A Bright Beginning

John Houlding, born in 1833 in Liverpool. In 1854 he was taken on by a local brewery as a drayman. Soon his knowledge of maths earned him head book-keeper. He worked hard, saved hard & soon became manager. By the end of his twenties he had bought two pubs & a brewery of his own, & by his mid thirties he was a rich man.
It was the local team known as Everton that captured Houlding's footballing attention. Maybe the sizeable following they attracted or that they mostly won their matches. In 1883, when Everton Football Club was forced to move from Stanley Park, Houlding persuaded a cattle-dealer names James Cruitt to rent out a field on nearby Priory Road for home games. A year later, when Cruitt grew tired of the "vociferous" fans who spoiled his peace and quiet at weekends, Houlding looked for a solution closer to home.
Standing virtually opposite his grand red bricked house on Anfield Road was a patch of land owned by fellow brewers John & James Orrell. Houlding approached the brothers and asked if they would be willing to grant a lease to the club, with him acting as its "representative tenant". The brothers were happy to do a deal. The grounds were enclosed and, on 27 September 1884, it staged it's first ever football match - with the homeside beating Earlestown by five goals to nil.
Providing Everton Football Club with vision, energy and money, Houlding rose to the position of President. Everton, under Houlding's leadership, occupied the premier position on Merseyside. They were the first team in the country to publish a match programme listing home & visitor players. They also pioneered the use of goal nets - a welcome development for referees. When professionalism was introduced in 1885, Everton's players immediatly went full time.
Three years later the club joined with eleven others from the North West to found the English Football League.
In 1891 Everton landed their first League Championship. In the same year, Houlding paid the Orrell Brothers 5,845 Pounds to buy Anfield outright.
As the new landlord, his new rules included his beer being the only alcoholic refreshment on the grounds and the rent up from 100 to 250 pounds. Evertons members, led by the strict Methodists, accused Houlding of using the Football Club to promote his own drinks business. The members also wanted reduced rent of 180 Pounds. Houlding relied stating "they should transform the club into a limited Company and buy it from him". On 12th March 1892, a crisis meeting was called. By the end of the meeting the vast majority of Evertons 279 members and all but three of the first team squad decided to leave for fresh fields and pastures new. Houlding was left with a ground but no team, but not for long.
Houlding called his supporters to his home to win their backing to form an entirely new club. He succeeded.
It was Houldings friend William E. Barclay who came up with the idea of attracting supporters away from Everton Football Clubs new grounds at Goodison Park. Barclay claimed their new club needed a name that would inspire loyalty and affection from across the entire city. Everyone agreed and on the 15th March 1892 Liverpool Football Club was born!

Houlding was fortunate that talented Irishman John McKenna, a member of the Everton coaching staff stayed loyal to him. With a hefty loan of £500, McKenna set about building Liverpool Football Club. He looked north for talent and assembled a team which became known as 'the team of all the Macs'. (see photo) The team all hailed from Scotland with the exception of goalkeeper and Englishman, Bill McOwen… After their first year McKenna decided it was time to apply for entrance into the Football League. They won their first championship in 1900/01, but were again relegated two years later. After another year in the second division they bounced back up and immediately won their second championship in 1904/05. As a reward the directors built the legendary Spion Kop for the fans. Named after a hill in Natal where a Merseyside regiment suffered heavy losses in the Boer War. Three hundred died in a vain attempt to lift the siege of Ladysmith, many of them Liverpool lads. "Spion Kop" means "vantage point" in Afrikaans. In 1928 the stand was extended and roofed, providing cover for 30,000 fans.

The Liverpool Football Club Emblem includes:

• White cross
  • The Scottish symbol the cross of st andrew
• Anchor
• which is another Liverpool symbol
• Liverbird
  • The Liver Birds appeared in Liverpool England in 1910, the brain child of Aubrey Thomas, architect of the Royal Liver Building.Although the birds are mythical, they were modeled on the cormorant, which in earlier times was known as a "laver bird" (laver meaning seaweed). The cormorant is a common bird in the Mersey.It fed on seaweed which the Liver Bird carries in its beak
• Eternal flame
• x2 for a Hillsborough memorial
• Shankly Gate
• The Shankly Gates were unveiled on August 26 1982 to pay tribute to Bill Shankly, the man who turned the Club from a struggling second division side into the greatest team in English history
• EST. 1892
• added in 1992