September 28, 1884: Anfield Opens

September 28, 1884: Anfield opens on the edge of Stanley Park in Liverpool, England. The home team wins.

Present-day fans of Liverpool Football Club will not be surprised to learn this. But they may be surprised to learn that the home team was Everton Football Club. The "Toffees" beat nearby team Earlestown, 5-0, and went on to use Anfield as their home ground until 1892, when Goodison Park opened, a mile away on another side of Stanley Park.

Imagine if, instead of at their actual locations in The Bronx and Queens, respectively, Yankee Stadium had been built where the American Museum of Natural History is, at 79th Street and Central Park West; and Shea Stadium had been built across Central Park, 1 mile away, where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is, at 81st Street and 5th Avenue. That's how close Anfield and Goodison Park are.

The stadium is named after the surrounding area. The word "Anfield" originated in the combination of Old English and Middle English words, which mean "a field on a slope." An alternate explanation is that the name is linked to the influx of people fleeing the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, crossing the Irish sea from Dublin to Liverpool, and was associated with Annefield, outside New Ross, County Wexford.

A dispute between Everton and the land's owner, John Houlding, led to them moving to Goodison. Houlding was left with an empty stadium, and decided to form a new club to occupy it. Liverpool F.C.'s 1st game there was played on September 1, 1892, and they beat South Yorkshire team Rotherham Town, 7-1.

Seating capacity was originally 8,000, and was expanded to 11,000 in 1895. In 1906, a new stand was built along Walton Breck Road. Ernest Edwards, the sports editor of newspapers the Liverpool Daily Post (which went out of business in 2013) and the Liverpool Echo (still in business), named it the Spion Kop, after a famous hill in South Africa where a local regiment had suffered heavy losses during the Boer War in 1900. More than 300 men had died, many of them from Liverpool, as the British army attempted to capture the strategic hilltop. While many soccer stadiums would call one of their end sections the Spion Kop, most, like Liverpool's have been "The Kop" for short.

In 1928, the Kop was redesigned and extended, to hold 30,000 spectators, all standing. A roof was erected as well. The stadium got lights in 1957. In 1963, the old Kemlyn Road Stand was replaced by a cantilevered stand, accommodating 6,700 spectators. Two years later, responding to the demand for tickets following Liverpool's 1964 Football League title and 1965 FA Cup win, alterations were made at the Anfield Road Stand, turning it into a larger covered standing area with refreshments under the structure.

The biggest redevelopment came in 1973, when the old Main Stand was partially demolished and extended backwards with a new roof. In the 1980s the paddock in front of the Main Stand was turned into seating, and in 1982 seats were introduced at the Anfield Road Stand. The Shankly Gates were erected in 1982, a tribute to former manager Bill Shankly.

Across the Shankly Gates are the words "You'll Never Walk Alone." In the 1960s, at Anfield, games would be preceded by the public address system playing the Top 10 songs in the country. Gerry & The Pacemakers' version of "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the 1945 Broadway musical Carousel, debuted in the Top 10 on October 19, 1963, and so it was played at Anfield for the 1st time. It hit Number 1 in Britain. (It was not a hit in America.)

But when it fell out of the Top 10, Liverpool fans demanded that it be played at Anfield, anyway, just before the team walked onto the pitch. This was done, and Liverpool, managed by Shankly, won the Football League in 1964. After that, in England, the song was considered a good-luck charm by fans of the Mersey Reds, and was irrevocably tied to the team. Everton fans would become sick of the song, and one of their fans' slogans is "I'd rather walk alone."

Shankly retired after the 1973-74 season, but under his right-hand man, Bob Paisley, they actually got better. I've often compared Liverpool to American football's Pittsburgh Steelers: A "football" team from a hardscrabble, hardworking town, with the loss of so much industry casting a pall over the era, starts winning, dominating their league in the decade, and becomes everything to the people, many of them of Irish descent. The biggest difference between the teams is that, unlike the Steelers, the Mersey Reds did have some success before the 1970s.

In fact, they won 18 titles in the Football League Division One: 1901, 1906, 1922, 1923, 1947, 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990. The Premier League was founded in 1992, and, infamously, it took them until the COVID season of 2019-20 for them to win it, as Manchester United surpassed them with a 19th and a 20th title, in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

They've also won the FA Cup, English soccer's season-long national tournament, 8 times: 1965, 1974, 1986, 1989, 1992, 2001, 2006 and 2022. And they've won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League 6 times, more than any other British team: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019. The 1985-86 season remains the only one in which they've won both the League and the Cup, known in England as "doing The Double."

They almost did it again in 1989. In the FA Cup Semifinal, they were playing Nottingham Forest, on neutral ground at Hillsborough Stadium in South Yorkshire, home of Sheffield Wednesday. A mistake in opening the gates led to the deaths of 97 people. The game was replayed, Liverpool won, and, as in 1986, they beat Everton in an All-Merseyside Final.

And with North London team Arsenal having blown a lead for the League title, all Liverpool had to do to win the League was avoid losing the last game of the season, home to Arsenal, by more than 1 goal. Arsenal hadn't won at Anfield in 15 years. With the home fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" with more emotion than ever, giving hope to a grieving city over the last few weeks, it seemed impossible for Arsenal to do what needed to be done. But a goal by Michael Thomas in stoppage time gave Arsenal a 2-0 win.

The Hillsborough Disaster led to, among other things, the conversion of English stadiums to all-seater. This would reduce capacity, without more building. The Kemlyn Road Stand was double-decked, and renamed the Cenentary Stand in 1992, in connection with the team's 100th Anniversary. The Kop was demolished and rebuilt in 1994, its capacity reduced to 12,390, but still the most intimidating stand in the sport. Overall, the stadium's seating capacity was down to 35,000. In 1998, a new, 2-tier Anfield Road Stand was opened, bringing capacity back up to 44,736.

In 2017, the Centenary Stand was renamed the Kenny Dalglish Stand, for the team's all-time greatest player, who had managed them to the 1986 Double while still playing.

Since the 2010 purchase of the team by Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Boston Red Sox, the stadium has been redeveloped and modernized. Unlike a ballpark, a four-sided soccer stadium can have parts demolished and rebuilt without the team having to leave. The new Main Stand (southeast) opened in 2016, raising capacity to 54,074. The new Anfield Road Stand (northeast) is set to open in 2023, raising capacity to 60,725. (UPDATE: It took until February 10, 2024.)

As of September 28, 2022, there are no plans to redevelop the Kop (southwest) or the Kenny Dalglish Stand (southeast, and as a 1992 construction the oldest current part of the stadium). 

Outside the stadium are a bust of builder John Houlding, statues of managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, and a memorial to the victims of Hillsborough.

*

September 28, 1884 was a Sunday. In America, the only league sport of the time was baseball, and the National League prohibited its teams from playing on Sundays. The American Association allowed it, but had no games scheduled for the day. The Union Association, which played only in this season before folding, allowed Sunday ball, and 3 games were played:

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Washington Nationals, 5-0 at the Wright Street Grounds in Milwaukee. Both of these teams folded with the UA, and have no connection to the present-day National League teams of the same names.

* The St. Louis Maroons beat the Baltimore Monumentals, 12-1 at Union Base Ball Park in St. Louis. In those days, the sport's name was usually written as 2 words, "base ball." The Maroons were run by Henry V. Lucas, a St. Louis businessman and founder of the league. Naturally, he favored his team, and they ran away with the Pennant. That dominance, producing the feeling throughout the league that everybody else's games were meaningless, was a big reason for its demise.

* And the Kansas City Unions beat the Boston Reds, 6-1 at Athletic Park in Kansas City.