THE FIRST time Michael Long was racially vilified wasn't anywhere near a football ground.
It was 1988 and Long, then 18, was walking along an Adelaide street when a complete stranger, for no apparent reason, called him "Black Sambo".
Such was the profound effect of those two words on Long, the stranger may as well have punched him square in the face.
The youngster didn't know how to react, so he just walked on. It was his first exposure to racism in any form. The very concept had never even entered his mind.
Long was overwhelmed by a torrent of emotions – shock, confusion, hurt, disgust, inferiority, anger.
This emotional response had much to do with Long's background.
He hailed from a fiercely proud Aboriginal family deeply connected to its heritage and culture.
Long's parents were members of the ‘Stolen Generation’ in the Northern Territory. Michael was the seventh-born of their nine children (seven boys, two girls) raised in Darwin.
His mother Agnes had died from cancer just before Christmas in 1983, when Michael was just 14.
His father Jack had been a tough footballer but a loving man, his mantra being: "We are one. As long as you’re a good person, the door is always open."
The young Michael Long wasn't aware of any racial tensions on or off the field, with Aboriginal players making up a large chunk of Darwin's football community.
"There was an understanding and a respect of other cultures because we’d grown up together, gone to school together and worked together," Long explained.
Adelaide was a shock to his senses. Long went there to pursue an SANFL career with West Torrens, and was regularly taunted on the field. A handy boxer, he wanted to knock the words back in their mouths but generally resisted the urge because he didn't want to be suspended.
He recalled: "Racism was wrong on so many levels, but it wasn’t against the rules, so what do you do? What could you do?"
The only way Long felt he could hit back at his tormentors was with performance.
He joined Essendon for the 1989 season, and League football in Melbourne took the race issue to new levels.
"I wasn’t racially abused every game, but it was accepted as part of the game," he said.
Like many other Aboriginal players, he was also sent anonymous, racist letters.
Racism in football reached flashpoint in the 1995 Anzac Day clash between Essendon and Collingwood when Magpie ruckman Damian Monkhorst racially taunted Long.
The incident sparked the establishment of the AFL's racial vilification policy.
Read the full story in the round nine edition of the AFL Record, which is available at all grounds.
