Bill Shankly - Early Life

Early Life

Bill Shankly was born in the small Ayrshire coal mining village of Glenbuck, close to the Ayrshire-Lanarkshire border. The population in 1913 "had decreased to seven hundred, perhaps less". As Shankly recalled in his autobiography, "people would move to other villages where the mines were possibly better". As a result, Glenbuck became largely derelict and by the time Shankly's ghost writer John Roberts visited it in 1976, there were only twelve houses left, including a cottage owned by Shankly's sister Elizabeth (Liz), whom Roberts described as "the last of the children of Glenbuck". Shankly's parents, John and Barbara, lived in one of the Auchenstilloch Cottages with their ten children; five boys and five girls. Shankly was the ninth child and the youngest boy. Although he was known as Bill throughout his football career, his name in the family was Willie, pronounced "Wullie". His father was a postman who became a tailor of handmade suits but, despite the football pedigree in his family, he did not play himself.

All five Shankly brothers played professional football and Shankly claimed that "once, when we were all at our peaks, we could have beaten any five brothers in the world". His brothers were Alec, known as "Sandy" by the family, who played for Ayr United and Clyde; Jimmy (1902–1972), who played for various clubs including Sheffield United and Southend United; John (1903–1960), who played for Portsmouth and Luton Town; and Bob (1910–1982), who played for Alloa Athletic and Falkirk. Bob became a successful manager, guiding Dundee to victory in the Scottish championship in 1962 and the semi-finals of the European Cup the following year. Their maternal uncles, Robert and William Blyth were also professional players and both became club directors at Portsmouth and Carlisle United respectively.

Shankly wrote in his autobiography that times were hard during his upbringing and everyone was "hungry, especially in wintertime". He admitted that he and his friends used to steal vegetables from nearby farms; bread, biscuits and fruit from suppliers' wagons, and bags of coal from the pits. Shankly admitted the act was wrong but it was "devilment more than badness" and the root cause was their constant hunger, but he insists that he and his friends learned from their mistakes and became "better people in the long run". He was at school from the age of five until he was fourteen. Discipline at both home and school was strict but Shankly said it was "character-building". His favourite subject was geography and he played football as often as possible, especially in the school playground, but there was no organised school team.

After Shankly left school in 1928, he worked at a local mine alongside his brother Bob. He did this for two years until the pit closed and he faced unemployment. In his autobiography, he described the life of a miner at some length and mentioned many of the problems such as the sheer hard work, rats, the difficulties of eating and drinking at the coal face, but above all the filth: "We were never really clean. It was unbelievable how we survived. Going home to wash in a tub was the biggest thing. The first time I was in a bath was when I was fifteen".

While Shankly was employed as a miner, he played football as often as possible and sometimes went to Glasgow to watch either Celtic or Rangers, sharing his allegiance between the two and ignoring the sectarianism that "divided Glasgow in two". Shankly developed his skills to the point that he was unemployed for only "a matter of months" before Carlisle United signed him. He wrote that he had his football future worked out in his mind and that, even when working in the pit, he was only "killing time" as he "knew it was only a matter of time before he became a professional player with some club or other". He explained that, in football terms, he had always been an optimist with a belief in his destiny and that was the basis of his undying enthusiasm for the sport.

Shankly's village team was called the Glenbuck Cherrypickers, a name probably derived from the 11th Hussars (the "Cherry Pickers"), but Shankly said "the club was near extinction when I had a trial and I never actually played for them". Shankly, aged 18, then played "half a season" (1931–32) for Cronberry Eglinton, about twelve miles from Glenbuck. He used to cycle to and from the ground. Cronberry were in the Cumnock & District League. Although Shankly had less than one full season at Cronberry, he acknowledged his debt to Scottish Junior Football as he "learnt a lot", mainly by listening to older players and especially his brothers.