Bill Shankly was appointed manager of Liverpool before the start of the 1959-60 season. The 35-year-old former Preston North End and Scotland player took charge of the Anfield side when they were in the Second Division and were hardly among the biggest clubs in the English league despite having won the League Championship five times in the past.

Promotion to the First Division was achieved in 1962 when Liverpool won the Second Division championship. In that season, centre forward Roger Hunt scored 41 league goals - a club record which remains unbroken to this day. Liverpool won the First Division Championship in 1964 and regained it two years later, winning their first F.A Cup in the season between their two title triumphs. Roger Hunt, Ian St John, Ron Yeats and Tommy Smith were key Liverpool players in this era. Liverpool won their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1973 - in that season they also lifted another League Championship. Shankly shocked the football world by announcing his retirement after Liverpool won the 1974 F.A Cup. A local factory even threatened to go on strike in protest against Shankly's decision. But Shankly would not be moved, he watched Liverpool play as a spectator from The Kop until his death from a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 67.

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