Merseyside For Sport - An Introduction

 

Up to 10,000 people watched the first Liverpool Olympic Festival in 1862

Liverpool is a city with a rich sporting heritage, not just for being a great footballing city, but our sporting prowess goes much wider - producing a host of successful athletes, boxers, cricketers, golfers, snooker players – the list is endless. In fact gymnastics and athletics became so popular in the city in the 1860s that local man John Hulley began the Liverpool Olympic Festival, an event described as one of the forerunners to the modern Olympic games.The multi sport competition took place in 1862 and saw crowds of up 10,000 gather at Mount Vernon in the city centre to watch athletes and gymnasts compete in organised events. That was thirty-four years before the rebirth of the modern Olympics in Athens, and the festival, open to amateurs and international competitors, ran annually until 1867.

The Liverpool dockside was also the location of Britain's first municipal swimming baths in 1859 when George's Baths was opened.
Established in 1869, the Liverpool Velocipede Club was the first cycling club to be formed in Britain and, only 2 years after, a Paris blacksmith had manufactured and sold the first bicycle, called a velocipede. The historian David V. Herlihy writes: 'In March (1869) an agency in Liverpool began to import Pickering and Davis bicycles from New York, and a local velocipede club sprang into existence. Two members promptly strapped 'carpetbags' to their machines, and rode over two hundred miles to London in just four days, astonishing townsmen along the way and underscoring the bicycle's practical possibilities.'

The city of Liverpool has been the only one in England to have a top-division team in every season since the Football League's formation in 1888, with Everton FC one of the founding clubs, and it was engineer John Brodie when attending a football match in 1889 at Anfield, ( which was still Everton's ground at the time ) between Everton and Accrington Stanley, who witnessed a wrongly disallowed goal in a hard fought game that cost his beloved Everton victory. This inspired John to submit a patent in November of that year for goal nets for football and other games. The first televised club match in 1936 was an English First Division match between Arsenal and Everton. Then in 1892 the world’s first purpose built football ground was opened at Goodison Park for Everton FC.  

Liverpool Boxing Stadium during its heyday in the 1970s

Liverpool also has a rich history in boxing, with early gyms in areas like 'Little Italy' in Scotland Road and in Toxteth, including the famous Florrie Institute, laying the groundwork for the sport's future. The foundation stone of Liverpool Stadium was laid by the Earl of Lonsdale on the 22nd of July 1932, a 3,700 capacity boxing arena on St Paul's Square, Bixteth Street. It was the UK's first purpose built boxing arena and was opened to the public on the 20th of October 1932 by Liverpool's Lord Mayor.

Horse racing was popular in Liverpool from at least Tudor times and in the 18th century Nicholas Blundell organised races on the sands at Crosby. Since 1836, Liverpool has hosted the world’s most famous horse race, the Grand National at Aintree racecourse, with the first meeting at Aintree racecourse taking place on the 7th of July 1829. The opening race was the Croxteth Stakes over 1 mile 2 furlongs, and was won by Mufti. In 1835 William Lynn organised hurdle racing, which was a great success, especially when a well-known, rider, Captain Martin Becher agreed to take part and rode a horse named Vivian to two victories. The story goes that Becher told Lynn about the Great St. Albans Steeplechase, a four-mile point-to-point race across country, which was first run in 1830. This caught Lynn's imagination and he decided that he wanted a similar race at Aintree.

On the Wirral peninsular The Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, established in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club, is widely considered one of the most historically significant clubs in English golf and hosted the first Amateur Championship in 1885 and laid the groundwork for the Walker Cup.

Although baseball was already played in Britain, the first professional game was held in Liverpool. On the 29th of March 1890, the Liverpool "Evertons" played the Preston "North Ends" at the Everton Athletics Ground.

Liverpool Rugby Football Club was the World's oldest open Rugby Club when founded in 1857, making it the oldest "open" rugby club in the world, meaning membership was open to all, not just former pupils of a specific school.

What follows is a chronological history of people from the region who have excelled in their individual sports.