Title: A Brief Illustrated History of Liverpool Football Club - Part One - SHANKLY
Post by: Phil M on February 2, 2009, 11:59:31 pm
Part One - Club Formation, Transformation, Shankly Domination Here are some rare and iconic images from our glorious past which I thought deserved their own dedicated thread. I am sure there have been similiar posts on here in the past but this is just as the title suggests, a brief journey through time from the pre-Shankly years right through to our years of national and european domination and unprecedented success and on through the Houllier and Benitez era. (to follow later) These images capture highs and lows, historic games, unforgettable players, managers, moments and most importantly the fans and our vital contribution in helping us become the most successful team in the history of british football. Some pictures don't need a description as they tell their own story and perhaps this might some entice some of the older nostalgic Rawkites to give us their own thoughts and share their memories of those unforgettable moments from our glorious past with us. Either way, I hope you all enjoy seeing them as much as I have in seeing and sharing them. (With special thanks to Liverweb.org, LFChistorynet and other Red sources for squad and player photos) (The youtube videos are playable just click on the video.) Hope you enjoy, Phil.  ------------------------------------------------- Part One - Club Formation, Transformation, Shankly Domination "In the beginning...... LFC is born:    Squad picture for the 1892-1893 season: Our first first division title and what a beautiful and familiar sight that trophy would become: "Spot the ball!" Training in the carpark....  Pre-War Team photograph: ^- Sir Matt Busby standing back row third from the right. Legendary goalkeeper Elisha Scott:  Post-war heroes - Back to back title winners 1921/22 and 1922/23: Unfortunately the club entered a barren spell after the success above and it we had to wait until the 1946/1947 season to add to our trophy cabinet when we won the league for the fifth time in our history. If you look at to the back row above, second last man to the right is none other than Sir Bob Paisley then in is playing heydays. Seated directly in front is the legendary Billy Liddell Billy:  When your maker calls your name, He will not ask if you won or lost, But how you played the game. and believe me when I say "Boy, did Billy play the game"  A Billy thunderbolt en route to goal:  Bob leads us out in 1952.  En route to training at Anfield:  George Kay, the man who led us to our first Wembley FA Cup final appearance in 1950 - manager from 1936 to 1951  Don Welsh - LFC manager (1951-1956)  Phil Taylor - LFC manager 1956-1959  Sir Bob was incredibly dropped for the final despite scoring the winner in the semi-final v Everton! Unfortunately our first Wembley appearance resulted in two nil defeat to Arsenal but little did the fans know then that the twin towers would eventually become like our second home.  Sadly the following seasons did not go well and we were relegated to the second division in the 1952/53 season. The club was literally floundering until the arrival of our next manager in 1959. His name escapes me but here's his picture:  "Shankly, Shankly Shankly, Shankly"  We have take-off! Promotion was achieved in 1961-62.Shanks first trophy at Liverpool :  And it didn't take long for Shanks to make his mark when this fine assembly of players won our first league championship for 17 years in the 1963-64 season Peter Thompson inspired Liverpool to Shankly's first ever title!  Another major reason for our revival was the signing of a 6'2 Scottish centre half called Ron Yeats, said Shanks famously at Ron's unveiling to the press..."I've just signed a colossus - come in and walk round him" and...."With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal."     Legends. With Shanks at the helm we won the league again in1965-66 but the previous season saw us lift our first FA Cup when we beat the great Leeds side 2-1 with goals from Hunt and St. John Hunt:  Cup heroes:  Big Ron:  Shanks surveys the Wembley turf:       '65 Cup celebrations:  Anfield in the 60's  Gerry Byrne:   Chris Lawler:  THE KOP:  "'If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.' Bill Shankly.   Shanks certainly had an eye for talent, in the summer of 1971, a young player called Kevin Keegan signed for us from Scharlie uniform november tangohorpe Utd:  Big John Toshack meets his new boss:  "Above us only sky"  "It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against" - Bill Shankly on the This Is Anfield sign.  The 1960's also saw the introduction of our all-red kit.In 1964, then-Liverpool manager Bill Shankly decided to send the team out in all red for the first time against Anderlecht, as Ian St. John recalled in his autobiography: “ He thought the colour scheme would carry psychological impact—red for danger, red for power. He came into the dressing room one day and threw a pair of red shorts to Ronnie Yeats. “Get into those shorts and let’s see how you look,” he said. “Christ, Ronnie, you look awesome, terrifying. You look 7ft tall.” “Why not go the whole hog, boss?” I suggested. “Why not wear red socks? Let’s go out all in red.” Shankly approved and an iconic kit was born. Looks like Shanks was right!  Shankly was to sign players who are now regarded as some of the greatest in our history and in the game itself: Emlyn:  Clemence:  In our first ever European Cup campaign we reached the semi-finals where we faced Inter Milan. A tie that produced one of the greatest nights in our history when a packed Kop told the Italians to 'Go back to It-aly!": Sadly the infamous return leg saw Inter win 4-3 on aggregate. Shanks and his team put that disappointment behind them and the following season we won the championship yet again. Unfortunately in Europe (1966) we lost out to Borussia Dortmund by a score of 2-1 in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup Final.  Roy Evans:  The end of the 60's saw Shanks reassemble the side for an assault on greater things and his plans were to come to fruition in 1973: It must also be noted that we also had the greatest assembly of hairstyles:    On a famous night at Anfield the Keegan/Toshack combination tore Dortmund's defence to shreds: Liverpool became the first English side to achieve a League and European trophy double. Shankly's adulation:     In '74, the FA Cup returned to our trophy room following a magnificent 3-0 win over the Geordies in the final: Tommy:   [/img]Shankly stunned all on Merseyside and the footballing world soon afterwards the FA Cup win by announcing his retirement. The club's players and fans tried to persuade him to carry on, and a local factory even threatened to go on strike. Shankly ignored these pleas and joined the club's fans on The Kop as a spectator, while he handed over his managerial duties to a certain Bob Paisley, although he continued to visit Melwood often joining in the training sessions with the players until the board decided that in order to prevent Shanks from potentially undermining the new manager they would ban him from visiting the training grounds. Shanks announcing his retirement in 1974 at the age of 60:  ""I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool." He left Liverpool FC with a million memories. Everyone has their own favourite Shankly story. The Scot was more than just a manager, he was the man who gave the club its identity, character and personality. He was the man who built the modern day Liverpool FC. His mission was to build Liverpool FC into a bastion of invincibility. His mission was accomplished.   |
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