August 31, 1946: The Football League Returns After World War II

Jack Balmer

August 31, 1946: After almost exactly 7 years, England’s Football League resumes play. As it had proven to be in 1919, when it resumed after World War I, the British public's appetite for what we would call soccer was ravenous, and the largest crowd on this day was 61,000 at Stamford Bridge in West London, where host Chelsea beat Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers 4–3.

As for the leading club before The War, North London's Arsenal? The Gunners' postwar debut was a disaster, as a visit to Birmingham-area club Wolverhampton Wanderers (a.k.a. Wolves) resulted in a 6-1 defeat in front of 50,845. Clearly, the prewar players were now too old, and new players had to be brought in. Arsenal would finish 13th in the 22-team League.

The title race would be very close., as 4 teams would finish within 2 points: Liverpool beat out Manchester United by 1 point, and Wolves and Stoke by 2. Jack Balmer and Albert Stubbins each scored 28 goals for Liverpool -- in each case, 24 in League play.

After the season, George Allison retired as manager of Arsenal, and former player and physiotherapist Tom Whittaker took over. He having rebuilt the team, he led them to the title in 1948. But Wolves, along with Hampshire team Portsmouth FC and North-East team Newcastle United, would soon take over English football: Portsmouth won the League title in 1949 and 1950; Newcastle won the Cup in 1951, 1952 and 1954; while Wolves won the FA Cup in 1949, and the League title in 1954, 1958 and 1959, before winning the Cup again in 1960.

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August 31, 1946 was a Saturday. In America, these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 4-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Bill Bevens pitched a 7-hit shutout. Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-1 at the Polo Grounds. Monte Kennedy outpitched Kirby Higbe.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 0-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 10-6. Dick Mauney went the distance to win, while Warren Spahn didn't get out of the 4th inning. The Boston Braves won the nightcap, 14-2.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Rookie Ralph Kiner went 1-for-3 with a walk. Stan Musial went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 11-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Hank Greenberg went 1-for-5. Skeeter Webb went 4-for-6 with 3 RBIs. Dick Wakefield went 3-for-5 with a walk and 3 RBIs. And Paul Richards went 1-for-3 and Eddie Lake went 0-for-3, with each of them drawing 3 walks.

May 14, 1938: Stan Cullis Refuses to Salute

May 14, 1938: The Germany national soccer team salute their country's flag, in their entirety. Their opponents, the England team, also do so -- with one exception: Stan Cullis.

Stanley Cullis (no middle name) was born on October 25, 1916 in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. A centreback, he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. "Wolves," a team from the "Black Country" in the West Midlands, outside Birmingham. He debuted in 1935, became a regular in 1937, and by 1938 was team Captain, nearly leading them to the Football League Division One title, falling just 1 point short of North London team Arsenal.

He was selected for the England team that was to play Germany at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on May 14, 1938. In 1935, the teams had played in London, and the fear that German fans coming to support their team might cause trouble went unreleased. England won the game.

But things had changed. In 1935, the ruling Nazi Party had kept its excesses, including its awful treatment of Germany's Jews, domestic. In 1936, Germany had sent troops to the Rhineland, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. That year, fights between the British Union of Fascists and London leftists became known as the Battle of Cable Street. In March 1938, Austria was annexed. Now, the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was making noise about wanting the Sudetenland, a section of Czechoslovakia that was mostly ethnically German.

The starting lineup for England in Berlin: Goalkeeper, Vic Woodley, Chelsea (West London); right back, Bert Sproston, Leeds United (Yorkshire); left back and Captain, Eddie Hapgood, Arsenal; right half, Ken Willingham, Huddersfield Town (Yorkshire); centre half, Alf Young, Huddersfield Town; left half, Don Welsh, Charlton Athletic (South London); outside right, Stanley Matthews, Stoke City (Staffordshire); inside right, Jackie Robinson, Sheffield Wednesday (Yorkshire); centre forward, Frank Broome, Aston Villa (Birmingham); inside left, Len Goulden, West Ham United (East London); and outside left, Cliff Bastin, Arsenal.

