In the LFC-Shitty FA Cup Semi Final post match thread, a few posters mentioned being LFC supporters for 50 years.
I believe there are much more than a handful who have reached that milestone or are reaching very soon.
I’m of the latter, being on the cusp of membership.
In late 1973 or early 1974 at the latest, as a teenager, for a few months I was dithering between the Reds and the Whites.
In that short defining period of picking a club that was not Manure as was the most popular amongst my large cohort of some twenty dozen trainees at an aerospace institute, I narrowed down to the 2 Ls; ie LFC and Leeds.
The latter got a slight edge then as it was on the ascendancy but the eventual deal breaker was Kevin Keegan.
The rest is almost fifty years of history as I followed the club through thick and thin with both joy and anguish.
Would the fiftyers and almost-fiftyers here care to share what or who tilt them to make the (right) choice and stick to it for half a century or so?
Yes, there was something about that Keegan lad that pulled the youngest kids in to the clutches of our great club. 1972/73 I was 6 and Newcastle had Supermac I (Malcolm MacDonald) and had just bought Supermac II (Terry McDermott). The Big Match showed them beating Leeds 3:2 with a typical Supermac I finish to clinch it. The next season The Big Match had them playing QPR twice and they lost both in tight matches, but I was still supporting them going into the last stages of the season.The next game I saw on TV was the cup final. The rest was history. We signed their Supermac II in November and Newcastle were erased from my young memory bank.
I started collecting football cards in yhe school yard circa 1969/70…Roger Hunt, Ron Yeats…
There was very little access to football in small town Ireland, and the first Reds game I watched on TV was the 1971 FA Cup final. The pain of loss resonated that day, despite the marvel of Steve Heighway, my heart was broke by Charlie George.
There have been massive highs and gut wrenching lows. Trips over before kids, trips with the kids and the kid who sorts me for tickets and travel now. Circle of life with the Reds.
Kenny was the best, Smith was my hero and Heighway was the romantic vision of how I thought I played as a kid. I was wrong!
1970
We moved around a lot during my childhood so I never stayed anywhere long enough to form an attachment to the local team. Once I began getting into football I got a panini sticker album and decided that the first team I completed would be my team.
When it turned out to be Liverpool I told my mum, who knew nothing about football, and she said “That’s great. They’ve got the best manager, the best fans, and The Beatles are from there”. All of those are true today.
First thing we did was lose to Watford in the FA cup.
I cried. Many tears of joy and sadness since then, especially when I finally made it to Anfield last year.
Yep! The 70’s and Kevin Keegan.
I remember being distraght when Keegan was about to leave then suddenly (as it appeared to me) King Kenny was on his way to Anfield and all that stress over Keegan just evaporated. Signing King Kenny was one of the greatest moments in our club history for me. Even the Manc’s supporteurs where in total awe, it was like winning the lottery.
1967 was when I first started supporting Liverpool, Clemence, Lawlor, Smith, Yates, Callaghan, Hunt etc, collecting cards in school and swapping players with your mates.
Didnt collect cards…but my dad even had me hitch hiking from South Yorks to relatives in Liverpool…and standing outside the players entrance…that has now disapppeared…and in the Paddock…which is at the front area of the new stand…remember em well…and showing my age…
I arrived late at school one day (it was most days if truth be told) , circa 1976 , rushed into class to discover Steve Heighway addressing our year ! A surprise visit had been arranged by one of the teachers. (Probably a friend. I think I’m right in saying that he was a teacher himself at one time.) Can’t remember a word of what he said ,I was too awestruck … and sleepy.
The '71 Final was my first memory too. Painful , but nowhere near as traumatic as '77. That scarred us all for life.
I honestly can’t ever remember it being a conscious choice to choose the Reds. (The club picks you and all that.) Where we were , in North Wales , everyone was either Liverpool or Utd. You were considered a bit of a weirdo if you supported anyone else.
Favourite memories would be the early European Cup Finals. Tommy Smith’s header , Dalglish’s chipped goal. The way it seemed like the whole of Liverpool would travel abroad to support us. And the genius and the humour of the banners.
Worst moments , the two tragedies and the last game loss at Anfield against Arsenal.
I’d have to agree with what I think inspired this post. There probably hasn’t been a better time to be a Liverpool supporter. Probably not everyone would agree , but Klopp for me has surpassed both Dalglish and Shanks in what he has done for the club. I’m dreading the day he leaves , it will be like a bereavement.
If/when he wins us the quad this season, I’m as sure as the Sun rises from the east that he will forget all about his long overdue extended holiday and further commit to many years more. The fun that he gets from his LFC family overrides his long vacation biological family time for at least half a dozen more years.
I went to my first Liverpool game in 1972 so this is my 50th year. I come from a nondescript town in the East Midlands but my father is from Liverpool. Like others have mentioned, Kevin Keegan who Liverpool had just signed, was a big factor in my ending up supporting the club. That and my father’s roots which always intrigued me as a nipper. He has a complicated family history and it wasn’t until he first took me to Anfield that I met my Liverpool relatives. It was a bit of a shock to discover they were all Evertonians. After that I think an attempt was made to persuade me to follow in the family tradition but I resisted. Just as well I did.
Said in the City post match this is the most fun I’ve had as a Liverpool fan. I think the reason why I’m enjoying it so much now is it’s been unexpected and having not always appreciated how good we were back in the day I was determined to make the most of it if it ever happened again. Most of all it’s down to Klopp. I’ve run out of things to say about him and whatever I do say doesn’t do him justice. Basically he’s given me a chance to relive my childhood and I’ll never be able to thank him enough for that.
It is with a tinge of sadness that like many others on here, that our dads, mums, brothers, uncles, close friends and anyone else that supported the boys over the many years when we were never as good as we are right now… are not about in the present day to witness what their humongous efforts in the past decades of unrivalled support have brought us to today… For without them, their stories, their songs who knows whether Jurgen would have been enticed to Anfield at all…
From Shankly to Jurgen… every single person connected to our club, or supporting our club has had a role to play getting us to where we find ourselves right now… I for one am enjoying every single second of it so I can tell my stories to those we meet up with again someday… Enjoy it people, time marches on too quickly
