October 19, 1963: The Gerry & the Pacemakers version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" is played at Anfield, home stadium of Liverpool Football Club, for the first time. It became a team tradition.
The song, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, first appeared in 1945, in the Broadway musical Carousel, sung by Christine Johnson as Nettie Fowler, and later by John Raitt (father of rock music legend Bonnie Raitt) as Billy Bigelow, Jan Clayton as his wife Julie, and Bambi Linn as their daughter Louise.
The musical was made into a film in 1956. Gordon MacRae played Billy, Shirley Jones played Julie, Susan Luckey played Louise, Claramae Turner played Nettie, and Gene Lockhart played the Starkeeper and the doctor.
"You'll Never Walk Alone" became a standard. Jerry Lewis would use it to close his annual Labor Day telethon for research into muscular dystrophy and related conditions. Elvis Presley made it a mainstay of his live performances from his Las Vegas debut in 1969 until his death in 1977.
In 1963, Liverpool rock band Gerry & The Pacemakers recorded a version of it. In the 1960s, at Anfield, the home stadium of Liverpool F.C., games would be preceded by the public address system playing the Top 10 songs in the country. "You'll Never Walk Alone" debuted in the Top 10 on October 19, 1963, and so it was played at Anfield for the 1st time. Liverpool beat West Bromwich Albion, of the Birmingham area, 1-0 on a goal by Gordon Milne in the 32nd minute.
A recent photo of Anfield, seriously added-onto
Liverpool's other major team, Everton, who had won the League the previous season, traveled to the East End of London on this day, and lost to West Ham United, 4-2 at Upton Park. Everton fans would become sick of the song, and one of their fans' slogans is "I'd rather walk alone."
The Pacemakers were the 2nd-biggest band in Liverpool at the time, behind The Beatles, but their version of "YNWA" never became a hit in the song's country of origin, not even in the "British Invasion" year of 1964, when The Beatles caught fire in America and pretty much every other British band that was even remotely good followed them. The Pacemakers had a few songs reach the American charts, most notably "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and "How Do You Do It" in 1964, and "Ferry Cross the Mersey" (from the film of the same title) in 1965. But not "YNWA."
It did, however, hit Number 1 in Britain. 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 Bill 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. After the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, the words of the song gave hope to a grieving city. The words "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE" are now cast in iron atop the Shankly Gates leading into Anfield.
Most Liverpool fans don't even realize that the song debuted on Broadway, in New York, in America, during the waning days of World War II.
Fans of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow, Scotland also took it up. Like Liverpool fans, they sing it before every game, and after every win. In 2003, the teams faced each other in the UEFA Cup Quarterfinal, and Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden was invited to sing it on the pitch before the game. He did so, wearing one of those "half scarves" produced before international matches with logos of both teams. Another British rocker, Rod Stewart, also attended, supporting Celtic.
Oscar Hammerstein died in 1960, having never learned of his song's connection with Liverpool. Richard Rodgers lived until 1979, and if he ever knew of the connection, he never made a public statement about it. Gerry Marsden died in 2021.
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October 19, 1963 was a Saturday. North London team Arsenal traveled to Birmingham, and lost to Aston Villa, 2-1 at Villa Park.
In American football, among the college games played that day were these:
* Number 1 Texas beat Arkansas, 17-13 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. Texas went on to win the Southwest Conference Championship.
* Number 2 Wisconsin beat Iowa, 10-7 at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City.
* Number 3 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia, 13-10 at the old Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia. This is a rivalry known as "The Backyard Brawl."
* Number 4 Ohio State were upset by the University of Southern California (USC), 32-3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. No, this was not the Rose Bowl game. And when that game was played, neither of these teams would be in it.
* Number 5 Mississippi beat Tulane, 21-0 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. "Ole Miss" went on to win the Southeastern Conference title.
* Number 6 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 21-18 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma.
* Number 7 Illinois beat Minnesota, 16-6 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. With running back Jim Grabowski, and center and linebacker Dick Butkus, Illinois won the Big Ten Conference title.
* Number 8 Georgia Tech were upset by Auburn, 29-21 at Grant Field in Atlanta.
* Number 9 Alabama beat Tennessee, 35-0 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama didn't win the SEC title, but they didn't play Ole Miss. So those teams were matched up in the Sugar Bowl, the traditional home for the season's SEC Champion, and Alabama won. In fiction, that would have been the last game for 'Bama for running back Forrest Gump.
* Number 10 Navy beat the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), 21-12 at Foreman Field in Norfolk, Virginia. This was the annual Oyster Bowl game, which has featured Navy 10 times and VMI 16 times. These days, though, it's a game for FCS (formerly Division I-AA) teams, like the school for which Foreman Field, now named S.B. Ballard Stadium, is the home field, Old Dominion University. Although it was in VMI's home State, Norfolk, is home to America's largest naval base, so it felt more like a home field for Navy.
Navy were quarterbacked by Roger Staubach, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy, and rose to Number 2 in the country. Through the 2021 season, no service academy team has finished in the Top 10 since. They played Number 1 Texas for the National Championship in the Cotton Bowl, but Texas won.
* The University of Washington, then unranked, beat Stanford, 19-11 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Washington went on to win the title in the American Association of Western Universities (AAWU, a forerunner of what's now the Pac-12), and beat Illinois in the Rose Bowl.
* Army beat Wake Forest, 47-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.
* Notre Dame beat UCLA, 27-12 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* In a rivalry game, North Carolina beat North Carolina State, 31-10 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
* And among New Jersey teams, Rutgers beat Lehigh, 30-6 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; while Princeton beat Colgate, 42-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.
Neither the NFL nor the AFL played any games that day. But in Middlesex County, New Jersey, East Brunswick High School, which would one day be my Alma Mater, beat Bridgewater-Raritan, 27-21 at home, on a field that had no name, roughly where the school's practice field now is. Its stadium, later named Jay Doyle Field, wouldn't be built until 1965.
Baseball season had ended 13 days earlier, when the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a sweep of the New York Yankees in the World Series. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Cincinnati Royals, 121-97 at the Cincinnati Gardens.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-121 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. This was only the 2nd regular-season game for the Sixers, and the 1st at home, after moving from being the Syracuse Nationals. I have a separate entry for that event.
* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 103-102 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Walt Bellamy scored 36 points and grabbed 17 rebounds for the Bullets, who were played just their 3rd regular-season since moving from being the Chicago Zephyrs, and only their 2nd home game. They would last just 10 years before moving down Interstate 95, becoming the Washington Bullets, and eventually the Washington Wizards.
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-108 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.
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