If you are a baseball fan, you may have noticed a familiar name. Yes, Wednesday had a player named John Allan Robinson, who was known professionally as Jackie Robinson. There was also a basketball player of the same name, of some renown, who was a member of the 1948 U.S. Olympic team that won the Gold Medal in London.

Four reserves were chosen, in case any of the starting XI couldn't play. Cullis was one. The others were Arthur Bateman of Brentford (West London), Willie Hall of Tottenham Hotspur (North London), and Harry Clifton of Newcastle United (North-East). But the only player who had to drop out was one of the reserves, Hall. To make it worse for "Spurs" fans, his replacement was an Arsenal star, Ted Drake.

Before the game, as usual, both sets of players lined up for the playing of the national anthems. "God Save the King" was played for England, with no issue. It was expected that when the Deutschlandlied -- with music composed by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, and its August Heinrich Hoffmann-written opening line of "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" -- meaning, "Germany, Germany over all, over all in the world" -- the German players would face the Swastika flag, and give the Fascist salute. They did.

But when Sir Neville Henderson, the British Ambassador to Germany, out of respect for their hosts and the betterment of international relations with one of the world's major powers at the time, demanded that all England players give the Nazi salute on the pitch as well, and was backed up by the Football Association (the FA), Cullis refused. He was the only England player selected for this game to do so. With substitutes not allowed for this match, he did not enter the game.

Sadly, yes, it happened. England in white,

Germany in red, which appears black in this photo.

Germany wore red shirts with lace-up collars, white shorts and black socks. This enabled England to wear the same uniform they wore in their 1935 home win over Germany: White-collared jerseys, navy blue shorts, and black socks topped with two white horizontal stripes, or "hoops."

Despite the German players, between them, having more international match experience than any opponent England had ever played to that point, England won the game, 6-3, thanks to 2 goals by Jackie Robinson. Matthews, Broome, Goulden and Bastin also scored.

Contrary to popular belief, Cullis was not punished by the FA, but his England appearances were limited to 12, due to World War II interrupting international play. He captained Wolves into the 1939 FA Cup Final, but they lost to Portsmouth. They also finished 2nd in the Football League -- "the Dubious Double," runners-up in both League and Cup.

He would have more luck as a manager of "Wolves." He got them to win the League in 1954, '58 and '59, and the Cup in 1949 and '60. In a weird twist, the 1954 title was won by edging Wolves' local "Black Country" arch-rivals, West Bromwich Albion, who featured a Wolverhampton boy that Cullis refused to sign, Don Howe, would would later be a star coach -- and West Brom then beat Wolves to win the FA Cup. Thus, each rival denied the other the Double.

In 1954, Cullis led Wolves to a win over Honved, the Budapest side that featured several of the Hungary players that had embarrassed England at Wembley and in Budapest the year before, and would reach the 1954 World Cup Final -- losing to West Germany. This was one of the catalysts in the establishment of the European Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League.

Wolves legends, left to right: Billy Wright, Cullis' star player on their 1950s teams;

Cullis himself; and Dicky Dorsett, a teammate on the 1938 & '39 near-miss teams.

Stan Cullis died in 2001. A statue of him now stands outside Wolves' Molineux Stadium, one of whose stands is named for him. Legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly said of him, "All round, as a player, as a manager, and for general intelligence, it would be difficult to name anyone since the game began who could qualify to be in the same class as Stan Cullis."

The soccer rivalry between England and Germany would resume after World War II, highlighted by England's win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final. While the Deutschlandlied was restored as the German national anthem after The War, only the 3rd verse is used, due to the overtones of the Nazi tyranny that the 1st and 2nd verses still invoked.

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May 14, 1938 was a Saturday. This was also the day the Errol Flynn version of The Adventures of Robin Hood premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

That day, there were only 4 games in what would later be called Major League Baseball -- and only 2 of them reached a conclusion.

