Annual sporting events
University Sports Day
The first University Sports Day, or 'Annual Athletic Sports', took place in 1894. This consisted of firstly inter-college events, and then inter-departmental/school/faculty and inter-society events. The first page of the report below shows that although Owen's College (then part of Victoria University, as was University College Liverpool) were invited to run the 100 yard race, they didn't show up - which if they had, according to the author, would have made little difference to the outcome!
"The running track was grass and was only laid out once a year for the Athletic Meeting [Sports Day]. The day was quite an occasion attracting large numbers of students in University blazers."
Recollections of Emeritus Professor Sir Norman Jeffcoate from his time as a student in the late 1920s, as published within Liverpool University Athletic Union; the first one hundred years, 1884-1984 by Beryl Furlong (GLD/2/2/1)
By the later years, Sports Day was not simply a serious sporting event, but included popular events such as the "three-legged race" and was a good day out for students to socialise and have fun. As the report for 1976 Sports Day states:
"The spirit of sports day was most encouraging - people were obviously enjoying themselves - none more so than the competitor who ran the Paulauf and drank a pint at the same time."
The Christie Cup
Whilst the University Sports Day had an element of fun competition, the Christie Cup is a nationally recognised sporting event, hailing from 1886 when an Inter-College Rugby Football tournament took place between Owens College (Manchester), University College Liverpool, and Yorkshire College (Leeds). It is named after Professor Richard Copley Christie (of Owens College). The three respective successor universities still take part in the event today. Liverpool won most recently in 2018, and prior to that, in 1991.
The programme for the Inter-Varsity events in 1931 demonstrates that spectators and athletes alike would keep track of the scores using their own personal programmes - this one was owned by a Jane Wass.
UAU
Liverpool students also have a long history of competing on a national level as part of the Universities Athletic Union (UAU; now known as British Universities and Colleges Sport), which organised individual and team championships for the member universities across England and Wales. Liverpool was one of the ten founder Universities for the UAU when it was formed in 1919.