P. DAYS S.A.F.C. INTERNET

About this brick

I was the football club’s very first webmaster of www.sunderland-afc.com, back in 1995/96—just an ordinary supporter who, by chance, was given a remarkable opportunity to engage with Sunderland AFC at the dawn of its digital age.The Wall of Fame at the Stadium of Light was part of a wider idea. I am fairly certain it was inspired by something similar at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, where commemorative bricks were introduced around the time of the 1998 FIFA World Cup—a tournament I was fortunate enough to attend. There, the names were set into the surrounding walkways; at Sunderland, the concept was adapted into something more permanent, more rooted—etched into the fabric of the club’s new home.Although I have a brick in my own name, in another panel, the club kindly allowed this second one to carry “S.A.F.C. Internet”—despite the original intention that inscriptions should be limited to individuals, rather than anything resembling a company or form of promotion. It stands as a small marker of a moment in time, when football clubs were only just beginning to find their voice online.My involvement came to an end with the arrival of my son and daughter, and life naturally moved on. Yet I have always looked back on that period with great fondness. It was a brief window, but a special one—being part of something new, at a club with such deep history.There is something quietly compelling about the Wall of Fame itself. Each brick carries a name, a memory, a story—some known, many long forgotten. Looking at them now, one cannot help but wonder about the lives behind those inscriptions, and what each meant to the person who placed it there.In time, perhaps, others will look at this one and ask the same question.