December 23, 1978: Arsenal's Lampoon Christmas Vacation

Liam Brady, after scoring that goal

December 23, 1978: A North London Derby is played at White Hart Lane. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club host their arch-rivals, Arsenal FC.

Arsenal were by far the more historically successful team, while Tottenham -- or "Spurs" -- were the team whose fans had a chip on their shoulders. I've often compared the relationship to that between New York's baseball teams, but that's a bit unfair -- to the Mets. The Mets began play in 1962, a year after Spurs won their most recent Football League title. They've won the FA Cup (England's national soccer tournament) 6 times since then, but the last of those was in 1991, and they haven't even reached a Final since.

A foolish backpass by Spurs' John Pratt fell into the path of Alan Sunderland, allowing him to score, just 43 seconds into the game. Spurs never got going, even their much-heralded midfielder Glenn Hoddle making the kind of mistakes that had John Motson, calling the game for Match of the Day on the BBC, saying, "Oh, dear me!" In the 38th minute, Sunderland scored again.

This Arsenal team was known as the Irish Connection.  Midfielder Liam Brady and forward Frank Sfapleton had grown up together in Dublin, the Republic of Ireland. Manager Terry Neill was from Belfast, Northern Ireland, as were right back and team Captain Pat Rice, the last holdover from Arsenal’s team that won "The Double," both the Football League and the FA Cup, in 1971; left back Sammy Nelson, a reserve on that 1971 team; and goalkeeper Pat Jennings, once a star for Spurs, but they let him go, and Arsenal picked him up for free.

Just after the hour, Brady picked up the ball, dribbled down the touch line with the most famous left foot in Arsenal history, got nearly to the corner, and sent a hellacious cross into the box. Stapleton was waiting, threw himself forward, and sent a diving header into the net.

It was 3-0 to The Arsenal. With Christmas just 2 days away, the 5,000 or so Arsenal fans in White Hart Lane began to sing:

Jingle bells, jingle bells

jingle all the way!

Oh, what fun it is to see

The Arsenal win away!

Just 4 minutes later, there was a scramble on front of Spurs' net. Brady began one of the most fondly-remembered sequences in Arsenal history, sliding in to steal the ball cleanly, then dribbling while looking for a shot, finding one, and sending it curling in. 4-0. Motson said, "Look at that! Oh, look at that! What a goal by Brady!" Brady ran over to celebrate in front of a group of Spurs fans, and there was nothing he could do, for it was 4-0 to The Arsenal.

Sunderland really wanted a 3rd goal. He had several attempts that came to nothing. Only 1 Arsenal player had ever scored a "hat trick" against Spurs: Ted Drake, in 1934. (Only 1 Tottenham player has ever done it against Arsenal: Terry Dyson in 1961.) Finally, in the 82nd minute, he got a breakaway, and got his 3rd. In stoppage time, Stapleton got the ball and got loose, and launched a shot that hit the corner of the goal. Motson said, "Well! That could have been six!" Instead, it ended Tottenham 0-5 Arsenal.

The BBC's postgame graphic

(UPDATE: In 2025, Eberechi Eze became the 3rd Arsenal player to score a hat trick against Tottenham.)

Arsenal fans who were there claimed that, on the way out, Spurs hooligans were assaulting anyone they saw wearing red, even if they hadn't been to the game. But Arsenal were on their way to a Merry Christmas (or, as they would say in England, a Happy Christmas) and that season's FA Cup; while Spurs were on their way to another trophyless season.

Soon, Spurs signed 2 superstars from Argentina's recent World Cup win: Osvaldo "Ossie" Ardiles and Ricardo "Ricky" Villa. This later led to a joke among Arsenal fans: Alan Sunderland never played for Sunderland, Ricky Villa never played for Aston Villa, and Danny Shittu never played for Tottenham. (A few years earlier, Tottenham had a player named Mike England, but he was from Wales, and played his international football for Wales. In the 2000s and 2010s, there was a player named Stephen Ireland who played his international football for the Republic of Ireland.)

*

December 23, 1978 was a Saturday. Venezuelan baseball player Víctor Martínez and Canadian actress-model Estella Warren were born.

Baseball was out of season. Although NFL Playoff games are usually played on Saturdays, it didn't happen this time. There were 3 college football bowl games played that day:

* Number 14 Texas beat Number 13 Maryland, 42-0 in the Sun Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in El Paso, Texas.

* Number 16 Pittsburgh lost to North Carolina State, 30-17 in the Tangerine Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Orlando.

* And Number 18 Missouri beat Louisiana State (LSU), 20-15 in the Liberty Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Memphis.

There were 6 games played in the NBA that day:

* New York Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets, 129-107 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 109-91 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the New Orleans Saints, 127-103 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons, 130-126 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-117 in overtime at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Bullets, 114-109 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 9-4 at the Nassau Coliseum. Bryan Trottier scored 5 goals and 3 assists.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 2-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-1 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was then known.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-0 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* And the Atlanta Flames and the Colorado Rockies were not scheduled.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 4-3 at the Springfield Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center) in Springfield, Massachusetts, where they were playing during repairs on the Hartford Civic Center. And the Cincinnati Stingers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center).

December 11, 1886: The 1st Arsenal Match

Not quite the 1st Arsenal team, but perhaps the earliest known team photo,

1888, including some of the original players.

December 11, 1886: The Arsenal Football Club played its 1st game. It was on the Isle of Dogs, at a ground recently occupied by Millwall Football Club, against a team named Eastern Wanderers, which went out of business a few years later. The new club won, 6-0.

They were originally a works team -- what we in the U.S. would call a company team, as both the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers began -- at the Royal Arsenal (hence the nickname "The Gunners," which led to their fans later being tagged "The Gooners") in Woolwich (the 2nd W is silent), in what was then the county of Kent, but is now part of Southeast London (SE16).

They called themselves Dial Square Football Club, after the section of the Arsenal where they worked. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1886, they met at the nearby Royal Oak pub, to make things more official, and changed their name to the Royal Arsenal Football Club.

The 1st game under the new name, and the 1st game that could be called a "home game" for them, was on January 8, 1887, at Plumstead Common, 2 miles away, against a nearby club called Erith, and Royal Arsenal won, 6-1.

The Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Photo dated 1960.

In 1893, they turned professional, and were admitted to England's Football League, but had to change their name, as Queen Victoria had signed a law that prohibited any professional sports team from having "Royal" in its name. (This is not the case in Spain, where there are professional soccer teams named Real Madrid, Real Mallorca, Real Betis, etc.)

And, of course, being professional, they had ceased to be a "club," even though the word remains part of the organization's name, and the fans continue to call their team "my club."

So they took on the name of their locality, and were Woolwich Arsenal from then until 1913, when they moved to a new stadium at Highbury in North London, "The Arsenal" until 1919 and "Arsenal Football Club" since, although "The Arsenal," Capital T, Capital A, is frequently still used, especially by the club's fans.

