to centre back where I remained until I ended my career.” It was around that same time in 1966 that he was given the pseudonym “The Pig” by no other than Gibbs.
“I was well adapted to playing when it rained,” the veteran footballer recalled. “ I would run through the mud with ease while other players were finding it difficult to control the ball in those conditions. Ken looked at me one day and said – boy you got to be a pig, look how you running through that mud.”
The name stuck and to this day he is fondly referred to as `The Pig’

With O’Neal marshalling the defence, Thomas United would go on to win many titles and had numerous tussles with arch rival Pele thereafter. “I never played junior football for Guyana but as Thomas United progressed we won the national league in 1971 and were selected to represent Guyana in the CFU Club Championships in Suriname.

“We played Transvaal in a home and away fixture and were beaten in both games,” O’Neal reminisced. It was soon after that that he received his first of 69 senior national caps. From 1971 to 1980 when he retired from representing Guyana `The Pig’ never missed a national duty, through injury or otherwise.

He scored one international goal (from a free kick) in a match against Barbados in 1977 in Guyana and played his final game for Guyana against Cuba in Linden.

So skillful was O’Neal that he was selected for a Caribbean team that played against top English Club Hull City. “Myself, Maurice Enmore and Geronimo Braithwaite were the three Guyanese selected to the Caribbean team. Jamaica, Trinidad, Suriname and Barbados all had players on the Caribbean team,” he remembered.

The game was played during 1974 at the GCC ground and goes down as one of O’Neal’s most memorable. Playing in front of his home crowd was a privilege and O’Neal was confident of making his scores of fans proud.
However, fate would deal the defence star a cruel blow in the second half of the game that was watched by a capacity crowd.
“ My father and mother came out to watch me play. I remember going up in the second half to head a ball and my head connected to the elbow of Hull City captain Terry Neil. I received a gash over my right eye and had to leave the field. That gash carried eight stitches. My mother never came back to see me play. However, the Caribbean Team drew the game 1-1.”

The father of three girls had his first taste of captaining the senior national team in 1976 after replacing Maurice Enmore. He held that post until 1980. Questioned about the quality of football being played now as against his time, O’Neal pointed out that there was much more pride and dedication in his time.

“I think that back then we had better individual players. There was more commitment and dedication to the sport even though we didn’t have the tangible rewards that the players of today enjoy.” Would he do it again if he had the chance? “I love football. I loved playing it, love watching it, love being a coach and just love anything to do with the game.”