Twenty years ago today...

[Captain Seafort]

96 supporters of Liverpool Football Club died in a crush in the Leppings Lane stand at Hillsborough stadium.

RIP

[Lazar]

[Sionnach Glic]

...

For those who don't know.

[Mikey]

Terrible shame. Even more so, considering that fandom hasn't learned anything since.

[thelordharry]

To the 96, You'll Never Walk Alone. Always in our thoughts...

[Tsukiyumi]

I remember this; what a terrible way to go.

RIP

[Bryan Moore]

Not to get too snarky, but 96?! A good soccer stampede you're talking a dozen. What the hell happened?

[Deepcrush]

Most of the poor folks were young to... Its a shame.

[Captain Seafort]

Not to get too snarky, but 96?! A good soccer stampede you're talking a dozen. What the hell happened?

It wasn't a stampede. The idiot plods opened up a gate and forced far too many people into the same stand, with the result that everyone already in there was crushed. 94 died there, another a few days later, and a lot more were seriously injured, including one lad who was in a coma for years before his parents got permission to turn off life support.

[Reliant121]

I think loads of things have been blamed over the years. The fans, the people who opened the gates, the poor design of the stadium. It really doesn't matter who or what was at fault. What matters was the live that were lost.

I weren't alive (duh) but...it still hits hard.

Those who died on that fateful day,
Whose lives you gave in the crushing fray,
Your names are remembered, and shall always be,
Never walk alone, Never walk unseen.


(yeah the rhyme scheme was a little iffy at the end but hey)

[Graham Kennedy]

This has a special resonance for me. Here's my story.

20 years ago I was a student in Sheffield. As a native of Liverpool and Liverpool fan, I considered attending this game. I mentioned that to my dad, who urged me on. He said I didn't need a ticket - I'd be able to buy one outside the ground easily. It was the crowd milling around without tickets that were largely those who were let into the ground suddenly, resulting in the crush. If I had gone to the game, I would have been in that crowd.

The day before the game, a bunch of my student friends decided to go to the amusement park, Alton Towers. I decided to go with them. I didn't tell anybody I was going.

We had a happy day out, getting back about 10 pm. I found the "extended 9 o'clock news" going off just as we walked in and thought "huh, something happen today?" I switched over to the 10 pm news to see the headline - over 90 people had been crushed to death in the crowd. I rang my parents; they had been frantically panicking all day long, thinking I had gone to the game, unable to ring me (I had no phone at the time) or get any information.

I don't call it a brush with death as such - I was never even within a mile of the ground. But had I jumped one way instead of the other, and had a half dozen other things gone just so... well I wouldn't be here today.

RIP.

[Nickswitz]

WOW, that was a great decision to make, if you didn't we probably wouldn't have this site.

[Mikey]

There you go, Nick - what impacts you is really what's important.

The road not taken, eh, GK? The ol' butterfly effect really makes one think sometimes.

[Nickswitz]

Yes, and that movie really made me think about how much what I do, or what other people do, really affects my life and others.

[Sionnach Glic]

What movie?