The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
The FA thanks Norris, the League expanded again. May 1920.
We hope to publish a new episode with further significant revelations about Sir Henry Norris’ reputation and behaviour this weekend.
Today’s headline is taken from this day in 1999
17 February 1902: 1000 spectators saw Arsenal beat QPR in the London League Premier Division. But even though crowds were always low for these games, any income was worth having.
17 February 1906: Jimmy Ashcroft became Arsenal’s first England international. He played over 270 league games for Arsenal and three games for England.
17 February 1906: Hugh McDonald’s first game. He became so highly rated for Arsenal that he was picked to play in goal even when so badly injured that he could not even jump for the ball.
17 February 1917: It was a measure of how rapidly football fortunes changed in the wartime London Combination that on this day Arsenal won against Chelsea 3-0; a year before Chelsea had been all-conquering. 7,500 turned up, which given the bad weather and the number of men now serving in the army, was a decent turnout.
17 February 1932: There are few occasions when one could call Grimsby the 1st Division’s “in form” team but they had just had two wins and a draw, and their last match before facing Arsenal was a 5-1 win against Liverpool. But it is was Arsenal’s form that was maintained with a 4-0 victory which took the club up to third place.
17 February 1936: Joe Haverty born. He played for Home Farm FC and St Patrick’s Athletic in Ireland (reaching the country’s Cup final), and then signed for Arsenal in 1954. At 5 feet 3 inches he was one of the smallest players ever for Arsenal. “Use your height Joe” was shouted from the crowd in every match he played.
17 February 1940: The movie of the “Arsenal Stadium Mystery” novel released. The book remained the only Arsenal novel published until “Making the Arsenal” in 2010. George Allison, the man who had been the lead commentator for BBC football matches, says, in the movie, “One nil to the Arsenal”.
17 February 1971: Man City 1 Arsenal 2 (FA Cup round 5). Charlie George upon his return to the side from injury got both goals to take Arsenal forward in the first Double season. See also here.
17 February 1999 : Arsenal conceded their first goal in two months (including six league games) in what was also Kanu’s first league match. The final score was Man U 1 Arsenal 1. Anelka scored Arsenal’s goal.
This daily review of Arsenal anniversaries is from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society. We expect by the end of this year to have approaching 6000 entries in our anniversaries list.
Yesterday’s anniversaries:
When it got so bad that the ground was only half full for the north London derby.
What’s on the Arsenal History Society site
Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal” An index to the various series that contain over 1,900 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page.
“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle, and we have a small number of copies of the printed edition available at £10 each + £2.00 postage and packing for delivery in UK. Please see here for more details