Paul Gascoigne spoke for the first time of how he once rushed to the aid of future telly historian David Olusoga when he was being taunted by racist bullies.
It happened at Brighton Avenue Juniors in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, where the future England, Tottenham, and Everton footie ace, now 53, was a few years above David, now aged 50.
David had previously spoken of the abuse he suffered growing up in nearby St Cuthbert's Village.
And he said that after being knocked down in the playground one day, he looked up to see Gazza offering to help.
David told the Mirror : "I remember him putting his hand out to pick me up. I was five or six and he was nine or 10. I recall it vividly, because I had never known anyone with blue eyes.
"He was the only tough kid who did not have a problem with black people."
Gazza, now living near Bournemouth, also recalls the incident – and how his late dad John always told him to stand up to bullies.
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He said: "I was only young but I do remember. I hated bullies and I did not like what was happening.
"My dad always taught me to look for the hardest lad in a new school and stand up to him, fight if I had to. It was quite good advice back then."
Gazza also recalled being targeted by a group of five youths in St Cuthbert's Village.
He said: "It was after a game. A lad from the other team saw me and got me in the car and took me home.
"It must have been tough for David, getting bullied is always tough but especially at that age."
David – whose parents met in Newcastle and was born in Lagos, Nigeria, before spending his early years in Gateshead – said it was "very moving" that Gazza remembered the incident.
He said: "Small acts of kindness on difficult days stick in the mind."
David described St Cuthbert's Village, which featured in the background in bleak 1971 film Get Carter, as a "combination of bad architecture and poverty, every bit as bad as it looked."
