There was a moment, early on at our very first TackleLondon Matt Ratana Awards evening, when the whole room fell quiet. Floyd Steadman OBE – the first Black captain of Saracens – described being a child in care, and how it felt to be told he would amount to nothing.
It’s exactly the kind of moment TackleLondon exists to change the ending of.
Why Floyd’s Story Matters to Us
At TackleLondon, we work every day with young people across the city who are navigating their own challenges: at home, at school, in their communities. Our mission is about more than rugby. It’s about building the kind of support, structure, and belief around young people that helps them see a future for themselves, whatever their starting point.
Floyd’s story is a powerful reminder of why that work matters.
A child of the Windrush generation, Floyd grew up amid the racism and hardship faced by so many families who arrived in Britain to help rebuild the country after the Second World War. At home, he faced abuse from his own father – and at just 10 years old, he ran away, was later refused re-entry to his family home, and was taken into the care system.
He spent his formative years in Brent children’s homes, where, as he told our young people directly, he was repeatedly told he belonged on the margins of society, with nothing ahead of him but borstal or prison. It’s the kind of narrative we work hard to challenge every single day at Tackle London: that a young person’s postcode, background, or circumstances should ever define their future.
Role Models, Resilience, and Rugby
With no father figure of his own to look up to, Floyd found inspiration in Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Dr Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela; men whose examples of strength and dignity shaped the values he’d go on to live by.
Through education and a talent for rugby, Floyd built a different life for himself, becoming Saracens’ captain at just 23 and later receiving an OBE and a string of national honours for his contribution both on the pitch and off it.
For our community, his journey speaks to something we see time and again through our programmes: that with the right support, mentors, and belief, young people can rewrite the story they’ve been told about themselves.
His Advice to Our Young People
Floyd’s words to the room were simple, and exactly the values we try to instil through everything we do at Tackle London:
- Believe in yourself and aim high, whatever anyone else says.
- Mistakes are part of learning – not a reason to give up.
- Kindness and compassion, always, in how you treat others.
A Gift That Will Outlast the Evening
Floyd closed his address by announcing a donation of the Floyd Steadman Cup to our foundation — a gesture that means a huge amount to everyone at Tackle London. It will stand as a lasting symbol of everything his story represents: that where you start doesn’t have to determine where you finish.
We’re deeply grateful to Floyd for giving his time, his story, and now his name to our community. Evenings like this – our very first Tackle London Matt Ratana Awards – are exactly why we do what we do, and we can’t wait to build on this with our young people for years to come.