August 10, 1974: England's Fight-Filled Charity Shield

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.

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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.

January 1, 1973: Britain Joins the Common Market, Goes Metric

Edward Heath

January 1, 1973: The United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark official enter the European Economic Community -- the EEC, a.k.a. "the Common Market", a predecessor to the European Union.

As a result, the United Kingdom -- England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland -- also, to make economic matters easier, switches over from "the imperial system" to the metric system. Weights go from being measured in ounces and pounds to grams and kilograms; lengths from inches, feet and miles to meters and kilometers; volume from ounces to liters (except in pubs, where the pint remains the classic measurement to this day); and so on.

When I started public school in America in September 1975, all of our math textbooks were published in 1972, and they all included metric references, predicting that America would switch over to the metric system by 1985. As of January 1, 2022, it hasn't happened.

Britain's Prime Minister, Edward Heath, Leader of the Conservative Party, favored the entry into the Common Market. So did the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the the Labour Party, the once and future Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

But there was significant opposition in the Kingdom, especially in England. In the 1980s, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party would resist efforts at closer ties. In the 2010s, the "Tories" would lead Britain's exit, or "Brexit," from the EU. This would lead to David Cameron being replaced as Leader and Prime Minister by Theresa May, and she by the pro-Brexit Boris Johnson.

Two days after the switchover, on January 3 -- the day that the consortium led by George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees -- a soccer game was held at the original Wembley Stadium in London, to commemorate the entry of the three new nations.

Players from those nations were put together as "The Three," managed by England manager Alf Ramsey, against a team of players from "The Six," managed by West Germany manager Helmut Schön: West Germany (which had won the previous year's European Championship), Italy (losing Finalists from the 1970 World Cup), the Netherlands (whose Ajax Amsterdam had won the last 2 European Cups), Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

Franz Beckenbauer, Captain of West Germany and Bayern Munich, chose to play. Johan Cruijff, Captain of the Netherlands and Ajax, chose not to. That may have made a difference. Only 36,500 people saw "The Three" win, 2-0. The low turnout was attributed to its staging on a Wednesday, and to the English people's ambivalence about joining the Common Market.

The goals were scored by Henning Jensen, a forward from Denmark and German team Borussia Mönchengladbach; and Colin Stein, a Scottish forward who had starred for Rangers in Glagsow, but was now playing for English team Coventry City.

The players' reactions to the expansion of the Common Market varied. "I'm really not interested in the whole thing," said Pat Jennings, goalkeeper for Northern Ireland and Tottenham Hotspur. Alan Ball, a holdover from England's 1966 World Cup win and now playing for Arsenal, was a substitute on the evening. He said, "The only thing that interests me about joining the Common Market is whether or not it will make my family's Summer holidays cheaper."

In contrast to Jennings' disinterest and Ball's humor, Johnny Giles of Leeds United, by this point both playing for the Republic of Ireland team (joining at the same time as the United Kingdom, and thus considered part of "The Three") but also managing it, showed far more acumen: "A small country like Ireland need close business and trade links with other European nations, so I'm certainly in favor."

Of the players on The Six team, Beckenbauer was the most Euro-friendly: "The Common Market is vital to us, as it encourages us to work more closely together, and that will hopefully mean that Europe will remain peaceful." Beckenbauer had been born 4 months after V-E Day in a Munich occupied by American troops, and he did not want another Europe-wide war.

The match was part of a week-long "Fanfare For Europe," a cultural festival that would allow Britain to share what Prime Minister Heath called his "heart full of joy" at the prospect of their country forging closer ties with Western Europe.

The cultural exchange didn't quite go as planned. Heath’s plan to borrow the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and its leadup, and display it in Westminster Hall was dropped after critics pointed out that images of Saxons being butchered by Normans was hardly a symbol of European co-operation.

As the British Museum had recently refused France the loan of the Rosetta Stone, the Mona Lisa never appeared in a proposed exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, either. But there was a display of European sweets, food festivals, concerts at Covent Garden and European art exhibitions at various London hotels.

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January 1, 1973 was a Monday. In college football's bowl games:

* The University of Southern California, Champions of the Pacific-8 Conference and ranked Number 1, beat Ohio State University, Champions of the Big 10 Conference and ranked Number 3, 42-17 in the Rose Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. This clinched the National Championship for USC and head coach John McKay, over Woody Hayes' Buckeyes.

Lynn Swann, later a Hall of Fame receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, opened the scoring for the Trojans by catching a touchdown pass. Later, Sam Cunningham scored 4 touchdowns. Anthony Davis, who had run wild against Notre Dame a few weeks earlier, and would do so again 2 years later, also scored a touchdown.

* The University of Texas, Champions of the Southwest Conference and ranked Number 5, beat the University of Alabama, Champions of the Southeastern Conference and ranked Number 4, 17-13 in the Cotton Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in Dallas. Alan Lowry scored 2 touchdowns in the 2nd half, including a 34-yard run with 3:20 to go, to give Darryl Royal's Longhorns the victory over Paul "Bear" Bryant's Crimson Tide.

Each team came in having lost only once, and, oddly, each to its arch-rival: Texas to Oklahoma, and Alabama to Auburn.

* The University of Nebraska, ranked Number 9, beat the University of Notre Dame, 40-6 in the Orange Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in Miami. This would be Bob Devaney's last game as Nebraska's head coach, as he turned the reins over to his assistant Tom Osborne. Devaney had led the Cornhuskers to the National Championship in the 1970 and '71 seasons, while Osborne would struggle to reach that level, but eventually achieve it.

* The night before, on New Year's Eve, the Sugar Bowl was played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. The University of Oklahoma, Champions of the Big 8 Conference and ranked Number 2, beat Pennsylvania State University, ranked Number 8, 14-0. Oklahoma had beaten both of its major rivals, Nebraska (in the Big 8) and Texas (not), but had lost to Colorado in midseason. That loss cost them at least a share of the National Championship: Having won, they then had to hope that Number 3 Ohio State beat Number 1 USC, but not too convincingly. And, since USC won, they got the National Championship.

In contrast, Penn State was once again the top team in the Northeast (if you can call rural Central Pennsylvania "the Northeast"), but had lost their season opener to Tennessee, which would finish 10-2 and ranked Number 8. As usual, Joe Paterno and his Nittany Lions thought the media wasn't giving them enough respect. But, after losing to Tennessee, they played only 1 other ranked team in the regular season, beating Number 18 West Virginia away, and were not convincing. Barry Switzer's Sooners had little trouble with them in the Sugar Bowl.

Baseball was out of season. There were no games in the American Basketball Association. In the NBA, there were 2 games. The Baltimore Bullets beat the Milwaukee Bcks, 88-87 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena). And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-103 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Gail Goodrich scored 36 points. Wilt Chamberlain, in his final season as a player, had only 6 points, but grabbed 20 rebounds and blocked 5 shots.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 8-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Phil Esposito scored a hat trick, 3 goals. Bobby Orr had no goals, but assisted on 6.

There were 3 games in the World Hockey Association, then in its 1st season:

* The New York Raiders lost to the Philadelphia Blazers, 3-0 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Minnesota Fighting Saints and the Houston Aeros played to a tie, 4-4 at the St. Paul Civic Center. Playing in St. Paul, rather than sharing the Metropolitan Sports Center in nearby Bloomington with the Minnesota North Stars, led to the "Fighting Saints" name.

* And the Alberta Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 7-3 at the Edmonton Gardens. The hosts changed their name to the Edmonton Oilers the next season.