{"id":14964,"date":"2017-12-28T10:26:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T10:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thearsenalhistory.com\/?p=14964"},"modified":"2024-09-23T11:26:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T10:26:20","slug":"did-football-league-president-favour-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=14964","title":{"rendered":"Did Football League President Favour Arsenal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Honest” John McKenna’s Impassioned Speech<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve written a number of blogs on this site about Arsenal\u2019s election to the First Division in 1919<\/a> that show that what is perceived to be the truth about the events surrounding this meeting are not what they seem. We thought that the one about the precedent of what happened when the First Division was expanded would be the last one as we believed that there were no more \u201cfacts\u201d left to be dispelled.<\/p>\n

However, we\u2019ve now found another story that doesn\u2019t appear to be what it seems.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to a number of authors who have written about the infamous 1919 election, the president of the Football League, John McKenna, made a speech at the meeting in which he encouraged the members of the Football League to vote for Arsenal. This speech was first mentioned by Bernard Joy in \u201cForward, Arsenal\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve found time and time again, Joy\u2019s word has been taken as read and never challenged, and has been added to over the years until it became an \u201cimpassioned speech\u201d on the twohundredpercent.net website.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That is, until now.<\/p>\n

Thanks to websites like the British Newspaper Archive it is now possible to search through a large number of newspapers and view the contents with great ease. What we did was to see what the newspapers from March 1919 reported with regard to McKenna\u2019s speech. We found nothing.<\/p>\n

A considerable number of the smaller regional newspapers only reported the basic outcomes of the meeting so it could be argued that they could have given a \u201cfalse negative\u201d which means that McKenna could have given the speech but it wasn\u2019t reported.<\/p>\n

However, a fair number of newspapers went into great detail about the meeting, mentioning who proposed what and who responded. Again, it could be that all of the newspapers failed to report McKenna\u2019s speech but when you look at the detail that the Manchester Evening Chronicle goes into, it\u2019s difficult to see how they would have ignored something as important as the president favouring one club over another.<\/p>\n

If anyone newspaper was going to cry \u201cfoul\u201d, it would be the Tottenham Weekly Herald. The sports reporter \u2018Spectator\u2019 was absolutely livid about the outcome of the vote (it was almost as if someone had sent him a gif of Mesut Ozil drinking a cup of tea) but not once did he mention this speech by McKenna. If it had happened you can bet that it would have been mentioned in his column.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tottenham Weekly Herald 14 March 1919.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below is a list of the newspapers that we looked at and links to the reports of the meeting from those newspapers.<\/p>\n

The following newspapers failed to mention anything said by McKenna:<\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 Hull Daily Mail<\/a><\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 Lancashire Evening Post<\/a><\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 Nottingham Evening Post<\/a><\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 Pall Mall Gazette<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Daily Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Daily Mail<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Daily Mirror<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Daily Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Derby Daily Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Dundee Courier<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Gloucestershire Echo<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Lancashire Evening Post<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Manchester Daily Sketch<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Nottingham Evening Post<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Shields Daily News<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 The Sportsman<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 The Times<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Western Daily Press<\/a><\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Western Times<\/a><\/p>\n

12 March 1919 \u2013 Burnley Express<\/a><\/p>\n

12 March 1919 \u2013 Burnley News<\/a><\/p>\n

13 March 1919 \u2013 Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n

15 March 1919 \u2013 Hampshire Advertiser<\/a><\/p>\n

15 March 1919 \u2013 Sheffield Star Green \u2018un article 1<\/a> article 2<\/a><\/p>\n

16 March 1919 \u2013 The Referee<\/a><\/p>\n

17 March 1919 \u2013 Athletic News article 1<\/a> article 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps most telling in this list is The Sportsman which had been firmly lobbying in favour of Tottenham to be given a place in the First Division ahead of Arsenal, and Athletic News which reported Tottenham\u2019s representative at the meeting saying: \u201cWe shall take our defeat like sportsmen!\u201d<\/p>\n

The following papers mentioned McKenna talking during the meeting but there is no mention of any speech promoting Arsenal or denigrating any of the other teams.<\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 London Evening Standard<\/a>: McKenna spoke about players\u2019 wages<\/p>\n

