Bill Shankly
"What we love to do and why!"
Bill Shankly
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Bill´s granddaughter, Karen Gill, joined Vince on
the line from her home in Greece to discuss her
new book about her granddad Sept 18th
2007
Bill Shankly during a lap of honour of Anfield, during the famous scarf incidentDue to his working class background, Shankly had a strong feeling for how the fans followed the team and wanted them to perform. He felt he was letting the fans down when the team didn't do well. When he wasn't managing a football club, Shankly was usually at his typewriter, personally replying to the letters which arrived at Melwood. Shankly even called some supporters at home to discuss the previous day's game, while the accounts of him providing tickets for fans are endless.[1] One of the most iconic images of all was caught on television, when a Liverpool scarf which had been thrown at Shankly during a lap of honour was flung to one side by a policeman. Shankly pounced on the scarf and reprimanded the copper, uttering the immortal words "Don't do that. This might be someone's life". In a tour of the United States Shankly couldn't believe American people had never heard of Tom Finney. Shankly was a huge fan of Finney's as a footballer, and was also a close friend of his.[citation needed] After his retirement he said: "I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool." The journalist John Keith, who wrote the play "The Bill Shankly Tribute Story", commented that Shankly knew how important the fans were to a successful team, and that even after his retirement, at the 1976 second leg of the UEFA Cup final in Brugge: "A fan came over and said he didn't have a ticket - so Shanks went and bought him one." [2] [edit] Retirement Shankly was by now 60 years old, and in July 1974 decided to retire - he said that going to tell the chairman of his decision was like facing the electric chair. He wanted to spend time with his wife Ness and their family. When news of Shankly's resignation first emerged, distraught fans jammed the club's switchboard and at least one local factory's workers threatened to go on strike unless their hero returned [3]. The club was left in capable hands, with the bootroom staff supplemented by ex-players Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans and they got behind new manager Bob Paisley. Later it was revealed that Shankly wanted Jack Charlton to succeed him at Liverpool, and not Bob Paisley. Shankly was awarded the OBE in November 1974. He even went regularly to Melwood, to watch the team train. He continued to live in the terraced house that he and his wife had bought when they moved to Liverpool, and he was a regular sight around the city, happy and willing to talk to anyone about football. In the end, his wife had to take him shopping to Manchester instead! On the morning of 26 September 1981 Bill Shankly was admitted to Broadgreen Hospital following a heart attack. Whilst in Hospital he insisted on being nursed in an ordinary ward not a private one. "That is where he wanted to be," a hospital spokesman told the Liverpool Echo newspaper.[1]. His condition was stable and it appeared that he was going to make a full recovery. There was no suggestion that his life was in danger. The switchboard was jammed with concerned fans and prayers were said for him in the Sunday morning and evening services at both of the Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals. However, late on 28 September Shankly unexpectedly took a turn for the worse and died, aged 68, at 1.20am on 29 September 1981. He was cremated, and his ashes buried at the Anfield Crematorium on 2 October. [4]. The Labour Party conference stood in a minutes silence when his death was announced, for a man who had always been a socialist. Sir Matt Busby was so upset when he heard the news of Shankly's death that he refused to take any telephone calls from people asking him for a reaction. Some years before his death, Shankly had paid tribute to Busby, saying that he was "greatest football manager ever". On the first game at Anfield following his funeral, a huge banner was unfurled on the Kop which read "Shankly Lives Forever". His widow, Nessie Shankly, outlived her husband by more than 20 years. She died, aged 82, after suffering a heart attack on 2 August 2002. [1] At the time of her death, she was still living in the house on Bellefield Avenue, West Derby, where she had moved on her husband's appointment as Liverpool manager in 1959. [2] Bill Shankly was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager. |