* The New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics were tied 1-1 after 5 innings at Yankee Stadium, when the game was called due to rain. At the time, the Yankees had only 1 hit, and it wasn't by 1st baseman Lou Gehrig, center fielder Joe DiMaggio, or catcher Bill Dickey. It was by their 2nd baseman, and it wasn't rookie sensation Joe Gordon, either: It was by Bill Knickerbocker.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940), 10-2 at Ebbets Field.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 10-9 at Fenway Park in Boston. Future Hall-of-Famer Jimmie Foxx won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied 7-7 after 10 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, when the game was called due to darkness.

So what happened to the other half of the major leagues? Rain. Lots of rain.

* The New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies were rained out at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 29. The Giants swept, 9-1 and 6-2. Over the 2 games, Mel Ott went 4-for-9 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs. Despite an 18-3 start, the Giants would fail to make it 3 straight National League Pennants, finishing 5 games behind the winners.

* The Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (Which was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) It was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 19. The Tigers swept, 8-7 and 7-4. Over the 2 games, Hank Greenberg went 4-for-7 with 3 home runs, including a walkoff in the opener, and 5 RBIs. He would hit 58 home runs that year, tying Foxx in 1932 for the most in a season, to that point, by anyone other than Babe Ruth.

* The Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Wrigley Field in Chicago, which was in its 1st season of the ivy-covered outfield wall and the big hand-operated scoreboard atop the center field bleachers. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 21. The Cubs swept, 6-4 and 6-1. These games would help make the difference, as the Cubs beat the Pirates for the Pennant by 2 games, and the Giants by 5. But they would be swept by the Yankees in the World Series.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at League Park in Cleveland. The game was rescheduled for August 22. The White Sox won, 4-2. John Whitehead outpitched Bob Feller.

May 7, 1938: Lucky Arsenal & the Crash of Manchester City

Eric Brook

May 7, 1938: One of the most stunning seasons in the history of English football (soccer) comes to a conclusion. As the Lancashire Evening Post put it -- I have changed neither their spelling nor their grammar -- "If it were possible to stage-manage a football season, skilfully building the actions of the play up to a tremendous climax, that which occurred on Saturday would stand as the perfect example of contrariness."

In the 1936-37 season, under manager Wilf Wild, Manchester City Football Club had won the Championship of England's Football League Division One, by 3 points over South London team Charlton Athletic, and 5 points over North London team Arsenal. (At the time, the Football League awarded a team 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. In 1982, to encourage playing to win, they made it 3 points for a win.)

Although this was City's 1st League title, it was not a big surprise, as they'd been a good team in recent years, finishing 5th and winning the FA (Football Association) Cup in 1934, and 4th in 1935, before dropping to 9th in 1936. Their usual starting lineup included such fine players as goalkeeper Frank Swift, inside forward Eric Brook, and centre-half Matt Busby, who would go on to manage crosstown rivals Manchester United to glory in the 1950s and '60s.

Charlton were a bit of a surprise: That 2nd place finish remains their best ever. Arsenal finishing a strong 3rd was no surprise: They had won the League in 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1935; had won the FA Cup in 1930 and 1936; and were runners-up in both in 1932. Having built on the success of manager Herbert Chapman, who died in 1934, George Allison sent out a team with an attack led by forward Ted Drake, wingers Cliff Bastin and Joe Hulme, and defenders George Male, Eddie Hapgood and Wilf Copping.

Ted Drake

As the new season began in August 1937, William "Dixie" Dean, former star forward of Liverpool-based team Everton, told one of the national newspapers, the Daily Mail, "This threatens to be the most open campaign we've ever seen. Half a dozen clubs stand a good chance of winning it, and any one of 10 clubs could go down."

Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers were the preseason favorites, led by Stan Cullis. But on September 4, in only the 3rd game of the season, "Wolves" walked into Highbury, Arsenal's home ground, and got clobbered, 5-0. But after winning their 1st 3 games easily, Arsenal went on a tailspin, winning only 2 of their next 12.