10 March 1919 \u2013 Manchester Evening Chronicle<\/a>: A very detailed report that stated McKenna ruled a motion by Derby as out of order, spoke about Chesterfield and the pooling of gate money<\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Leeds Mercury<\/a>: McKenna spoke about players\u2019 wages<\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Manchester Evening Chronicle<\/a>: By far the most detailed report of the meeting we\u2019ve found. Plenty of mentions of McKenna talking, but no mention of a speech about Arsenal<\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Nottingham Journal<\/a>: McKenna about Derby\u2019s proposal, players\u2019 wages and the pooling of gate money<\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Sheffield Independent<\/a>: McKenna spoke about Chesterfield<\/p>\n

11 March 1919 \u2013 Yorkshire Post<\/a>: McKenna spoke about Derby\u2019s proposal, players\u2019 wages and an England international match.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 34 newspaper reports on the meeting and none of them make any mention of a speech given by John McKenna. What are the chances that McKenna made such a speech that all of these newspapers didn\u2019t pick up on?<\/p>\n

If you read through these reports, they all report the events in varying amounts of detail but they all concur with each other. And they all contradict just about everything that Joy wrote 33 years later.<\/p>\n

So, where did this story of McKenna making an \u201cimpassioned\u201d speech in favour of Arsenal come from? Well, the content of this alleged speech is very similar to what had been printed in Athletic News in the two months preceding the meeting.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Athletic News 13 January 1919<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Athletic News 3 February 1919<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, we have the source of the content of McKenna’s alleged speech but no proof whatsoever that he made this speech at the special meeting where Arsenal were elected to the First Division in 1919.<\/p>\n

It has also been alleged that Sir Henry Norris offered McKenna a house in Fulham as an incentive to make this speech. That rumour seems to be on rocky ground if McKenna didn’t actually make the speech.<\/p>\n

If you can find any contemporary mention of McKenna endorsing Arsenal at the Football League meeting on 10 March 1919, let us know as we’d love to see it.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

Copies of our books\u00a0Royal Arsenal \u2013 Champions of the South<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arsenal: The Complete Record 1886-2018<\/a>\u00a0are still available from the publishers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Honest” John McKenna’s Impassioned Speech We\u2019ve written a number of blogs on this site about Arsenal\u2019s election to the First…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[651,653],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-directors","category-the-arsenal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p87inb-3Tm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35616,"url":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35616","url_meta":{"origin":14964,"position":0},"title":"10 March 1919 – The Arsenal 18 Tottenham Hotspur 8","author":"arsenalcollection","date":"10 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Why did Tottenham poll so few votes in 1919? 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The Arsenal didn't manage to play any games under their new monicker before the Football Association suspended competitive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"1919-20\"","block_context":{"text":"1919-20","link":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?tag=1919-20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1919-12-06-Chelsea-H-FL-01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1919-12-06-Chelsea-H-FL-01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1919-12-06-Chelsea-H-FL-01.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35477,"url":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35477","url_meta":{"origin":14964,"position":2},"title":"Why Don\u2019t Tottenham Have Any Footballing Friends?","author":"arsenalcollection","date":"9 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews The Wealdstone Raider may have been talking about the first 40 years of Tottenham's existence. If you've read our last two blogs on the true story behind Arsenal's election to the First Division in 1919\u00a0and how the truth has subsequently been distorted, you may\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 36 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 36 comments","link":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35477#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Daily Mirror 30 May 1908","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1908-05-30-Daily-Mirror-Tottenham-expelled-from-Southern-League-but-not-voted-into-Football-League.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1908-05-30-Daily-Mirror-Tottenham-expelled-from-Southern-League-but-not-voted-into-Football-League.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1908-05-30-Daily-Mirror-Tottenham-expelled-from-Southern-League-but-not-voted-into-Football-League.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13431,"url":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=13431","url_meta":{"origin":14964,"position":3},"title":"Arsenal’s 1919 election – Tottenham’s Final Argument Mythbusted","author":"arsenalcollection","date":"4 August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost a century on,\u00a0Arsenal's election back into the First Division in 1919 continues to rankle Tottenham fans. 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