"Shankly" redirects here. For others with the last name Shankly, see Shankly (surname).
Scottish footballer and manager (1913–1981)
Bill Shankly OBE
Personal information
Full name
William Shankly[1]
Date of birth
(1913-09-02)2 September 1913
Place of birth
Glenbuck, Ayrshire, Scotland
Date of death
29 September 1981(1981-09-29) (aged 68)
Place of death
Liverpool, England
Height
5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[2]
Position(s)
Right-half[nb 1]
Youth career
1931–1932
Cronberry Eglinton
Senior career*
Years
Team
Apps
(Gls)
1932–1933
Carlisle United
16
(0)
1933–1949
Preston North End
297
(13)
Total
313
(13)
International career
1938–1939
Scotland
5
(0)
Managerial career
1949–1951
Carlisle United
1951–1954
Grimsby Town
1954–1955
Workington
1956–1959
Huddersfield Town
1959–1974
Liverpool
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
William ShanklyOBE (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly brought success to Liverpool, gaining promotion to the First Division and winning three League Championships and the UEFA Cup. He laid foundations on which his successors Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan were able to build by winning seven league titles and four European Cups in the ten seasons after Shankly retired in 1974. A charismatic, iconic figure at the club, his oratory stirred the emotions of the fanbase.[3][4] In 2019, 60 years after Shankly arrived at Liverpool, Tony Evans of The Independent wrote, "Shankly created the idea of Liverpool, transforming the football club by emphasising the importance of the Kop and making supporters feel like participants".[4]
Shankly came from a small Scottish mining community and was one of five brothers who played football professionally. He played as a ball-winning right-half and was capped twelve times for Scotland, including seven wartime internationals. He spent one season at Carlisle United before spending the rest of his career at Preston North End, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1938. His playing career was interrupted by his service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a manager after he retired from playing in 1949, returning to Carlisle United. He later managed Grimsby Town, Workington[5][6] and Huddersfield Town before moving to become Liverpool manager in December 1959.
Shankly took charge of Liverpool when they were in the Second Division and rebuilt the team into a major force in English and European football. He led Liverpool to the Second Division Championship to gain promotion to the top-flight First Division in 1962, before going on to win three First Division Championships, two FA Cups, four Charity Shields and one UEFA Cup. It was during Shankly's tenure that the club changed to an all-red home strip, and "You'll Never Walk Alone" became the club's anthem. Shankly announced his surprise retirement from football a few weeks after Liverpool had won the 1974 FA Cup Final, having managed the club for 15 years, and was succeeded by his long-time assistant Bob Paisley. He led the Liverpool team out for the last time at Wembley for the 1974 FA Charity Shield.[7] He died seven years later, aged 68. Considered one of the greatest football managers of all time,[8][9] Shankly was among the inaugural inductees into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
^"Bill Shankly". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
^"Preston North End. Defensive lapses will worry Mr. Tom Muirhead". Sunday Dispatch Football Guide. London. 23 August 1936. p. vi – via Newspapers.com.
^"Bill Shankly the great orator, a two-punch KO and super street flipping". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^ ab"Bill Shankly remains the personification of Liverpool 60 years after he arrived on Merseyside". The Independent. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^Allen, Tom (1990). Team from Beyond the Hills. Martin Wingfield.
^Allen, Tom (1 November 2005). Reds Remembered: The Definitive Workington AFC. Soccerdata. ISBN 1899468234.
^"Bill Shankly: Timeline". LFCHistory.net. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
^"Ranked! The 100 best football managers of all time". FourFourTwo. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
^"The 50 greatest football managers of all time". 90min. 20 August 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).
Shankly retired in 1974. A charismatic, iconic figure at the club, his oratory stirred the emotions of the fanbase. In 2019, 60 years after Shankly arrived...
former Liverpool managers: BillShankly and Bob Paisley. Both managers have been honoured with statues outside the stadium: Shankly's unveiled in 1997 by the...
room near the changing rooms that stored the squad's football boots. BillShankly converted it into an informal coaches' meeting room, with a relaxing...
the job in 1974, he built on the foundations laid by his predecessor BillShankly. Paisley is the first of four managers to have won the European Cup three...
BillShanks is an American sports broadcaster and writer. Shanks lives in Macon, Georgia. Shanks, originally from Waycross, Georgia, is a graduate of the...
in recognition of his impact as a manager. In his 1976 autobiography, BillShankly paid high tribute to Cullis, saying: "While Stan [Cullis] was volatile...
Blyth Shankly (25 February 1910 – 5 May 1982) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He was an elder brother of BillShankly, the former...
He was a coach and manager at Liverpool for twenty seven years under BillShankly and Bob Paisley. As a manager he was the first English manager to win...
Keegan began his playing career at Scunthorpe United in 1968, before BillShankly signed him for Liverpool. There, he won three First Division titles,...
manager BillShankly after he outran and out-thought Liverpool captain Ron Yeats in a match in 1968. Although only 19, and despite Shankly's known desire...
(5) BillShankly 1964–65 Manchester United (6) Leeds United (1) Chelsea (2) Matt Busby 1965–66 Liverpool (7) Leeds United (2) Burnley (5) BillShankly 1966–67...
the club, he then became a member of the Boot Room coaching staff with BillShankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett, and was the club's longest-serving...
press areas and restaurants. The next stand to be developed was the BillShankly (1913–1981) Kop in 1998, followed by the Alan Kelly (1936–2009) Town...
version of Casino Royale, and portrayed Liverpool Football Club manager BillShankly in a musical. Murray was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire. He began his...
services to the club, Liverpool asked their recently retired manager BillShankly to lead the team out onto the field. The match is mostly remembered for...
2008. Combined, the players scored 665 goals in 1633 games. Manager BillShankly regaled how he once psychologically built up his Liverpool team ahead...
commitment to the club. Discontinued after 2015. BillShankly Community Award – Named for BillShankly, manager from 1959–1974 and "awarded to the person...
played as a forward for Liverpool throughout most of the 1960s. Signed by BillShankly in 1961, St John was a key member of the Liverpool team that emerged...
his former teammate BillShankly, who described Finney as "the greatest player I ever saw, bar none". On another occasion, Shankly said that Finney was...