But no team's dropoff was as shocking as Man City's. They lost 3 of their 1st 5 games, 4 straight during Christmas and New Year's week, and 5 straight in February and March. The FA Cup had given them a respite from their awful League form, but on March 3, Birmingham team Aston Villa knocked them out in the Quarterfinal.

That season's Cup, and the League schedule as well, was hit hard by a rough Winter. In the 3rd Round of the 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.

On April 23, on a very muddy pitch at their home of Deepdale, Preston lost to Arsenal, knocking them out of the title race and seriously boosting Arsenal's chances. But Preston reached the FA Cup Final a week later, at Wembley Stadium in West London. Their opponents would be Yorkshire team Huddersfield Town.

It was 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."

The game ended scoreless, and went to extra time. Just as it looked like extra time would also end scoreless, necessitating a replay, BBC commentator Thomas Woodrooffe said, "If there's a goal scored now, I'll eat my hat."

Right after he said that, Preston inside forward George Mutch was fouled in the penalty area, and referee Jimmy Jewell awarded Preston a penalty. The validity of the call has never been seriously questioned. Mutch took the penalty himself, and scored. Preston won, 1-0, and their Captain, Tom Smith, was handed the Cup by King George VI. At a banquet a few days later, Woodrooffe was served a cake in the shape of a hat, allowing him to keep his promise.

George Mutch

Just 7 days later, the League had its final slate of games for the season. Wolves led Arsenal by 1 point. All they had to do, away to North-East team Sunderland, was gain a draw, and there would be nothing that Arsenal could do: Even a win, in their last game, home to Manchester-area team Bolton Wanderers, wouldn't be enough to deny Wolves their 1st-ever League title.

But Sunderland had some pride, too: They had won the Cup the year before (but they've won it only once since, in 1973), and the League the year before that (but they haven't won it since). Although they were in 8th place, they were at home at Roker Park, and they were going to put up a fight. A rightful dismissal dropped them to 10 men, but they hung on to win, 1-0.

Wolves kicked off 15 minutes before Arsenal, but the Arsenal players didn't yet know the result until their game was over. They beat Bolton, 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.

At the time, there were 22 teams in Division One, and the bottom 2 were relegated to Division Two, with the top 2 teams of Division Two promoted to Division One. Manchester City struggled hard to stay afloat, and in their next-to-last game, they beat Leeds 6-2, putting them in 16th place.

But on the last day, May 7, at Leeds Road, they lost 1-0 to Huddersfield Town. With the other teams between them and the drop positions winning, Man City finished 21st, and, along with 22nd-placed Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion, were relegated.

Dixie Dean turned out to be more right than even he imagined: Only 5 points separated 21st-place Man City from 10th-place Chelsea. And the 16-point gap between Champions Arsenal and relegated City is tied for the smallest one ever -- and, with the raising of a win to 3 points, it will almost certainly remain so.

Through the 2021-22 season, the 1937-38 Manchester City side still hold 2 unique distinctions: They are the only defending League Champions ever to be relegated, and they are the only side with a positive goal difference ever to be relegated. With the Premier League, replacing the old Division One in 1992, having 20 teams, the 20-places drop can never again be matched.

Stan Cullis would manage Wolves to the League title in 1954, 1958 and 1959, and the FA Cup in 1949 and 1960. Manchester City would be promoted back to Division One after World War II, but wouldn't win the League again until 1968 -- and then, not again until 2012, in dramatic circumstances, but would dominate the League for years to come.

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May 7, 1938 was a Saturday. The only sport then in season in North America was baseball, and these games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 12-8 at Yankee Stadium. Lefty Gomez outpitched Elden Auker. Lou Gehrig went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Joe DiMaggio went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. But the big hitting star for the Yankees was left fielder Myril Hoag, with 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs. Hank Greenberg went 0-for-3.

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Mel Ott went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Lloyd Waner went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs, but Paul Waner only went 1-for-5.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Jimmie Foxx hit a home run.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The ChiSox took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning, but back-to-back singles by John Stone and Cecil Travis got the tying and winning runs home.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1941), 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Joe Marty singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 30. The Phils won the opener, 4-3. The Cards won the nightcap, 8-7 in 10 innings.

April 29, 1939: Everton: Lucky But Unlucky Again

April 29, 1939: Everton Football Club, the "blue club" in Liverpool, clinch the Football League First Division championship, defeating Birmingham team Aston Villa, 3-0 at their home ground, Goodison Park.

Known as the "Toffees," due to a pair of toffee shops near their original ground, in the Everton neighborhood of the north side of Liverpool, they got off to a fast start that season, winning their 1st 6 games. From January 14 to April 15, 1939, they won 12 games, drew 3, and lost only 1, to Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers. "Wolves" also knocked them out of the FA Cup, in the Quarterfinal.

Everton lost again on April 22, away to South London team Charlton Athletic, but clinched the title at home on April 29. They put the game early, with Stan Bentham, Torry Gillick and Billy Cook all scoring in the 1st half-hour. Everton had won the title with a game to spare, and ended up beating Wolves by 4 points, at a time when a win was 2 points. Defending Champions Arsenal, of North London, were 5th, 12 points back.

The same day, the FA Cup Final was held, at the original Wembley Stadium in London. Wolves lost to South Coast club Portsmouth, who won with a pair of goals late in the first half, by John Anderson and Cliff Parker.

Stan Cullis, Wolves' Number 5 in that game, would later manage them to 3 League titles and 2 FA Cups between 1949 and 1960. Portsmouth would win the Football League in 1949 and '50, but would not win the Cup again for 69 years after this game -- and when they did, it was through moves by manager Harry Redknapp that bankrupted the club and nearly drove them out of business, damage from which they are still recovering.

This would be the last FA Cup Final until 1946, as the 1939-40 season was suspended shortly after its start due to World War II. Everton had also won the title in 1914-15, the last season before League competition was suspended for the duration of World War I. Throw in the fact that Everton won the League in 1985, right before the Heysel ban, and in 1987, during it, and they might be the unluckiest club in English football history.

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April 29, 1939 was a Saturday, as the FA Cup Final always is. Elsewhere in English football, Arsenal went to the East Midlands, and beat Derby County, 2-1 at The Baseball Ground in Derby. Derbyshire was one of the few places in England where baseball was popular, and while that didn't last long, and neither did the stadium's shape as a baseball-ready ground, the name lasted until it was replaced in 1997.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Ken Chase outpitched Lefty Gomez. Joe DiMaggio singled and scored in the 1st inning, then left the game with an injury. Lou Gehrig drew a walk in the 2nd inning, and singled in the 4th. But his batting average fell to .167. These would be his last times reaching base in the major leagues. He went 0-for-4 the next day, took himself out of the lineup, and never played again.

* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Bees, 8-1 at National League Park in Boston. This was during the short-lived "rebrand" of the Boston Braves and Braves Field. "Milkman" Jim Turner outpitched "Prince" Hal Schumacher. Max West went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Mel Ott went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Ebbets Field. Whitlow Wyatt pitched a 7-hit shutout, defeating Hugh Mulcahy, who lost so many games pitching for the Phils that it became his nickname: Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy. Dolph Camilli went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Lefty Grove started against his former team, but it would be Jack Wilson who was the winning pitcher. Jimmie Foxx, another ex-Athletic, went 1-for-3 with a walk. Rookie Ted Williams went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Harry Craft hit a home run for the Reds. For the Pirates, Paul Waner went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, and his brother Lloyd Waner went 1-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Bob Feller outpitched Lynwood "Schoolboy" Rowe. Julius "Moose" Solters went 2-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Hank Greenberg went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lon Warneke, a 3-time 20-game winner for the Cubs, came within 2 baserunners of a perfect game: He hit Billy Herman with a pitch in the 4th inning, and allowed a single by Stan Hack in the 7th.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.