They could have changed their name to "Highbury Arsenal," or "Islington Arsenal," even though neither the Borough of Islington nor the Highbury neighborhood had any connection to the Royal Arsenal, aside from the club. As a result, Arsenal are 1 of only 2 professional clubs in England without a locality as part of their official name. The other is Port Vale, located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Herbert Chapman was signed to manage Arsenal in 1925. He led them to win the Football Association Cup in 1930, and the Football League Division One in 1931 and 1933, before his death midway through the 1933-34 season. Under Joe Shaw, and then George Allison, the team he built went on to win the League again in 1934, 1935 and 1938, and the FA Cup in 1936. A rebuild after World War II, under manager Tom Whittaker, resulted in League titles in 1948 and 1953, and an FA Cup in 1950.

Like Chapman, Whittaker died in office, in 1956, and a down period resulted. The team's fortunes were turned around under Bertie Mee. In 1970, he guided the team to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League. In 1971, Arsenal took both the League and the FA Cup, "The Double." A mid-1970s rebuild under Terry Neill led to an FA Cup win in 1979.

In 1986, George Graham, one of the players from the '71 Double was named manager. He led the team to the 1987 League Cup, the 1989 and 1991 League titles, the 1st-ever English domestic "cup double" (the League Cup and the FA Cup) in 1993, and the European Cup Winners' Cup (a tournament that no longer exists) in 1994.

In 1996, Arsène Wenger was named the team's 1st manager not a native of the British Isles, and he revamped everything, from tactics to exercise to diet. In 1998, now in the era of the Premier League, he took Arsenal to another Double. He did it again in 2002. He led them to another FA Cup in 2003. And he led them through the entire 2003-04 Premier League season without losing a game: Played 38, won 26, drawn 2, lost exactly none. It had never been done before, and it hasn't been done since. The unbeaten string eventually reached 49 games.

(The 1st season of the Football League was in 1888-89, and Lancashire team Preston North End went through the 22-game season unbeaten, and also won the FA Cup. But 38 is a lot more games than 22.)

After another FA Cup win in 2005, Arsenal advanced to the Final of the UEFA Champions League in 2006, their last season at Highbury. With the opening of the new 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium, the construction debt had to be paid off, and Wenger had less of a budget than before. Still, he managed to keep the team in the Champions League places.

A small but loud and angry section of the fanbase began to demand that Wenger spend more money on "world-class players," because they believed that winning the League title was all that mattered. When Wenger ended a 9-year trophy drought by winning the 2014 FA Cup, this small but loud and angry section decided that it wasn't enough.

Nor was it enough when he did it again in 2015 and 2017. They demanded that he be fired for not giving them another League title -- as if he hadn't already given them 3, as many as any other Arsenal manager had ever done. (Allison had won 3; Chapman, Whittaker and Graham had each won 2, Shaw 1.)

By 2017, Arsenal had been surpassed by bigger-spending teams run by billionaire owners, and fell out of the Champions League places. Late in the 2018 season, Wenger announced he was leaving. It is still debated whether he was fired, or he quit due to even his great patience finally being worn out by the whiners.

New manager Unai Emery turned out to be a poor replacement, and was fired in favor of Mikel Arteta, the Spanish midfielder who had captained the 2014 and '15 Cup wins. His leadership led to victory in the 2020 FA Cup, and a 2nd-place finish and a return to Champions League qualification in 2022.

The Arsenal have a great past, and a promising future. The hope is that the team can, within a short time, return to its former heights.

Good old Arsenal, we're proud to say your name.

While we sing this song, we'll win the game!

There are no other scores on this historic day. England's Football League wouldn't be founded for another 2 years, and, given the distances involved in the pre-automobile era, scheduling was risky. In America, the baseball season was over, the college football season was also over, basketball hadn't been invented yet, and hockey hardly had been.

December 4, 1935: Swastikas Over White Hart Lane

The Swastika flag can be made out,

in the upper-right corner of the photo.

December 4, 1935: The national soccer teams of England and Germany play each other at White Hart Lane in Tottenham, Middlesex, a northern suburb of London. The match is surrounded by controversy.

That had not been the case the 1st time the teams played each other. On May 10, 1930, at the Poststadion in Berlin, with Germany governed by the Weimar Republic, there were no incidents, and the game ended in a draw, 3-3.

But in 1933, the Nazi Party took power in Germany. Their oppression of the nation's Jews, for blaming them for Germany's defeat in World War I, caught the attention of the world. And so, when a 2nd football match between the countries was set for England, many people worried about what Germans, traveling to watch their team play, might do to English people they perceived as Jewish.

To make matters worse, the chosen venue for the match was White Hart Lane, in Tottenham. Until a 1963 Act of Parliament redrew the boundaries of England's Counties, Tottenham was part of Middlesex. Effective January 1, 1965, it would be a part of London, as would parts of Kent and Surrey, while Middlesex was eliminated entirely.

Fans of Tottenham Hotspur, or "Spurs," the team playing home games at The Lane, have always claimed that "North London is ours." It's never been true: Arsenal, 4.7 miles away, and officially within London since 1913 (even though White Hart Lane never moved following its opening in 1899), have always been the more successful team.

Why did the choice of venue make things worse? Because Tottenham has long been thought of as a Jewish area of London, and "Spurs" a "Jewish club." It's not true: Their local area does not have a noticeably larger percentage of Jewish residents than most of London.

Nevertheless, their fans have accepted this identity, flying Israeli flags, and even using an anti-Semitic slur (which I won't use here) for the name of their hooligan firm. Fans of other London teams, including (regrettably) Arsenal, East End team West Ham United, and West London team Chelsea have also used slurs and anti-Semitic tropes against them.

It had been rumored that 8,000 Germans were traveling to London for the match, and trouble was feared. In fact, none of the Germans among the crowd of 54,164 is known to have caused any trouble. Still, the photographs showing the Nazi Swastika flag flying over White Hart Lane, as well as the English Cross of St. George and the British Union Jack, was jarring.

Germany wore white shirts. England, wearing blue, fielded this lineup:

* Goalkeeper, Henry Gibbs, of Birmingham City.

* Right back, George Male of Arsenal.

* Left back and team Captain, Eddie Hapgood of Arsenal.

* Right half, Jack Crayston of Arsenal.

* Centre half, Jack Barker of Derby County.

* Left half, John Bray of Manchester City.

* Outside right, Stanley Matthews of Stoke City.

* Inside right, Horatio "Raich" Carter of Sunderland.

* Centre forward, George Camsell of Middlesbrough.

* Inside left, Ray Westwood of Bolton Wanderers. And...

* Outside left, Cliff Bastin of Arsenal.

If 4 Arsenal players in the starting lineup seems excessive, let the record show that Arsenal had won the last 3 Football League titles, and that the 1934 match against Italy known as "The Battle of Highbury," at Arsenal's stadium, had 7 Arsenal players.

