Uriah Rennie officiated more than 300 Premier League games but was forced to learn how to walk again after a rare condition left him paralysed from the waist down.
Rennie, the Premier League’s first black referee, was once described as the ‘fittest’ match official in the game.
With a background in kick-boxing and aikido, Rennie comfortably kept pace with Premier League stars and was more than happy to stand his ground in the face of protesting players.
Rennie, now 65, officiated in the English top-flight for more than a decade between 1997 and 2008 but it was in later life that he was hit with a terrifying medical condition.
Holidaying in Turkey last year to celebrate his birthday, Rennie was hit with a sudden pain in his back but initially dismissed it as a result of ‘sleeping funny’.
By the end of the trip, however, he could barely sleep due to the pain and was unable to walk when he retuned home.
Rennie spent a month on his back in Northern General Hospital and another four months, with doctors finding a rare spinal neurological condition.
‘I thought I had just slept funny on a sun lounger, I was hoping to go paragliding but because of my backache I couldn’t go,’ he told BBC News.
‘By the end of the holiday I couldn’t sleep a wink from the pain, and by the time I got home I could barely walk. I spent a month laid on my back and another four months sitting in bed.
‘They kept me in hospital until February, they found a nodule pushing on my spine and it was a rare neurological condition so it’s not something they can operate on.
‘I have had to learn to move all over again, I’m retraining my legs. It was strange – I went from running around the city to in essence being in traction for such a long time.
‘I didn’t have any previous back problems but quite suddenly I wasn’t able to move and was in a spinal unit.’
Rennie was due to start a new role as chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University when he was admitted to hospital, and now intends to start the job in May.
He achieved a master’s degree in business administration and law from Sheffield Hallam during his refereeing career and received an honorary doctorate in 2023 for his work with sport and local communities.
‘I can move my feet and I can stand with a frame attached to my wheelchair but I need to work on my glutes,’ he said of is current condition.
‘I rock around in my chair doing my exercises, I’m a very good, compliant patient.
‘It has been frustrating but family and friends have been invaluable, the hospital was absolutely superb and the university has been exceptional.
‘I emphasised I wanted to make a difference to Sheffield and to communities here.
‘I carried on working with community sports teams while in hospital, directing them from my bed.’
Rennie, who was born in Jamaica before moving to Yorkshire at the age of six, also insisted his health issues have given him a new outlook on life.
‘Lots of people are in wheelchairs, but it doesn’t define them,’ he said. ‘It has made me resilient and forceful and I will never give up – I’m not on my own, there is a village helping me.
‘I recognise how brittle things are in life now. I don’t know if I am going to walk fully, but I know what I need to do to try and you must never give up hope.’
Despite Rennie’s trail-blazing work in the Premier League, it was another 15 years before another black referee took charge of a game in the English top-flight.
Sam Allison became only the second black Premier League referee when he oversaw Luton Town’s 3-2 win over Sheffield United in December 2023.
Speaking before the match, BAMRef – which offers guidance, support, mentoring and counselling to black, Asian and mixed heritage referees – said: ‘We welcome this appointment.
‘It is a further step in the right direction towards refereeing reflecting society and the playing contingent within football.
‘It is also the culmination of years of hard work by BAMRef members. We hope to work with Howard Webb (Professional Game Match Officials Board chief) to identify and progress more black officials to the top flight.’
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