His introduction to the Sutton community was, let’s say, unique. The Wheaton players stayed with local families.
"They called the name of each player that came off the bus so that the families would know who they were hosting. Then I stepped off," Armstrong said with a laugh. "It went from excitement to it was so quiet. It was unbelievable. It was like, who gets that guy because I'm the only Black guy on the team."
He stayed with the Murphey family, who had three children - Dale, Darren and Donna.
Immersed in the English football culture for two weeks, Armstrong's passion for the game grew. That increased multifold after he was told that he would probably be an apprentice if he lived in England and "in some clubs with the possibility of being a pro."
"When I heard that, I was, ‘I want to be a pro,’ " he added. “I told my dad. He said, 'Okay, well, if you keep your grades up, when you graduate from high school, I'll send you back over.' My whole thing was now I really have to start learning this game or improving my skill as well as academically keeping my grades up."
In 1978, the Armstrong family moved to Columbia, Md., an integrated community. Desmond was ready for another level of Black-White education at Howard High School. African-Americans, however, were not given a proper welcome.
"It just so happened that two months before I got to the school, somebody threw a bomb in the boys bathroom because they didn't want Black people in the school," he said, "meaning the kids that lived in Ellicott City that came to the school didn't want the kids from Columbia that were Black to be in that same school. So, as a protest, they threw a bomb into the bathroom."