As The Times of London reported, the game was not much of a contest. I have left the account as written, with no changes of spelling or grammar:

England beat Germany at White Hart Lane yesterday by three goals to none. The football was naither as interesting to watch nor as perfect in technique as it might have been, but the afternoon was a great success for at least two reasons. First, the game was played throughout in the friendliest of spirit ; and, secondly, after a morning of heavy and persistent rain, the sun came out, and both the players and the spectators had far better conditions than they could have expected three or four hours before the kick-off.

Germany were fortunate in that the margin against them was not bigger, and it would be flattery to pretend otherwise...

England's one goal came when Camsell was given a pass which sent him racing through in the inside-left position, and his shot, taken from an extremely acute angle, could not be stopped...

First a movement down the left wing begun by Hapgood ended with Bastin centreing across for Camsell to head into the net, and then some splendid football by Bastin, who had worked into the centre, led up to Camsell, who had run over to the left, to return the ball to Bastin, who never looked like making a mistake with his shot.

So that was 2 goals for Camsell, and 1 for Bastin, whose 178 goals for Arsenal would be a club record until 1997, and are still 3rd all-time behind the 228 of Thierry Henry and the 185 of Ian Wright.

The Observer, which had warned of German violence, had to admit: "So chivalrous in heart and so fair in tackling were the English and German teams who played at Tottenham in mid-week that even the oldest of veterans failed to recall an international engagement played with such good manners by everybody."

The teams would play just once more before World War II broke out, at the Olympiastadion in Berlin in 1938. The German players saluted the Nazi flag. The English players did as well, in a gesture of solidarity, except for Stan Cullis of Wolverhampton Wanderers, later to manage that team to glory.

*

December 4, 1935 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled. So the England-Germany football match produced the only score on this historic day.

November 29, 1975: The Crash of Graham Hill

November 29, 1975: Auto racers Graham Hill and Tony Brise, and 4 others, are killed – not in a racing crash, but in a plane crash, going down in a fog at Arkley golf course in North London.

I had resisted adding auto racing events to this feature, because I don't like the event, and consider to not be a sport. I finally changed my mind, given how many people are interested.

Hill, a Norton London native, was a Royal Navy veteran who won 2 Formula 1 titles and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972. He was 46. Erith, from Southeast London, was a Grand Prix rookie on Hill's team. He was only 23.

Hill remains the only driver to have completed the Triple Crown in both its World Drivers' Championship and Monaco Grand Prix versions. He was F1 World Champion in 1962 and 1968. He won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1966. And he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972.

Formula 1 (F1) racing is much more popular in Britain and Europe than it is in America -- mainly because, before the rise of cable TV allowed them to watch North American sports, there was room for it, since European sports was basically soccer first and everything else second. As a result, tragedies in auto racing are felt very deeply there, and Hill's death sent the Old World into mourning.

*

November 29, 1975 was a Saturday. It was the conclusion of college football rivalry week. On Thanksgiving, Number 15 Georgia beat Georgia Tech, 42-26 at Grant Field in Atlanta. And Temple beat Villanova, 41-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

On the Friday, Number 2 Texas A&M beat Number 5 Texas, 20-10 at Kyle Field in College Station. And Number 14 UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles beat USC, the University of Southern California, 25-22 at their then common home field, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This earned UCLA the Pacific-Eight Conference title.

Number 1 Ohio State, having beaten Michigan, who fell to Number 9 that week, won the Big Ten Conference title, and the accompanying bid to the Rose Bowl. But UCLA beat them, costing them the National Championship. UCLA were coached by Dick Vermeil, who was subsequently hired by the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.

This was the 1st year that the Big 10 let a team other than its Champion play in a bowl game, a response to the 10-10 tie between undefeated Michigan and undefeated Ohio State in 1973. Michigan were invited to the Orange Bowl.

These were among the games played on that Saturday:

* Number 4 Alabama beat Auburn, 28-0 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. It clinched the Southeastern Conference title for 'Bama.

* Number 6 Oklahoma and Number 7 Nebraska were idle, having played each other the week before. Oklahoma won, clinching the Big Eight Conference title. Oklahoma went on to beat Michigan in the Orange Bowl, and were awarded the National Championship.

* Number 8 Arizona State beat Number 12 Arizona, 24-21 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona. This clinched the Western Athletic Conference title for Arizona State. Arizona State then went on to beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, completing an undefeated season, 12-0. But because they were only a WAC team, they finished Number 2 in the polls. After 2 more seasons in the WAC, they and Arizona joined the Pac-8, making it the Pac-10.

* Number 10 Penn State were idle. They were invited to play Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. 'Bama won.

* Number 13 Florida beat the University of Miami, 15-11 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* Number 20 San Jose State were the only Top 20 team to lose on the day, losing to Hawaii, 30-20 at the new Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

* Boston College beat Holy Cross, 24-10 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Vanderbilt picked up a rare win over arch-rival Tennessee, 17-14 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Notre Dame had finished its schedule the preceding week, in what's become known as The Rudy Ruettiger Game.

* Navy beat Army, 30-6 at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The other service academy, Air Force, finished its schedule the previous Saturday.

* Rutgers beat Syracuse, 21-10 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. The other New Jersey school, Princeton, finished its schedule the previous Saturday.

The next week, Texas A&M lost to Arkansas, costing them the Southwest Conference title, a bid to the Cotton Bowl, and a shot at the National Championship. Georgia were invited to the Cotton Bowl, where they also lost to Arkansas.

Baseball was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 115-110 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 124-108 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls, 88-85 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.)

* The Houston Rockets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-98 at The Summit in Houston. (It became the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns, 112-100 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Buffalo Braves, 130-115 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Bob McAdoo of the Braves led all scorers on the day with 40 points.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Virginia Squires, 111-106 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-112 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. David Thompson scored 37 points.

* The Utah Stars beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 136-100 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The New York Islanders beat the St. Louis Blues, 8-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 1-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 4-4 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Washington Capitals, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Kansas City Scouts, 5-3 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Buffalo Sabres, 8-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the California Golden Seals and the Atlanta Flames were not scheduled.

And there were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Indianapolis Racers beat the New England Whalers, 3-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Toronto Toros beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 9-5 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Phoenix Roadrunners played to a tie, 4-4 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Calgary Cowboys beat the San Diego Mariners, 5-4 in overtime at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

November 1, 1939: "The Arsenal Stadium Mystery" Premieres

George Allison delivering his pregame team talk

November 1, 1939: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery premieres. It is the 1st feature film set around a major professional sports team in the British Isles. Thorold Dickinson directed. He had become known for directing musicals, and would go on to direct John Gielgud as Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister.

