Bill Shankly, 1913–1981

Bill Shankly died at 1.20 in the morning on Tuesday 29 September 1981, at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool. He had been admitted three days earlier after a heart attack. His condition had seemed stable, then deteriorated. At 12.30 he suffered a cardiac arrest. The hospital's statement ended: "His wife was with him at the time." He was 68.

Glenbuck to Anfield

He was born in 1913 in Glenbuck, an Ayrshire village of about 700 people, one of five brothers who all became professional footballers. As a player he won the FA Cup with Preston North End in 1938 and was capped by Scotland. As a manager he learned the job at Carlisle, Grimsby, Workington and Huddersfield.

Liverpool, when he arrived in December 1959, were in the Second Division. The pitch at Anfield could not be watered, and the Melwood training ground was described as a shambles. Within a year, 24 players had been put on the transfer list and gone.

What followed was a complete rebuilding. Liverpool were promoted in 1962 and won the league two years later. In 1965 they won the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. In 1973 they won the league and the UEFA Cup, the first English club to win a league title and a European trophy in the same season. His idea, he wrote later, "was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility."

He changed more than the results. He put Liverpool in all red, put up the "This Is Anfield" sign above the tunnel, and set up the Boot Room with Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett. He spoke about the supporters as though they were part of the team, because to him they were.

The retirement

In 1974 Liverpool beat Newcastle 3–0 in the FA Cup final. On 12 July Shankly announced he was retiring. Nessie had asked him to stop a year earlier. On his last day he completed the signing of Ray Kennedy.

He regretted it almost at once. He kept turning up at Melwood, sensed he was resented, and stopped going. At the 1976 UEFA Cup final in Bruges, he was put in a different hotel from the official party and felt insulted. He found warmer welcomes at Everton and Manchester United. He did radio work for Radio City, advised Tranmere and Wrexham, and helped John Toshack at Swansea. In 1978 he was on Nottingham Forest's team coach at Anfield.

After

When the news came, training was cancelled at both Melwood and Everton's Bellefield. The Labour Party conference stood for a minute's silence. He was cremated on 2 October, and his ashes were scattered on the Anfield pitch at the Kop end.

The Shankly Gates, inscribed "You'll Never Walk Alone", were opened by Nessie in August 1982. The statue outside the ground, unveiled in 1997, carries the words: "He made the people happy."