Left to right: Referee Bob Matthewson,
Billy Bremner, and (back to camera) Kevin Keegan
August 10, 1974: English soccer begins its season as it usually does, with the annual exhibition game between the previous season's winners of the Football League title and the FA Cup, a game then known as the FA Charity Shield. Unusual for the time, the game is played at the national stadium, the original Wembley Stadium in West London.
For Cup holders Liverpool, it is their last game under their greatest manager so far, Bill Shankly, who is handing the team over to his top assistant, Bob Paisley, who will surpass his achievements. For title holders Leeds United, it is their 1st game under new manager Brian Clough, who had won the League at Derby County in 1972, and replaces their greatest manager so far, Don Revie, who has been appointed manager of the national team, and is in attendance.
Clough was a native of Middlesbrough, in the North-East of England, and had starred as a striker for the hometown soccer team, Middlesbrough FC. Revie was also a Middlesbrough native, and had also starred as a striker, for Manchester City. Both men subsequently played for Sunderland FC, ostensibly Middlesbrough's arch-rivals, and for the England national team -- albeit Clough only twice, and Revie only 6 times.
Both went into management at a young age, Revie due to declining skills, Clough due to a nasty knee injury. Both took long-dormant teams out of the 2nd division of English football and into the 1st: Revie at age 33 with Yorkshire team Leeds United in 1964, Clough at 34 with East Midlands team Derby County in 1969, the year Revie's Leeds won the 1st division for the 1st time.
But there were significant differences between them, and Clough's failure to understand them led to his failure to properly understand Revie and the effect he had on his Leeds players. For Revie, 8 years older than Clough, the defining experience of his childhood was the Great Depression, and the result was that he did whatever he had to do to survive, even if that meant cheating.
For Clough, it was World War II, and the result was a basic sense of fairness, which meant that not only did he not accept cheating, but he publicly condemned those whose who did, including Revie, his gifts to referees (the press called them "Don Readies"), the diving of Leeds' Scottish Captain, Billy Bremner, and the rough play of Johnny Giles and Norman Hunter.
In 1972, Clough guided Derby to win the League, beating Leeds for the title by 1 point. At 37, he was 5 years younger than Revie was for his 1st title. He was quoted as saying, "I wouldn't say I'm the best manager in the country, but I'm in the top one." But Leeds won the FA Cup. In 1973, as defending League Champions, Clough got them to the Semifinals of the European Cup, losing to Italian champions Juventus. This matched Leeds' best performance in the tournament, losing to Celtic of Glasgow in the 1970 Semifinal. But a dispute with management led Clough to quit Derby.
In 1974, with England having failed to qualify for the World Cup for the 1st time ever -- although the country hadn't entered qualification until the 1950 cycle -- the Football Association hired Revie as England manager. Leeds management hired Clough, who had been managing with Sussex team Brighton & Hove Albion in the interim. Both moves seemed like no-brainers on the surface: Revie was England's best established manager, Clough the country's best up-and-coming manager.
Both moves turned out to be disasters. England did not qualify for Euro 76, and before qualifying for the 1978 World Cup could be completed, Revie quit to take a coaching job in the United Arab Emirates, abandoning his country for money, shattering whatever reputation he had. England ended up not qualifying for the 1978 World Cup, either.
Clough tried to manage Leeds his way, thinking that, as defending Champions in 1974, working together, he could guide them to the 1975 European Cup, beating not just Revie's greatest achievement, and theirs, but also his own. But the players not only missed Revie, but chafed against Clough's way and his previous comments about them being cheats.
In particular, Giles, who was already manager of the Republic of Ireland team despite still playing, thought that he should have been named Leeds' manager. He later said that if he and Clough had talked things out, things might have turned out differently, and Clough could have succeeded at Leeds.
The Charity Shield was one of the few games broadcast live on national television. The belief then was that putting games on TV would make people stay home rather than go. The whole country saw a disgusting spectacle, as "Dirty Leeds" started a nasty fight that led to referee Bob Matthewson ejecting each team's biggest star (though not tallest, as both were famously short): Leeds' 5-foot-5 Bremner, and Liverpool's prolific "Mighty Mouse," the 5-foot-8 Kevin Keegan. They were the first players ever thrown out of a Shield match.
Each man removed his shirt, and threw it away, considered a major faux pas by the English football establishment. Given each team's theme song, their exits were ironic: Liverpool's is "You'll Never Walk Alone," and Leeds' is "Marching On Together," but each walked off the pitch and into the dressing room alone.
Phil Boersma scored for Liverpool in the 19th minute. Trevor Cherry scored for Leeds in the 70th. The game went to penalties, and when Ray Clemence stopped opposing goalkeeper David Harvey, Liverpool were 6-5 winners.
Embarrassed, the FA decided to make examples out of Bremner and Keegan. Both would be suspended through September 30. Liverpool had enough of a bench to keep themselves afloat in the meanwhile. Leeds did not. Clough was fired after 44 days in charge, not even long enough for Bremner's suspension to run out. Jimmy Armfield stopped the bleeding in League play, and they finished 9th. He got them to the Final of the European Cup, where they controversially lost to Bayern Munich.
But Liverpool actually finished 2nd, only 2 points out of 1st -- ironically, to Derby County, managed by Dave MacKay, who was benefiting from many of Clough's acquisitions.
The game became a Wembley regular, and in 1992, it officially became a match between the previous season's Premier League winners and FA Cup winners. In 2002, the name of the game was changed to the FA Community Shield.
*
August 10, 1974 was a Saturday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rudy May outpitched Andy Hassler. Hassler allowed only 4 hits, but Lou Piniella got 3 of them. Frank Robinson went 0-for-4 for the Angels. He would soon be traded to Cleveland, and be named MLB's 1st black manager.
* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Shea Stadium. Ray Sadecki blew it for Tom Seaver in the 8th inning. Pete Rose went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Johnny Bench went 0-for-4 with a walk. For the Mets, John Milner went 3-for-4.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4, but Ralph Garr and Dusty Baker hit home runs. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie McCovey, who just never looked right in a Padre uniform, hit a home run. Dave Winfield went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Rod Carew went 3-for-4. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Doug Rau was the winning pitcher. Bob Gibson didn't get out of the 5th inning, partly thanks to a home run by Jimmy Wynn. Lou Brock went 3-for-5, and a stolen base gave him 76 for the season. He would finish with a new major league record, 118. Joe Torre went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-5 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Rookie George Brett went 1-for-4. Rookie Robin Yount did not play.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Al Kaline, in his last few weeks as an active player, went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Vida Blue outpitched Reggie Cleveland. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.
* And the Chicago Cubs and the San Francisco Giants were rained out at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Giants swept, 5-3 and 6-4.
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