From 1930 to 1938, 9 seasons, Arsenal Football Club, based at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury for its neighborhood in North London, had won 5 Football League Division One titles (1931, '33, '34, '35 and '38, and just missing in '32 and '37) and 2 FA Cups (1930 and '36, losing the Final in '32). Herbert Chapman was the manager who built this team. Upon his death in 1934, George Allison was appointed manager, and kept it going.

The story involves Arsenal FC playing an exhibition game, or a "friendly" as it's known in soccer, against the Trojans, a fictional amateur team that appears to have a decent-sized following. Arsenal's last League game of the 1938-39 season, a 2-0 win over West London team Brentford, was filmed for this movie.

Before the game, Allison is shown addressing the players in the dressing room, but none of the players has a speaking part in the film. While right back George Male, as usual during that season, served as Captain, he also served as the head coach, as Allison usually watched the game from the press box. In this film, he is shown sitting next to a radio announcer, played by E.V.H. (Edward Victor Henry) Emmett, in real life a commentator for a film newsreel, Gaumont British News.

Alf Kirchen scored in the 1st half, and Ted Drake added a goal in the 2nd half. Both goals were shown in the finished film. At halftime, Allison tells Emmett, "One-nil to The Arsenal. That's just the way we like it." The phrase "One-nil to The Arsenal" stuck in fans' minds, and, in the 1993-94 season, when it seemed like, if Arsenal won at all, it was by a 1-0 score, including in the European Cup Winners' Cup Final, they starting singing "One-nil, to The Arsenal!" to the tune of "Go West," a Village People song that had recently been covered by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys.

But, within the story of the film, halftime saw one of the Trojans players drop dead. The Arsenal team doctor determines that he has been poisoned, and suspicion falls on various people, including his teammates, and his former mistress -- who, before the film ends, also ends up poisoned. Detective Inspector Slade, played by Leslie Banks, must solve the crime. The culprit does turn out to be one of the other Trojans players.

Allison remained Arsenal manager until 1947, and lived until 1957. Emmett lived until 1971. Banks only made it until 1952.

Arsenal would again be the subject of a feature film in 1997, Fever Pitch, based on the memoir of teacher turned author Nick Hornby. That film goes back and forth between his childhood (first 1968, then 1972) and the 1988-89 season, when Arsenal struggled to stay on top of the League, finally winning it in a dramatic finale against Liverpool FC.

In 2006, Arsenal moved into the Emirates Stadium, about half a mile west of Highbury. The stadium's historic North Bank and southern Clock End were demolished, and its East and West stands were converted into apartments.

*

November 1, 1939 was a Wednesday. Actress Barbara Bosson was born.

England had already suspended Football League play for the duration of World War II, and wouldn't have been playing on a Wednesday, anyway, barring a backup of postponements. In North America, baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start until the next day. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 26, 1938: England vs. The Rest of Europe & Hockey Comes to TV

Tommy Lawton

October 26, 1938: The Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury after its North London neighborhood, hosts a match between the England national team and a team representing "The Rest of Europe." The game commemorates, on the actual anniversary day, the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Football Association. A crowd of 40,185, including King George VI, sees England win 3-0. It was the 2nd full England match to be shown live on British television.

The England team consisted of Arsenal's left back Eddie Hapgood (Captain) and left half Wilf Copping, Chelsea's goalkeeper Vic Woodley, Tottenham's right back Bert Sproston and inside right Willie Hall, Huddersfield's right half Ken Willingham, Wolverhampton Wanderers' centre half (and future title-winning manager) Stan Cullis, Stoke City's outside right Stanley Matthews, Everton's centre forward Tommy Lawton and outside left Walter Boyes, and West Ham United's inside left Len Goulden. Hall, Lawton and Goulden scored.

The Rest of Europe team included 5 players from recent World Cup winners Italy, 2 Germans, a Frenchman, a Belgian, a Hungarian, and a Norwegian. Only 1 of the 5 Italians was on the forward line, so even then, Italy was a defense-first footballing nation. It was Silvio Piola, considered too young for their 1934 World Cup winners, but starred on the 1938 version while playing his club soccer for Lazio in Rome. The Belgian, Ray Braine, was his country's 1st professional footballer, when he signed for Sparta Prague -- not in his own country, which had yet to allow professionalism, but in Czechoslovakia -- in 1930.

Ray Braine

The last survivor of each team was Cullis, who lived until 2001; and Pietro Rava of Italy and Juventus, who lived until 2006.

Also on this day, for the 1st time, an ice hockey match is televised. Oddly, this does not occur in Canada, or in America, or in any of the European nations that we now associate with the game, such as Russia or Sweden. It is in England, on the BBC, between Harringay Racers of North London and Streatham Redskins of South London. The broadcaster, at least, was a Canadian: Winnipeg-born Stuart MacPherson.

I don't have a record of the result, although Harringay finished ahead of Streatham in the English National League in the 1938-39 season. Harringay won it the preceding season, 1937-38, and Streatham had won it in 1934-35. Harringay folded in 1957, and have since been replaced by a new team using the name. Streatham are still in business.

In 1940, New York station W2XBS (forerunner of WNBC-Channel 4) would become the 1st TV station to broadcast an NHL game, a 6-2 New York Rangers win over the Montreal Canadiens at the old Madison Square Garden. Just 3 days after that, they would broadcast the 1st televised basketball game, also at the old Garden. That station had already done, all in New York City in 1939, the 1st TV broadcasts of baseball, at Ebbets Field; college football, at Columbia University's Baker Field; and the NFL, at the Polo Grounds.

In 1952, CBC would bring Hockey Night In Canada from radio to TV, and it quickly became, and remains, Canada's favourite (that's how it's "spelt" up there) TV show. But the U.S. -- ABC/ESPN, NBC and Fox have all tried -- has never really gotten hockey broadcasts right. "Glow puck," anyone?

*

October 26, 1938 was a Wednesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season wouldn't start for another 8 days. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

September 16, 1937: The 1st Soccer Game on TV

September 16, 1937: For the 1st time, a soccer game is shown on TV. It is the Arsenal first team for the Arsenal Reserves, at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

Arsenal had won the Football League title in 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1935, won the FA Cup Final in 1930 and 1936, and lost it in 1932. But by 1937, they were in something of a transition. Manager George Allison saw his Captain, Alex James, retire. And Ray Bowden had been sold.

Allison still had legends like George Male, Eddie Hapgood, Jack Crayston, Herbie Roberts, Wilf Copping, Joe Hulme, Ted Drake and Cliff Bastin. And new players were brought up from the youth ranks, including the brothers Leslie and Denis Compton. Both had represented England at the senior level in cricket as well as in football (soccer), Les being better at football, Denis being better at cricket. Other new additions included Jack Crayston, Bernard Joy, and Alf Kirchen, who notably scored the goal in the 1938-39 League finale that was filmed for the movie The Arsenal Stadium Mystery.

