King Kenny becomes Doctor Dalglish

Already a “King”, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was given a new title today when the University of Ulster awarded him an honorary doctorate.

The award, the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc), was made in recognition of Kenny’s services to the game of football and also his charitable work.

Liverpool supporters need no reminders of what he has achieved in his time in the game, a playing career that saw him make the move from Glasgow Celtic to Liverpool in the summer of 1977 and very quickly earn the Kop’s own honorary accolade of “King Kenny”. In his time at the two clubs he won every domestic honour available to a professional footballer in England and Scotland and also won three European Cups for Liverpool. As an international player he earned 102 caps for Scotland.

He moved into the role of player manager in 1986, a role that brought him more success including the domestic double and Liverpool’s last league title, won in 1990.

Accepting the award, Kenny – or Doctor Dalglish as he was referred to by the University – was as modest as always: “I feel very humbled to be the recipient of the award,” he said, “as all I was doing in my football life was something that I had dreamed of as a young boy. Kenny also compared the city he was brought up in and the city he was now accepting this honour in: “I grew up in Glasgow and I’m very proud of my roots; a childhood that would have been very similar to that of many people in Belfast of my age. Two cities largely dependent on shipbuilding and very passionate about football.

“My first visit to Belfast was as a 15 year old boy, I was chosen to play for Scotland schoolboys against Northern Ireland. As has been reported I scored two goals and we won so, sorry to disappoint you!

Player “My degree in footballing terms began when I was 17 years old and I was asked to sign for Glasgow Celtic. This was a huge honour for me, to become a footballer for many years, but it was only the beginning.”

He hasn’t taken his success for granted: “43 years on and I am still pinching myself at what has happened to me in my footballing life.”

He continued: “I’ve played for two of the finest and most successful clubs ever. Recently I was asked to return to manage Liverpool Football Club and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Hillsborough In 1989 the darkest day in the club’s history came to pass at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield. Kenny spoke of his recollections of the tragedy and what followed. “An important aspect of all the jobs I have had is to have a good relationship with the local community. Football clubs mean a lot to millions of people, the club that you support being the most important one. In April 1989 this belief was about to be endorsed.

Gatwick Travel News | The History of Liverpool Football Club

Liverpool Football Club have been League Champions 18 times, FA Cup winners seven times, League Cup winners seven times, European Cup winners five times and UEFA Cup winners three times.

The Football League was founded in 1888 and Anfield was one of their original grounds, and Everton FC won the League Championship there in 1891. Everton left Anfield in a dispute with chairman John Houlding over rent ? in 1884 Everton were paying £100 but by 1889/90 he was charging them £250. The majority of the players and the board left to build a new ground but he, John Houlding, the Mayor of Liverpool, stayed behind and created Liverpool Football Club.

Liverpool F.C. was formed on the 15th of March 1892 at John Houlding’s house in Anfield Road with his closest friends left from Everton FC. He had basically been left with an empty ground so had to form a new team to play in it! The Clubs initial application to join the Football League was rejected so they played their first match in September 1892 at Anfield against Rotherham in the Lancashire League. Houlding adopted the city’s colour of red and by 1901 they were using the Liverbird as their crest. It was ‘Honest’ John McKenna who did most of the team building work, recruiting over a dozen players from Scotland, and is highly regarded as the brain behind the early success of the Club.

By the end of their first season Liverpool had taken the League as well as the Liverpool District Cup and Everton were getting worried. By the end of 1900/01 season the players and directors of LFC were proudly made their way back to Anfield by horse-drawn carriage with the League Championship trophy for the first, but by no means the last time.

The team played their first Wembley final in 1950, with Arsenal as opposition but sadly they were defeated 2-0, which made their wait for FA Cup glory even longer, but the fans continued to be as supportive as ever. Bill Shankly moved the team from second division mediocrity when he took over as manager in 1959, and he remained the manager until 1974. The Club finally won the FA Cup in 1965 which was an event so sought after it was joked that the mythical Liver Birds would fly from their perch the day a Liverpool team brought home the FA Cup. They went on to win the European Cup in 1977.

Tragedy struck in Brussels when Liverpool were playing Juventus in the European Cup final when 28 Italians and one Belgian died when supporter chaos occurred, resulting in a crush and a wall collapsing on top of them. 1985/86 started in misery but ended a lot better by winning a 16th championship crown. Disaster struck again for the team in 1989 when 250,000 supporters travelled to Hillsborough to watch the FA Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest. 96 of these supporters were crushed to death in the Leppings Lane end just after kick off.

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