Latest article from the current series: Henry Norris at the Arsenal
Chaos at the Arsenal. The dramatic and bizarre story of February 1927.
Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website. An index to the monthly Anniversary files can be found in the right column of this site under “Pages” on the right of the screen.
The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal. An index of all our main series can be found on the home page.
Today’s headline comes from 1913
11 October 1880: Birth of Jimmy Sharp who played over 100 times for Arsenal between 1905 and 1908.
11 October 1890: First recorded appearance of Jack Humble as an “umpire” (ie ref) v 93rd Highlanders. Newspaper reports suggest that he should stick to administering the club, rather than try umpiring, which he did, becoming Woolwich Arsenal’s first chairman, launching the club into the League in 1893.
11 October 1899: The Second Boer War started. Overtime had been compulsory in most Woolwich Arsenal workshops from 1898 onwards and this, plus a rise in prices to watch matches had a serious negative effect on Arsenal’s crowds.
11 October 1902: Arsenal beat Bristol City 2-1 in front of highest league crowd thus far: 16000. Gooing and Hunt scored.
11 October 1913: Frederick Groves signed as a pro, having played for Barnet Albion and Glossop North End before signing as an amateur player in August 1912. On the same day Arsenal beat Huddersfield 2-1 away.
11 October 1913: After the Man U v Burnley match on this day there were allegations of a betting scam, and ultimately one Man U player was jailed. But for several years the FA ignored both the complaints from Norris over the Liverpool match he witnessed and this game and were only forced to act in 1915 by the refusal of betting companies to pay up due to match fixing.
11 October 1919: Joseph Toner made his league début against Everton which Arsenal won 3-2. He appeared at number 11, replacing FW Groves who moved to inside right. He got a run of 10 games at outside left before losing his place to CH Lewis. See also here.
11 October 1924: Arsenal lost away to Huddersfield 4-0: an opportunity for Sir Henry Norris to meet Herbert Chapman and see his work in progress.
11 October 1930: In the pre-floodlight days, matches kicked off at 3.30pm up to this day, and then the starting time retreated until from November to January it was 2.30pm. The 1930 Arsenal handbook gave the times for 1930/31 – one of the few places to print out the full details of kick off times.
11 October 1952: Arsenal 2 Sheffield Wednesday 2. Arsenal were yet to show the form that ultimately won the title on the last day of the season, but the supporters clearly saw something positive happening, as 55,678 turned up.
11 October 1972: Jeff Blockley won his one England cap. Unfortunately with the team starting to decline he failed to blossom as an Arsenal player and he left for Leicester in 1975.
11 October 1972: John Roberts transferred to Birmingham, having played 59 league games for Arsenal, scoring five goals. After Birmingham he moved on to Wrexham for whom he played 145 times.
11 October 1975: After six without a win Arsenal beat Coventry 5-0 in the league. The scorers were Cropley 2, Kidd 2 and Ball. Although it was a very poor season Arsenal did once exceed this score beating WHU 6-1 at home on March 20.
11 October 1976: John Devine signed as a professional. By the time of the 1980 cup final he was chosen ahead of Sammy Nelson and was part of the Cup Winners Cup squad for the final, but his career was cut short by injury.