But after winning their 1st 3 games easily, Arsenal went on a tailspin, winning only 2 of their next 12. And that 1937-38 season was hit hard by a rough Winter. In the 3rd Round of the FA Cup alone, snow caused 261 postponements, and that Round took 66 days to complete.

Arsenal got their act together: From January 29 to April 9, they won 7 games, drew 4, and lost only 2. But 1 of those losses was in the 5th Round of the Cup, to Lancashire team Preston North End, featuring Bill Shankly, who would lift Liverpool FC to glory in the 1960s and '70s.

Preston went on to defeat Huddersfield Town in the Final, the 1st Cup Final ever televised. The 93,000-strong Wembley crowd outnumbered British TV owners 10 to 1, but that didn't stop the Daily Herald from running the headline: "The day is not far off when you may be able to watch your favourite football team from your fireside."

Just 7 days later, the League had its final slate of games for the season. Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers led Arsenal by 1 point, but lost away to defending Champions Sunderland, 1-0. Arsenal beat Manchester-area team Bolton Wanderers, 5-0, and had finished 1 point ahead of Wolves. Arsenal were Champions for the 5th time in 8 seasons, their 6th major trophy in 9. "Lucky Arsenal," the newspapers called them. Even then, the English media seemed to be aligned against the Gunners.

Arsenal finished 5th in 1938-39, and World War II began early in the 1939-40 season, causing the Football Association to suspend League and Cup play for the duration. By the time League play began for 1946-47, the older players from before were too old to contribute; and even the younger players brought up in 1937-38 seemed to have lost their touch during The War.

But a new manager, former Arsenal player and team physiotherapist Tom Whittaker, rebuilt quickly, and a new group won the League in 1948, won the Cup in 1950, finished 2nd in both in 1952, and won the League in 1953. (In the 1937-38 team photo above, Whittaker is in the suit in the upper right, while Allison is seated in the middle.)

However, football on English TV would not become common until the Premier League was started in 1992. Big games, like the FA Cup Final, would be shown live, but regular-season games would only be shown on tape delay, either hours later on the BBC's Match of the Day or the next day on ITV's The Big Match.

*

September 16, 1937 was a Thursday. Vince Naimoli, the 1st owner of baseball's Tampa Bay Rays (Devil Rays) was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. Lefty Gomez pitched a 3-hit shutout. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-3 with a walk, and had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Cliff Melton pitched a 6-hit shutout. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk. For the Pirates, Paul Waner went 0-for-4, and Lloyd Waner went 1-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the opener, 8-5. The Cincinnati Reds won the nightcap, 5-1.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Hank Greenberg went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940) beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Rookie Jim Turner pitched a 7-hit shutout. Known as "The Milkman," because he delivered (like later basketball star Karl "The Mailman" Malone), Turner went on to win 20 games and lead the National League in ERA. Had there been a Rookie of the Year award at the time, he would have won it easily. In 1941, the Reds converted him to a reliever, and he helped the Yankees win Pennants in 1942 and 1943. He later became a renowned pitching coach.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 and 8-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox were rained out at Fenway Park in Boston. Given the lateness of the season, travel issues, and the fact that the Yankees were running away with the American League Pennant, the game was never made up.

September 12, 1992: "Fever Pitch" Is Published

September 12, 1992: Fever Pitch: A Fan's Life is published, a memoir by Nick Hornby, less of his life in general to that point than a story of the evolution of his fandom for a sports team. It might be the best book ever written about being a fan of a particular team.

Hornby, then an English teacher in London, is a fan of Arsenal Football Club, a soccer team in North London. He told of following the team from the start of the 1968-69 season until just before publication, including the 1971 "Double" season (meaning that they won the Football League Division One and the Football Association Cup in the same season) and the next League title, which wasn't until 1989 -- 18 years.

The book made Hornby a best-selling author, and raised Arsenal's profile to the point where, already one of the most popular teams in England, they became one of the most popular teams in the world. But it also sparked a backlash against them, and they became one of the country's most hated teams as well.

Nick Hornby, posing outside Highbury

before the last match, May 9, 2006

Fever Pitch was made into a film in the United Kingdom, premiering on April 4, 1997, starring Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell. The tagline was, "Life gets complicated when you love one woman and worship eleven men." This version, with Hornby writing the screenplay, followed a fictionalized version of Hornby during the epic 1988-89 season, with flashbacks to his youth in 1968 and 1972.

In the film, returning from Arsenal's 1-0 win over Newcastle United on April 15, 1989, Firth's Paul Ashworth and Gemmell's Sarah Hughes are watching the news reports of the Hillsborough Disaster, when a crowd crush in Sheffield led to the deaths of Liverpool fans -- 74 at the time of the report, rising to 95 at the time of the book's publication. A 96th victim was still in a coma at that time, and died the next year. In 2021, fan who had been injured in the crush died, and his death was ruled to have been caused by his 1989 injuries, thus making him the 97th victim.

Sarah says that football matches aren't safe, and she has a point. Paul says people will go back -- which they did, and stadiums were made significantly safer in response to the disaster. But she says he and the other fans she met had an unhealthy obsession with the sport, and she leaves him. She returns to him afterward, seeing the joy and the others he felt at winning the title, seeing that sport can heal.

But, for the moment, Paul was left to ruminate on what the sport was doing to his life. Hornby wrote, and Firth spoke:

Football has meant too much to me, and has come to represent too many things. See, after a while, it all gets mixed up in your head. You can't remember whether life's shit because Arsenal's shit, or if it's the other way around.

I've been to watch far too many games, and spent far too much money, fretted about Arsenal when I should have been fretting about something else. I've asked too much of the people I love.

Okay, I accept all that. Perhaps it's something you can't understand, unless you belong...

The great thing is, it comes again and again. There's always another season. You lose the Cup Final in May? Well, there's the 3rd Round to look forward to in January. And what's wrong with that? It's actually pretty comforting, if you think about it.

The United States version was adapted by Providence, Rhode Island-based filmmakers Peter & Bobby Farrelly, fans of New England's sports teams, including baseball's Boston Red Sox. They cast Jimmy Fallon, then a former star of NBC's Saturday Night Live, and not yet the host of a late-night talk show, now hosting The Tonight Show. Ironically, in real life, Fallon is a fan of the New York Yankees, the Red Sox' arch-rivals -- so this film proves that he really can act.

This version of the film follows the Red Sox in their own epic season, of 2004. To avoid confusion, this film was renamed The Perfect Catch for the British Isles market. The French-language version of the British film is titled Carton Juane -- "Yellow Card," which is what a referee shows a player as a warning. A red card is for a foul so bad, it requires the player to be immediately sent off, and getting a second yellow card in a single game is followed by a red card.

*

September 12, 1992 was a Saturday. Although Hornby's memoir celebrated Arsenal, the club did not hold up their end of the bargain, losing to Lancashire team Blackburn Rovers, 1-0 at Highbury in North London.

