This is the first in a series of stories by the Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk marking the 40th anniversary of reggae icon Bob Marley’s passing on May 11, 1981.

In September 1980 Bob Marley was on a high. The reggae king was on the United States leg of his Uprising Tour which played to sold-out crowds.

Days after successfully opening for The Commodores at Madison Square Garden in New York, Marley wanted to unwind and chose the best way he knew how — a friendly game of football, at Central Park.

Former national football player, Allan “Skill” Cole — his road manager and confidante — remembers the game like it were yesterday.

“We were just warming up… We were going to play some youths from Latin America, some Guatemalans. So we were warming up an’ a bounce… the rest of guys were behind us. We were about 20 yards from the crowd an’ suddenly it’s like him get a seizure an’ cry out: ‘Allan, Allan!’ Him drop inna mi hands an’ mi catch him. Froth ah come out of his mouth an’ mi put him down on the ground,” Cole recalled. “His eyes were rolling over. When he came out of the seizure, he was wet. He was sweating profusely an’ had a slight twist to his face.”

According to Cole, the seizure lasted about 10 to 15 seconds and after Marley regained consciousness, he insisted the game should go on.

“He didn’t look any different on the field. He played normal, ’cause he was a fighter,” said Cole. However, he cut the game short when Marley’s side was leading 3-2.

Cole said that evening, he and American promoter/publisher Danny Sims accompanied Marley to do a CAT scan.

“The X-ray came back and we realised that the thing (cancer caused from an injury to his right toe) had spread throughout his body. The doctor said he had no more than two weeks to live. Mi sey: ‘A rubbish unoo a talk.’ So we sent for doctor [Carlton “Pee Wee”] Fraser to come up from Jamaica. Pee Wee came up and looked at the X-ray and spoke with the doctor as well,” recalled Cole, who is credited as writer of War, from Marley’s 1976 album Rastaman Vibration.

Cole — who was called to Jamaica’s national team at 15 years old — said Marley injured his right toe while playing a friendly game at Boys’ Town in Kingston in 1970.

“He got a tackle from a bredda named Rusty. He hopped off the field, took off his football boots and put on a pair of sandals. We dressed the toe for about a week, had him on a diet and the swelling went down,” he remembered.

Cole said a cancer seminar was being held in New York during Marley’s tour and he and Fraser went in search of a specialist.

“There was a German doctor, Dr Josef Issels, who was there. He is the only man on record to have cured that form of cancer — melanoma. He was the top cancer specialist who did not use the conventional style of curing cancer. He was anti-system and was against the drug company,” he said.

Issels, who was reportedly linked to Adolf Hilter’s Nazi party, was prevented from speaking to the public while at the seminar. However, Cole said they managed to track him down by getting his telephone number.

Marley did his last concert at Stanley Theater (now Benedum Center For The Performing Arts) in Pittsburgh on September 23 — two days after collapsing. Cole said he cancelled the remaining US gigs as Marley did not look well.

The former road manager said while in New York, Marley weighed the option of doing chemotherapy as recommended by the doctors he had seen there. As usual, Marley asked Cole for his opinion on whether he should do it.

“Bob asked mi what do to. I told him I wouldn’t take it, but mi nah tell him not to take it. Him have to make that decision himself, because mi nuh want nobody sey ah Allan tell him fi do it,” said Cole.

He disclosed that Marley got baptised in the Ethiopian Orthodox religion at his hotel and then underwent chemotherapy. But the results were not what were expected.

“All him hair drop off a him head. Him couldn’t walk! On mi shoulder mi haffi carry him through the airport in New York an’ jump pon the Concorde to go to West Germany to see Dr Issels for second opinion,” he said.

Marley stayed there for several months and stuck to Issels’s programme. Despite initial improvement, his health declined and he decided to return to Jamaica.

While en route from West Germany to Jamaica, Marley felt ill and was rushed to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (later University of Miami Hospital) where he died on May 11, 1981. He was 36 years old.

“[The US] doctor said him wouldn’t live for more than two weeks. A seven months an’ change he lived for after that though!” Cole exclaimed.