Clubs unite to honour their founding father
By David Charters
BLUE and Red were joined in friendship yesterday in a service of rededication over the grave of a man whose religious faith made him the father of two great football clubs.
The officials and players of Everton and Liverpool have met so many times before, during one of the most keenly contested rivalries in British football.
The city has witnessed hundreds of matches, grand receptions and, of course, those funerals when the clubs have, together, mourned the passing of great and loyal servants.
But yesterday's gathering, amid the headstones and noble inscriptions of a Pennine village churchyard, was a little different.
There lay the Reverend Ben Swift Chambers, whose belief in the popular Victorian doctrine of "muscular Christianity" led him to form a cricket club in 1877 at St Domingo's Methodist Chapel in the Everton district, where he was minister.
This was fine, but it left the cold months empty. So that winter, at Chambers's suggestion, the young men started a football team, playing on nearby Stanley Park and quickly attracting players from other churches.
This meant that they needed another general name and, in 1884, they built a new stadium at Anfield and were billed as Everton FC for the first time. The following season, they turned professional, winning the Football league Championship in 1891.
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But success brought tensions. John Houlding, brewer and the club's landlord and president, wanted to increase the annual ground rent from £100 to £250. Most of the committee, led by George Mahon, the chapel's organist, protested and as a result were expelled from Anfield.
This contingent won the legal right to call themselves Everton and moved to Walton, where they built Goodison Park. Those who stayed behind became Liverpool.
Chambers's crucial role might have been forgotten altogether, if it had not been for Peter Lupson, the football historian, who has been researching the Christian influence on the game since the publication in 2006 of his book, Thank God for Football.
He decided to track down the grave of the man, who had started both clubs, and found it in Shepley, near Holmfirth.
He contacted Everton and Liverpool, who dedicated an undisclosed sum to have it restored, adding a tablet, which says, "In memory of the Reverend Ben Swift Chambers, who set the ball rolling that led to the birth of Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs."
Yesterday's Service of Celebration and Recognition was attended by Sir Philip Carter, life president of Everton; Henry Corbett, chaplain; Graeme Sharp, former Everton and Scotland centre-forward and now the fans' liaison officer at the club. On the Liverpool side were Rick Parry, the chief executive; Brian Hall, former player and now community relations' officer, and Bill Bygroves, chaplain.
"I feel immensely proud that the two clubs have recognised the importance of this man to their histories and that it was my discovery of his grave that led to this happy occasion," said Peter. "It could not have been better."
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