In American football, the day's slate of college games included these did not include a game by the team then ranked Number 1, the University of Miami, in Florida. They had the week off. But the slate included these games:

* Number 2 Washington beat Wisconsin, 27-10 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Number 3 Notre Dame and Number 6 Michigan played to a 17-17 tie at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 4 Florida beat Kentucky, 35-19 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

* Number 5 Florida State beat Number 15 Clemson, 24-20 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 7 Texas A&M beat the University of Tulsa, 19-9 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

* Number 8 Alabama beat Southern Mississippi, 17-10 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

* Number 9 Syracuse beat Texas, 31-21 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.

* Number 10 Penn State beat Temple University, 49-8 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 14 Georgia were beaten by Number 20 Tennessee, 34-31 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Number 17 University of California were beaten by Purdue, 41-14 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Number 18 Mississippi State were beaten by Louisiana State (LSU), 24-3 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Among the service academies, Army beat Holy Cross, 17-7 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy lost to Number 23 Virginia, 53-0 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force lost to Hawaii, 6-3 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

* And in New Jersey, Rutgers beat Colgate, 41-0 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.

And these Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-9 at Yankee Stadium. Randy Velarde hit a home run. Don Mattingly went 4-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Bernie Williams went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 4-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Wade Boggs went 4-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Barry Bonds went 1-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-0 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Jaime Navarro pitched a 5-hit shutout. Robin Yount went 1-for-4. Paul Molitor went 2-for-5. Cal Ripken went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 7-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 11-3 at Busch Memlorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 4-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 9-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 7-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 7-0 at Dodger Stadium. Pedro Astacio pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Neither Rickey Henderson nor Mark McGwire played for the A's in this game. Ken Griffey Jr. went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

September 6, 1913: The Arsenal Stadium Opens In Highbury

The stadium's final configuration, 1993-2006.

Note the words "ARSENAL STADIUM" on the East Stand,

even though most people called it "Highbury."

September 6, 1913: The Arsenal Stadium opens, in the Highbury section of North London. In time, the stadium itself will come to be called "Highbury." Woolwich Arsenal, who had played in South-East London since their founding in 1886, had come to North London because it would be easier for fans, and for other teams, to get to. Woolwich Arsenal defeat Leicester Fosse, 2-1, on a penalty kick by Archie Devine, following a late Leicester handball in the box.

Highbury, in its 1913-1932 configuration

At the conclusion of this 1913-14 season, the team's owner, Henry Norris, dropped the locality from the name, and the club officially became "Arsenal Football Club" -- to this day, unofficially called "The Arsenal," capital T, capital A, by many.

Along with Port Vale in Staffordshire, Arsenal are 1 of only 2 clubs in the Football League to not have a locality as part of their name. (Well, technically, "Arsenal" could be, but the club had long since outgrown their "works side" status.) Leicester Fosse would later become Leicester City, and are still in business.

Tottenham Hotspur, or "Spurs," based 4.7 miles away at White Hart Lane, which was then in Middlesex but would be in North London once city boundaries were redrawn, objected to the move, as they did when Chelsea Football Club were established in 1905, all the way across the city in West London. 

, yet again, flip out about a club invading "their territory," even though the new stadium, to be named Arsenal Stadium, but nicknamed "Highbury" after the neighborhood, is 4 1/2 miles away -- roughly as far away from White Hart Lane as Clapton Orient already were.

It should be noted that neither Clapton Orient (also about 4 1/2 miles away from White Hart Lane), nor West Ham United (in East London), nor Chelsea, nor any other London or quasi-London club objected to the Arsenal move. Just Spurs, whose fans, even today, claim, "North London is ours."

It isn't. It took Arsenal until 1930 to win a trophy, but, starting then, in a span of 9 seasons, they won 5 Football League titles -- compared to 2 for Spurs in their entire history -- and 2 FA Cups. This success allowed Arsenal to build a West Stand and an East Stand in that decade, in the Art Deco style.

View from the Clock End, of the 1936-1988 configuration,

with the singled-decked, roofed, all-standing North Bank

They won the League and the Cup in 1971, for their 1st "Double." They did that again in 1998 and 2002. In 1989, which would end up as another title-winning season, they put luxury boxes over their south side, the Clock End. In 1993, to comply with the Taylor Report's demand for all-seater stadiums, they opened a new, double-decked North Bank stand. In 2004, they completed an unbeaten Premier League season.

By that point, realizing that they could not expand Highbury beyond its all-seater capacity of 38,000, they had to build a new stadium. The Emirates Stadium opened half a mile away, and Highbury was closed on May 7, 2006, with a 5-2 win over Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion. The North Bank and the Clock End were demolished, but the East and West Stands were converted into an apartment complex called Highbury Square. Some former Arsenal players bought apartments there.

*

September 6, 1913 was a Saturday. In American football, the college season was 2 weeks away. But these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 9-1 at American League Park (later Griffith Stadium) in Washington. The Yankees only got 1 hit, by 1st baseman John Knight, off 3 Senator pitchers, none of whom was Walter Johnson.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds. Ed Reulbach, a veteran of the Chicago Cubs' rivalry with the Giants, pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Boston Braves swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 and 7-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Eddie Collins went 2-for-4.. Tris Speaker went 3-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Naps beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Navin Field in Detroit. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the Cleveland team's 2nd baseman, best hitter, manager and namesake, went 0-for-3 with a walk. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson went 1-for-4. Ty Cobb went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a groundout. The Naps were renamed the Indians in 1915 and the Guardians in 2022. Navin Field was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Roy Mitchell pitched a 5-hit shutout, to outpitch Christy Mathewson.

July 26, 2014: Arsenal Play In New Jersey

Thierry Henry and Jack Wilshere

July 26, 2014: For the 4th time, Arsenal Football Club of North London came to North America.

The 1st was in 1972. On May 31, days after an FA Cup Final defeat and a year after winning the Football League and FA Cup "Double," they played the Miami Gatos of the old North American Soccer League at the Orange Bowl. Arsenal won 3-2, on goals by Charlie George, John Radford and Ray Kennedy. Attendance: A mere 4,725.

But they came back to this continent the next year anyway, possibly hoping that Canada's status as a nation still in the British Commonwealth would help attendance. If so, I can't find a reference to how many came out. On May 23, 1973, they played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, against a team called Toronto Select. Charlie George, the 1971 FA Cup Final hero, scored again, in a game that ended, as a later song would say, "One-nil to The Arsenal."

They stayed away for a long time. On August 6, 1989, they returned to Miami, apparently forgetting that Florida is hot as hell, especially in the Summer. At the Dolphins' new stadium (then named Joe Robbie Stadium, now named Hard Rock Stadium), they came as newly-crowned Champions of the Football League Division One, predecessors of the Premier League.

