January 6, 1934, 90 years ago: Herbert Chapman dies of pneumonia, just short of his 56th birthday, at his home in Hendon, North-West London.
Chapman was born on January 19, 1878, in Kiveton Park, South Yorkshire, England. An inside forward, he was, like many great managers and head coaches in sports, an ordinary player. In 1907, he became the manager of Northampton Town, and he led them to the Southern League title in 1909. In 1912, he moved on to Leeds City. Financial irregularities forced the team out of business, and Chapman was disgraced, even though he had nothing to do with the irregularities.
But in 1921, Yorkshire team Huddersfield Town hired him, and he took them to glory, winning the FA Cup in 1922, and the Football League Division One in 1924 and 1925. Desperate for the same kind of glory, Sir Henry Norris, chairman of North London team Arsenal, hired Chapman.
It took 5 years, and a lot of money and transactions, but Chapman made Arsenal the best team in England -- maybe the best in the world. With a defense led by Tom Parker and Eddie Hapgood, and an attack led by Alex James and Cliff Bastin, they won the FA Cup in 1930, and the League in 1931 and 1933.
In the process, he undertook a massive overhaul of the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its neighborhood. In 1932, the East Stand, with its Art Deco front and marble halls, opened. He began to rebuild the West Stand in the same fashion.
The East Stand
He also made the Arsenal name known through Europe, by taking on all comers in exhibition games, or "friendlies" as they're known in soccer. Typical of this was the annual contest on or near Armistice Day, November 11, against Racing Club Paris. (They were one of the leading teams in France at the time, but this has long since stopped being the case.) There were also tours of Austria and Scandinavia, and games against the top teams in Scotland. And he wrote a column that appeared in a national newspaper, The Sunday Express.
On December 30, 1933, he managed Arsenal to a 0-0 draw against Birmingham City at St. Andrews' Stadium in Birmingham. No one knew it at the time, but it would be his last match. On January 1, 1934, after a a New Year's celebration in London, Chapman went on a scouting trip to Nottingham, to see Notts County play Manchester area team Bury. We may never know which player he was looking to buy, as Arsenal did not end up buying any players from either team over the next year. The next day, he went to Yorkshire to watch Sheffield Wednesday, Arsenal's next opponent. He spent the night at his hometown of Kiveton Park.
When he got back to London, he had a cold, but instead of staying inside, he braved the Winter chill to watch an Arsenal reserve team match. He developed pneumonia. In those pre-antibiotic days, there was little that could be done. Early in the morning of January 6, he died. Incredibly, Arsenal's match that day with Wednesday, then a very good team, was played as scheduled, and ended in a 1-1 draw.
As great a tragedy as it was for Arsenal, Chapman gave them the greatest gift of all: He built a team that didn't need him. Joe Shaw, former player and now assistant coach, was named caretaker manager, and he took them to another title in 1934.
George Allison, a longtime associate of Chapman's, was named the new manager, with Shaw remaining as an assistant, essentially running the play while Allison ran the business side. In U.S. terms, Shaw was head coach, while Allison was general manager. Together, they led Arsenal to League titles in 1935 and 1938, and the FA Cup in 1936, with the West Stand being finished that year.
A bust of Chapman was placed in the main entrance of the East Stand, and was moved to the accompanying spot in the new Emirates Stadium when Arsenal moved there in 2006. In 2011, a life-size statue of Chapman was dedicated outside the Emirates, a permanent memorial to one of the greatest and most innovative managers in the history of soccer.
The statue seems like a small price to pay for leaving the stadium he turned into one of the most famous in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment