Steve 'Kalamazoo' Mokone was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 23 March 1923. He started his football career for Durban Bush Bucks FC as well as reprsenting the Natal Province XI and South African Bantu XI. Mokone in the early fifties had been a student of Archbishop Desmond Tutu at a teaching College in Pretoria, Transvaal, before leaving the country in 1955. Due to the era in which he found himself, his only option was to escape South Africa to pursue football overseas. However, it took the South African authorities almost a year to issue Mokone with his passport. At the time, South Africa was under the aparthied regime. Any black person who wanted to travel overseas was considered a threat to them.
'Kalamazoo', as he was affectionately known played for Coventry City before he signed up for Barcelona. From the he was loaned out to Marseille. He also played for Torino in Italy, Valencia in Spain and Heracles Almelo in Holland, wherea street was named after him.
Apart from a street being named after him there was also, a book written about him, called The Black Meteor. Mokone spent the rest of his life in America, wherehe was convited and spent 12 years in prison of assaulting his wife, blinding her in one eye. He also has a Ph.D in psychology and Political Science.
He seperated from his wife and before he died on 20 March 2015 in Washington, United States of America after a prolonged illness.