They played Club Atletico Independiente, of Avellaneda in the province of Buenos Aires, the defending champions of Argentina. This was for the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy, a phony "world championship." David "Rocky" Rocastle scored from open play in the 1st half, and from a penalty in the 2nd half, giving The Arsenal a 2-1 win. Attendance: 10,042, the vast majority of them Hispanics rooting for the South American team.

It would be a quarter of a century before they returned. They came to New York, held several events in The City during the week, and played at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey, home of Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls -- then featuring Arsenal's all-time leading scorer, Thierry Henry.

Because of my membership in the NYC Arsenal Supporters, I had the opportunity to be among the early birds eligible for the group's ticket offer, putting us in the upper deck of the North Ward, opposite the Red Bulls' supporters' section in the South Ward. It cost me $60 (about $75 in 2022 money), but I knew it would be worth it. Since I became an Arsenal fan in 2008, I have had online wisenheimers, some of them even Arsenal fans, taunt me by saying, "You've never seen your team in person!" That is no longer true.

People really did come from all over the world, not just all over the country. It was natural that people would come from London, elsewhere in England, elsewhere in the British Isles. But when the game was actually played, there were banners for fan clubs from Australia, China and Africa. This was huge. If someone had decided to move this game to the 82,000-seat MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands, I guarantee it would have sold out.

Instead, it was played at Red Bull Arena. In North Jersey. My old stomping grounds. (Okay, mine were Bloomfield and Newark, not Harrison, across the Passaic River.) As they would say in London, The Arsenal were on my manor.

I got there early enough to see Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger give an interview. It was a thrill just to see him. It was a bigger thrill to hear a crowd announced as 25,219 -- most of them Arsenal fans, not (or not just) Red Bulls fans, give him a standing ovation right before the game, and sing his song, to the tune of "Guantanamera": "One Arsène Wenger! There's only one Arsène Wenger!" Especially given how much certain people claiming to be Arsenal fans have abused him, both in person and online.

Henry and Wenger

I arrived in time to watch pregame warmups. Due to the World Cup, several players who had played in it were allowed to stay home and rest, without having to make the flights and the appearances. From Champions Germany, midfielder Mesut Özil, forward Lukas Podolski and centreback Per Mertesacker stayed home.

This was not a tragedy for me: I had previously seen Özil play for Real Madrid against AC Milan at Yankee Stadium in 2012; and had seen Poldi and the 6-foot-6 Mertesacker play for Germany against the U.S. at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington in 2013.

Also not making the trip, due to their participation in the World Cup, were forwards Olivier Giroud of France and the newly-acquired Alexis Sánchez of Chile; midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain of England; and centrebacks Laurent Koscielny of France, Thomas Vermaelen of Belgium (Arsenal's official Captain) and Johan Djourou of Switzerland.

Despite having played for England, midfielder Jack Wilshere did make the trip. So did midfielder Santi Cazorla of Spain. They proved to be among the most popular players on the team, and interacted with the fans more than any other players.

The World Cup-induced shortage forced Wenger to bring a lot of young reserves, and put some players in unusual positions. Here was the starting lineup:

1 Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczesny of Poland.
25 Right back: Carl Jenkinson of England.
45 Centreback: Isaac Hayden of England.
18 Centreback: Nacho Monreal of Spain, normally a left back.
3 Left back: Kieran Gibbs of England.
35 Right wing: Gedion Zelalem of the U.S.
8 Central midfield: Mikel Arteta of Spain, Captain for the day.
10 Central midfield: Jack Wilshere of England.
16 Central midfield: Aaron Ramsey of Wales.
19 Left wing: Santi Cazorla of Spain.
7 Forward: Tomáš Rosický of the Czech Republic, normally a midfielder.

Zelalem, born in Germany to Ethiopian parents, grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He was only the 3rd American ever to play for Arsenal, after Frank Simek in 2003 and Danny Karbassiyoon in 2004. As a result of this game, he also became the 1st player from a CONCACAF nation to play for Arsenal in any CONCACAF nation, let alone his own.

Since this was a friendly, permissible substitutions were limited only by the size of the roster. For the 2nd half, Wenger made these changes: In goal, Szczesny off, Emiliano Martinez of Argentina on; at RB, Jenkinson off, Héctor Bellerin of Spain on; at CB, Hayden off, Ignasi Miquel of Spain on; at RW, Zelalem off, Number 20, Mathieu Flamini of France on; at CM, Arteta off, Number 34, Francis Coquelin of France on; and at CM, Ramsey off, Number 24, Abou Diaby of France on.

In the 71st minute, Wenger replaced Rosicky at forward with Number 38, Chuba Akpom of England; Cazorla on left wing with Number 53, Kristoffer Olsson of Sweden, and Wilshere in central midfield with Number 56, Jon Toral of Spain.

Only Gibbs and Monreal played the whole game -- ironically, 2 men who usually play the same position.

For the Red Bulls: Luis Robles of the U.S. was in goal, Chris Duvall of the U.S. was at right back, Jámison Olave of Colombia and Ibrahim Sekagya of Uganda were at centreback, Roy Miller of the U.S. was at left back; the midfielders were Lloyd Sam of England, Dax McCarty of the U.S., Tim Cahill of Australia, and Ambroise Oyongo of Cameroon; and the forwards were, of course, Thierry Henry of France; and Bradley Wright-Phillips of England, son of Ian Wright, who set Arsenal's team record for career goals, 185 -- broken by Henry, who raised it to 228.

Subs: 46th, Armando Lozado of Spain at CB for Olave, Eric Alexander of the U.S. at LB for Miller and Andre Akpan of the U.S. at FW for BWP; 57th, Peguy Luyindula of France at FW for Henry; 62nd, Matt Miazga of the U.S. at CB for Sekagya; 63rd, Michael Bustamante of Colombia at MF for Cahill; 70th, Ruben Bover of Spain at MF for McCarty; 78th, Kosuke Kimura at RB for Duvall; 81st, Ryan Meara of the U.S. in goal for Robles, and Connor Lade of the U.S. for Sam (with the South Ward fans chanting, "We got Lade!"). Only Oyongo played the whole game.

Listed time for the kickoff was 5:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time -- meaning Arsenal fans back in London had a kickoff time of 10:00 PM. A small price to pay for those of us having to watch the traditional 3:00 PM Saturday kickoff at 10:00 AM -- leading to the title of a San Francisco-based Arsenal blog, 7AM Kickoff.

There was a light rain falling for much of the day, and maybe they waited a few minutes for it to stop. It did. At 5:12 PM on July 26, 2014, Henry kicked off, and, from that moment onward, anyone who has ever said that I've never seen Arsenal play live has been a liar.

As we would say in American football, these bellends keep "moving the goalposts."

