40. You'll Never Walk Alone

As April 15th looms around the corner, Wednesday to be exact, many of us here in America will be scrambling to the local post office to turn in our tax forms, but in England, there is something entirely different that will be observed. It is not taxes nor some sort of holiday, but a rather gruesome anniversary of an event that should have never happened.

On April 15th, 1989, Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday FC, was being used as a FA Cup semi-final venue between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest FC. Forest supporters were given the larger Spion Kop end while the Liverpool supporters had the smaller Leppings Lane stand on the opposite side of the stadium. Back then, stadiums often had fences surrounding the field in order to keep hooligans from invading the pitch which became the fatal obstacle that day. I can not imagine in this day and age why someone thought it was a good idea to turn beautiful stadiums to sporty versions of prisons...

Because of numerous police errors, too many people were in the Leppings Lane "pens" and a crush of spectators happened. The only ways for the spectators to escape the crush was to climb the fence or literally climb on people's shoulders and then be grabbed and picked up by another person situated in the second tier of the less crowded terrace. The game had already kicked off while all this was going on, but it was stopped after six minutes and abandoned.

Many stadiums here in America are all-seaters and always been like that so many of us do not understand the concept of a stadium with no seats, but it creates a fantastic atmosphere if the crowd is properly contained. In this case here, it clearly wasn't as there was such a massive overflow.

That day on April 15th, 1989, 94 supporters died, with another died a couple days later and another a couple years later (he never came out of his coma). All in all, 96, yes, 96 people died from an event at a soccer match! It's hard to imagine knowing someone who was just going to a simple sporting event and never return. This Wednesday is the 20th anniversary of that tragic a fateful day and I hope anybody that reads this shows their highest respects for those who went to enjoy a nice game of soccer and ended up losing their life.

To all those who lost their life, you have my respect and Rest In Peace. It's been twenty years and that day is still fresh in many people's minds and you will never be forgotten.

You'll Never Walk Alone.