Rob Sawyer – Page 10 – Everton FC Heritage Society

The Age of Illumination – The Story of Goodison Park under Floodlights

08

May

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1950-1959, Articles, History, Rob Sawyer

The Age of Illumination – The Story of Goodison Park under Floodlights

There is something truly magical about a football stadium under lights. The glow guides you from miles away. From within, there’s an enhanced - almost animated - quality to your view of proceedings. The artificial light glistens on the fabric of the players’ shirts and picks out the moisture on the freshly watered, bright green pitch. And, of course, the electricity seems to energise the crowd - adding a few extra decibels to the crowd’s roar. It’s hard to imagine that, as recently as the 1950s, winter kick-off times had to be set so that matches would conclude before dusk,…

A Day of Celebration and Commemoration at The Winslow

08

May

By Rob Sawyer

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2020-2029, Articles, Events

A Day of Celebration and Commemoration at The Winslow

Number 31 Goodison Road is an address with 134 years of rich history – 128 of them indelibly linked to the football club across the road. When The Winslow Hotel called first orders in 1886 there was a field opposite called Mere Green. In 1892 it became the new home of Everton FC. Over the decades countless Toffees supporters and no few players (in the days when many lived, literally, around the corner form Goodison Park) have passed through the doors. On Saturday 14th March this year, the Everton FC Heritage Society teamed up with the current licensee, Dave Bond,…

26

Nov

By Rob Sawyer

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1960-1969, Articles, Events, History, Managers, Rob SawyerEverton, Harry Catterick

Harry Catterick’s Centenary

Last Friday, the Everton FC Heritage Society organised and hosted the ‘Catterick 100’ event to celebrate the life and achievements of Harry Catterick - who would have turned 100 on 26th November. He is remembered and celebrated on the Blue half of Merseyside for his stellar managerial achievements in the 1960s. His trophy haul for the Toffees has been eclipsed only by Howard Kendall. Attendees at the celebration event, held in the People’s Club Lounge at Goodison Park, included members of the Catterick family, Heritage Society members, club officials and supporters. Master of ceremonies, Ken Rogers, led the attendees through…

05

Nov

By Rob Sawyer

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2020-2029, Articles, Everton Collection, History, Members Work, Rob Sawyer, Simon Hart

A Delve into the Everton Collection

Some of this season’s EFC Heritage Society articles are produced in partnership with the Everton Collection, the unrivalled archive of over 10,000 historical football treasures. In 2007 in order to ensure the archive remained intact for future generations, an initiative was formed with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to purchase David France’s memorabilia. Everton FC also gifted its own memorabilia to form The Everton Collection Charitable Trust. The Collection is located at Liverpool Record Office at Liverpool Central Library where it is preserved and conserved in purpose-built archive accommodation meeting the highest standards for long-term preservation and under the…

‘Money Can’t Buy Us Love: Everton in the 1960s’ – By Gavin Buckland

08

Oct

By Rob Sawyer

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1960-1969, 2020-2029, Articles, Books, Gavin Buckland, Rob Sawyer

‘Money Can’t Buy Us Love: Everton in the 1960s’ – By Gavin Buckland

Two strong-willed, complicated, men form the axis of a new book by Gavin Buckland which explores, in greater detail than ever before, Everton during the trophy-laden 1960s Rob Sawyer For those who have only been following Everton since the 1990s, you’ll have known the Blues as the plucky underdogs – the Dogs of War, even. It’s been the People’s Club, punching above its weight against opponents with much greater financial clout. For these younger supporters - even in this more financially stable and ambitious Moshiri-led era - it must be hard to envisage a time when the Toffees were the…

15

May

By Rob Sawyer

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1890-1899, Articles, Members Work, Rest in Peace, Rob SawyerCharlie Parry

The Life of Charlie Parry

Charles Parry (Everton) 1895. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Witness the photo of Charlie Parry posing in his Everton kit in 1894: sleeves rolled up, right fist clenched at his side, ball clasped in his left hand, a hint of a sneer on his lips. Here was a footballer you’d want to play alongside rather than against. Charlie enjoyed six years with Everton, over two spells, winning the first Football League title to come to Anfield and becoming only the third Everton player to represent Wales (after Job Wilding and Joe Davies). Perhaps in keeping with…

14

Mar

By Rob Sawyer

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1890-1899, Articles, History, Members Work, Players, Rest in Peace, Rob Sawyer

The Charlie Parry Grave Rededication

An unprepossessing road in the shadow of Goodison Park, is named Salop Street. Salop, or Shropshire as it is more commonly known, might not, at a first glance, be awash with Everton links but that can be misleading. In fact the, largely rural, county has a loyal Blues following (the Shropshire Blues is the local official supporters club branch). Oswestry, 50 miles from Goodison, has several connections links to Everton that go back to the earliest days of the club. George Farmer, a son of the town and a Welsh international footballer, was a key player in the club’s early…

Frank Sugg – A Great Sporting All-Rounder

21

Aug

By Rob Sawyer

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1878-1889, Articles, History, Members Work, Players, Rob Sawyer

Frank Sugg – A Great Sporting All-Rounder

As a child, a shopping trip to nearby Stockport was not complete without a visit to the Sugg Sport emporium in the Merseyway Shopping Centre. Back then I was blissfully unaware of the link between the family giving its name to the Yorkshire-based retail chain and Everton FC. Frank Howe Sugg, like Jack Sharp and Harry Makepeace, was a notable footballer-cum-cricketer on Everton’s books. Born in Ilkeston, in 1862, Frank was raised in Pitsmoor, Sheffield from the age of four, along with his elder brother, Walter. The boys’ parents had designs on them following their father, Hubert, into the legal…

21

Aug

By Rob Sawyer

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1930-1939, 1940-1949, Articles, History, Members Work, Players, Rob Sawyer

“Bunny” – The Robert Bell Story

The Wirral has a proud tradition of producing high-calibre footballers who have graced stadia on Merseyside and beyond. For a period in the first half of the 20th century Tranmere Rovers became something of a centre-forward factory, producing some of the finest striking talent in the land. There was, of course, William Ralph “Dixie” Dean, but also Tom “Pongo” Waring, Bill “Nibbler” Ridding and Robert “Bunny” Bell (it appears that nicknames were mandatory in this era). The latter wrote himself into the record books by scoring a triple-hat-trick on Boxing Day 1935. More of which later… Bob, as he preferred…

Elie Hurel – The First Jerseyman to Play in the First Division

21

Aug

By Rob Sawyer

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1930-1939, Articles, History, Members Work, Players, Rob Sawyer

Elie Hurel – The First Jerseyman to Play in the First Division

Elie Hurel holds a special place in the footballing folklore of the Channel Islands. Decades before Graeme Le Saux and Matt Le Tissier became household names; Elie was the first man from those Crown dependencies to play football in the English top flight. His journey there — from being orphaned as a child to lining up alongside the legendary Bill “Dixie” Dean at Goodison Park — is a remarkable one. Elie, the fifth of twelve children born to Emile Andre and Marie-Francoise Hurel, took his first breath on April 10 1915. As their names suggest, Emile and Marie-Francoise were French…