Being an exhibition game, the action wasn't especially intense. No one wanted to get hurt -- and, given both teams' tendencies toward an "injury crisis," this was understandable. The point for the Red Bulls was to give themselves some credibility alongside one of the world's most beloved sports teams; the point for The Arsenal was to grow their brand in the U.S.; and the point for both was much more to put on a show than to win. This was not a Herman Edwards contest: Playing to win the game was secondary.

In the 32nd minute, Henry took a corner kick. Sekagya got to it, headed it, and it landed in front of BWP, who put it past Szczesny. There would be no "One-nil to The Arsenal" song today; it was 1-0 to the Jersey Boys.

Given their experience -- even for the kids -- Arsenal were not fazed. In the 38th, Zelalem passed to Wilshere, who fired at goal, but Robles made a great save to stop him.

Henry was no longer the best player in the world, as he was while with Arsenal from 2002 to 2006, but he still had a lot of moves. When he was subbed off in the 52nd minute, he got as good an ovation as he ever has.

Shortly thereafter, Diaby got the ball. Following a broken ankle in the 2005-06 season -- and he was injured on purpose by Sunderland's Dan Smith -- injuries had rendered the hope that he would be the "next Patrick Vieira" for Arsenal impossible. He was beloved by Arsenal fans, but he always seemed to play poorly when I watched on TV. He didn't seem to grasp that you're supposed to pass to the guys wearing the same color shirts. As Yogi Berra would say if he were a soccer fan, Even when he can play, he can't play.

Which makes what happened here a great irony: Diaby charged toward the north goal, right under us, and fired a shot past Robles. Tie ballgame! The 1st Arsenal goal I had ever seen, and it was by Diaby!

No, it wasn't: The linesman ruled it offside. Incorrectly, I thought. Some things never change: Even in meaningless games on other continents, The Arsenal get screwed over by the officials.

Aside from that, the officiating wasn't bad. There was very little in the way of dirty play. Cahill was shown a yellow card at the end of the 1st half, and Kimura received one in the game's final minute.

In the 79th, Akpom broke away, and it was just he and Robles. A shot, and Robles made a kick-save with his left foot that, across the Passaic at the Prudential Center, New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur would have appreciated.

Since this was a friendly, and there were no injuries, there was no stoppage time at the end of either half. Final score, New York Red Bulls 1, Arsenal 0. Or, as it would be written in world soccer circles, Metro 1-0 Arsenal.

I left the game disappointed at the result. But thrilled at the entire experience. I saw The Arsenal play in New Jersey, something that would have been unimaginable 10 years earlier, and incredibly unlikely even 6 years earlier when I started watching them, just as the growth of international TV coverage of soccer was in mid-explosion.

I saw Arsenal shirts in the Ironbound bars, in Newark Penn Station, and on New Jersey Transit trains.

I saw a team that knew that, due to finances, I couldn't go to see them, so they came to see me.

The Yankees, the Devils, and any other team I support have never had to do that, because they're close. The Arsenal are not.

Yet they came to me. And I was there.

I will always be grateful to them for that. There have been times when I've watched them when I've regretted following this sport. But I have never regretted making them my team.

Arsenal returned to North America in the Summer of 2016, played 2 games in California. On July 28, they beat the MLS All-Stars, 2-1 at what's now PayPal Park in San Jose, home of MLS' San Jose Earthquakes, on goals by Joel Campbell and Akpom. And on July 31, they beat C.D. Guadalajara of Mexico, a.k.a. "Chivas," 3-1 at what's now Dignity Health Sports Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, home of MLS' L.A. Galaxy, on goals by Rob Holding, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Akpom. Despite his success in these friendlies, Akpom never impressed Arsenal management, who loaned him out to 6 teams in 5 years, before selling him in 2018.

In the Summer of 2019, Arsenal came to America to participate in the International Champions Cup. As a warmup, on July 15, they went to Dick's Sporting Goods Park in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado, and beat the host team, the Colorado Rapids -- also owned by Stan Kroenke -- 3-0. Goals were scored by Bukayo Saka, James Olayinka and Gabriel Martinelli.

On July 17, they beat Bayern Munich 2-1 at Carson, thanks to an own goal and an 88th minute winner by Eddie Nketiah. On July 20, they beat Fiorentina of Florence, Italy, 3-0 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, with Nketiah scored 2 and Joe Willock 1. And on July 23, they played Real Madrid at FedEx Field in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland, home of the NFL team now known as the Washington Commanders. Alexander Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored in a 2-2 draw, but Real Madrid won the game on penalties, 3-2.

Arsenal had intended to come back for the Florida Cup in 2021, but a COVID breakout canceled that. So they tried again this Summer, and just wrapped up a 3-0 trip. On July 16, they beat Liverpool-based Everton 2-0 at M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, with goals by Gabriel Jesus and Saka. On July 20, they went to Exploria Stadium in Orlando, and beat MLS' Orlando City 3-1, with goals by Martinelli, Nketiah and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. And on July 23, they clobbered West London's Chelsea, 4-0 at Camping World Stadium (formerly known as the Citrus Bowl) in Orlando, with goals by Jesus, Martin Ødegaard, Saka and Sambi Lokonga.

Overall, Arsenal's record in the United States is 10-2. In North America, 11-2. Not too shabby.

UPDATE: In the Summer of 2023, Arsenal beat the MLS All-Stars, 5-0 at Audi Field in Washington. They played in New Jersey again, at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, and lost to Manchester United, 2-0 in front of 82,262 -- though that sellout, which I predicted 9 years earlier, was achieved with a lot of Man U fans. And it did not include me. And they beat FC Barcelona, 5-3 before 70,223 at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles. This made Arsenal's record in the State of New Jersey 0-2, and in the other 49 States combined 10-0. That wouldn't bother me so much if I weren't from New Jersey!

FedEx Field in Landover is now Commanders Field. Exploria Stadium in Orlando is (now Inter&Co Stadium.

Arsenal played in America again in Summer 2024. On July 24, at Dignity Health Sports Park, they drew 1-1 with Bournemouth, and then won 5-4 on penalties: On July 27, the beat Manchester United, 2-1 at SoFi. And on July 31, they lost to Liverpool, 2-1 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

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July 26, 2014 was a Saturday. This games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4 at Yankee Stadium. Chris Capuano had a good start, and Brian McCann and Carlos Beltrán hit home runs, but the bullpen blew it. In his last season, Derek Jeter went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-6 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Antonio Bastardo melted down in the top of the 10th inning, including giving up a home run to Nick Evans.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. How many Rays pitchers does it take to pitch a shutout? This time, 5.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Nationals, 1-0 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Johnny Cueto pitched 7 innings of 4-hit ball, and 2 relievers completed the 4-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis. Chris Sale pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 5-1 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-1 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Matt Shoemaker pitched 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and 2 relievers completed the 4-hit shutout.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 5-0 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Clayton Kershaw pitched a 3-hit shutout. But the Giants went on to win the World Series.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.