There Was Once A Soccer Player Named Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo isn't a very likely name to have, especially in the world of sports, but one South African soccer player was known as "Kalamazoo" and "The Black Meteor." Steve Mokone, the first black South African soccer player to ever play Europe was well known as Kalamazoo during his career, which spanned from 1955-1964 when played for the South Africa Black XI team.

"Kalamazoo" scored 15 goals while playing for the Dutch team "Hercules" during his time with the team from 57'-59', and 10 goals while with the Australian "Sunshine George Cross" team in his final season of play. After his career was over, he moved to the U.S. and gained a degree, a master's and then a doctorate, becoming an assistant professor in psychiatry. Soon after, he was convicted and imprisoned for separate felony assaults committed in 1977 against his then wife, Joyce Maaga Mokone, and the 34-year-old female attorney who was representing Ms. Mokone in divorce and custody proceedings at the time.

According to his Wikipedia: "On 31 October 1978, Mokone pleaded guilty in Superior Court of Middlesex County New Jersey to the crime of atrocious assault for having personally attacked his wife with lye on 20 November 1977. He was subsequently sentenced to serve between 8 and 12 years in New Jersey State Prison. In 1980 Mokone stood trial in New York County, New York, accused of having orchestrated an attack on his wife's lawyer, Ann Boylan Rogers, in which sulfuric acid was thrown in her face outside her home in Manhattan on 8 October 1977. Ms. Rogers was left seriously disfigured and blind in one eye. Mokone was found guilty of Assault in the First Degree in May 1980 and later sentenced to serve 5 to 15 years in New York State Prison after having completed his New Jersey sentence. He was released from custody in August 1990."

He maintained he wasn't actually guilty of the crimes until his passing. In 1996, he founded the Kalamazoo South African Foundation. Mokone died in Washington on 19 March, 2015.