AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Bernie Briffa, Essex It was August 23rd 1975 and an excited 10 year old hadn’t slept a wink the previous night. Why? Because this day, after many months of pleading was to be my first trip to watch my beloved Gunners live. My uncle who was visiting from Malta was to be my chaperone. …
Read More “We lose to Stoke, but we avoid relegation – my first season with Arsenal”
By Jack Staniforth I guess it must have been sometime in 1947 that I first visited Highbury although what the occasion was I can`t remember, sixty three years is a long time. My first memory however is still very vivid in my mind, April 3rd 1948 versus Sunderland (I think). The reason I remember the …
By Gfor60 At just under 5 years old, my first game came thanks to my grand-parents, family and aunts and uncles who had organized a knees up in Southend. Up to this point, my knowledge of football was confined to my gran’s “Up the Lillywhites…best football team in London.” (Interesting how Spuds don’t change?) But …
Read More ““That’s yer Christmas present, yer little Arsenal ****.””
Are you superstitious? by Frederick James McGregor I went to my first game at Highbury in 1998 vs West Ham, it was on a Boxing Day and Ian Wright had transferred to West Ham 6 months earlier. I was devastated, he was my favourite player. I was only 12 years old at that time and …
This site is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. By Walter Broeckx, Belgium. It was February 1979 when we came to London with our …
Read More “The refuse collectors were on strike, there was punk music in the air”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————- Aged 16, I …
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– The first time …
Read More “I’m cold, I’m six years old, and the warmth of a flask of stewed tea is long gone”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– My First and …
By Tony Attwood I asked yesterday if anyone could send me some memories of their first time watching Arsenal live. Thanks to everyone who did this – I will try and publish some shortly although I am about to go on holiday, so there might be a delay. I also said I would write up …
As part of the AISA Arsenal History Project I am starting to collect reminiscences about Arsenal. There will be quite a bit to the project over time (at least I hope there will – although it depends on people’s responses) – and this is just one of the early stages. What I want to collect …
Read More “Could you write a few lines about the first time you saw Arsenal live?”
by Tony Attwood This article concludes the series of the reasons why Tottenham supporters seem so bitter about Arsenal. Links to the earlier articles are at the end. Journalists have this phrase: “bragging rights”, which seems to be a shorthand way of talking about how fans from different clubs in the same town talk to …
Read More “How Tottenham came to be so bitter. From the 80s to the present day”
By Tony Attwood In 1913 there was a bit of a rumpus. If you are a regular on this site, or indeed if you know your footballing history, you’ll know what it was: Woolwich Arsenal, after two years under the ownership of Henry Norris, decided they had had enough of Kent, and started looking for …
Read More “How Tottenham H invented the concept of football franchising”
By Tony Attwood This is the third in a series of articles comparing the history of Tottenham H and Arsenal. I’ve already noted how Tottenham tried to invent new League rules to stop Arsenal moving to north London, while they played in Middlesex, and how they have totally re-written history to suggest that in 1919 …
Tony Attwood We’ve seen in the first article how the tinies got really worked up about Arsenal moving to north London, while they were stuck over the border in Middlesex, and how they turned the events of 1919 on their head to pretend that somehow they should have stayed in the first division, while Arsenal …
Read More “How Tottenham have tried to steal Arsenal’s identity: modern times”
This article repeats a little of the article on Henry Norris and the Southern League. I have included the info about the start of the Southern League again, so you don’t have to keep zipping backwards and forwards. If you know about the Southern League bit, just skim down the page. . It all started …
Read More “How Tottenham have tried and tried again to stop The Arsenal”
Tony Attwood I raised the issue the other day that there should be a statue of Herbert Chapman somewhere at the stadium that we can all see and enjoy. As we established in the subsequent correspondence there is not just one bust of the great man, but three busts spread around, but nothing on display …
Read More “Arsenalisation: We need not just a Chapman statue but three statues”
By Tony Attwood OK, I know there is a bust, and it used to be in the marble halls at Highbury. Now it is at the Directors’ Entrance at Emirates Stadium and (according to the club) “greets the thousands of guests which visit the stadium each year.” Well, yes, up to a point. (Apart from …
Read More “Where is the statue of Herbert Chapman at the Emirates?”
This article continues from the one published yesterday – it explores the fact that by the summer of 1910 Henry Norris owned three clubs – Croydon Common in the Southern League, Fulham in Division 2 and Woolwich Arsenal in Division One. The first part of the article can be read here. ——- Today we think …
Read More “Henry Norris, Croydon, Woolwich Arsenal, the Southern League”
By the summer of 1910 Henry Norris owned three football clubs: Woolwich Arsenal (division 1), Fulham (division 2) and Croydon Common (Southern League). What was he doing? Well, it seems he thought of himself as the man who could build football in the south of England into something as powerful as the football league in …
Read More “Henry Norris owned Fulham FC, Arsenal FC and Croydon Common FC. Why? How?”
If you have been reading this column over the last two weeks you’ll know that the position during the summer break was… Players out McDonald (goal) – 36 appearances in 1909/10 McGibbon (centre forward),- those four appearances with 3 goals Lawrence (inside right)- 25 appearances, 5 goals Players in for the first game of the …
Read More “Ins and Outs for the start of the new season 100 years ago”
So after two weeks meandering through the history books, here for the first time in 100 years, is the team that started the 1910/1911 season for Woolwich Arsenal. There’s a piece about each one of them on this site. Goal: – E Bateup The keeper we signed and lost 2: Right Back – A Gray …
Read More “The team that started 100 years ago – where they came, from what they did”
This article is one of a series reviewing all eleven players who played in the first Woolwich Arsenal league game in 1910/11 season. By Tony Attwood Willis Rippon joined Woolwich Arsenal in 1910 and played just nine games for the club scoring two goals. But despite this tiny input into the club and despite the …
Continuing the series that covers all eleven players who played for Woolwich Arsenal in the first match of the season 1910/11. Alf Common Alfred Common joined Woolwich Arsenal for the 1910 season, aged 30. The official list shows that he played for South Hylton, Jarrow, Sunderland (joined in 1900), Sheffield United (joined 1901 – transfer …
Most if this article has appeared already on Woolwich Arsenal, but I am repeating here to give a complete collection of articles on the players who turned out for the first match of the 1910/11 season as a preview to the 100th anniversary of the season. Frank Heppinstall was an outside left who also played …
After our little diversion into some English members of the Woolwich Arsenal team of September 1910, we’re back to the Scots with David Greenaway. He was an outside right who between 1908 and 1920 played 161 league games and scored 13 goals – so he was another of the 1910 squad who carried on and …
Read More “The players who began the season 100 years ago: David Greenaway”
