1930-1939

Dixie’s Sunset, Bally’s Sunrise

Dixie’s Sunset, Bally’s Sunrise

Ashton's Everton Connection Ashton-Under-Lyne, six miles to the east of Manchester, is dominated by a huge Ikea store and known by football trivia fanatics as the birthplace of Sir Geoff Hurst.   Yet it is another Hurst that connects this Tameside town with Everton Football Club. Hurst FC was founded in 1878 (a familiar ring to it for Evertonians), playing its first reported fixture the following year.  Within two years the club had relocated to the Hurst Cross ground and remains there to this day – one of the longest residences in football. The team has muddled along in regional leagues…
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The Life of Hunter Hart

The Life of Hunter Hart

Hunter Hart was always recognisable by a distinctive quiff which pre-dated that of Wolves' Billy Wright. He served Everton with distinction on the field in the 1920s and behind a desk in the 1930s but, unfortunately, his association with the club he loved was to end prematurely, as was his life. Born on Glasgow on 11 March 1897 to Alexander (a carter) and Jessie, Hart grew up less than half a mile from Celtic's stadium. By the age of 14, living in Shettleston, Lanarkshire, he had lost the sight in one eye,  in what was described as 'a childhood accident'.…
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Initials T.G. – Researching Tommy Jones, The Prince of Centre-Halves

Initials T.G. – Researching Tommy Jones, The Prince of Centre-Halves

William Ralph “Dixie” Dean sits unchallenged as the king of Goodison Park. Joining him in the Royal Blue dynasty is the Prince of Centre Halves: Thomas George Jones. Tommy, as his friends knew him, was so famous in his pomp for Everton and Wales that he was known merely by his initials - T.G. Devouring Everton history books as a youngster, I would read of this artist in the Blues’ half-back line. Dominant in the air, immaculate on the ground and possessing a rocket-like shot, T.G. was so confident in his own ability that he would dribble in his own…
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Everton Football Club – Trinidad

Everton Football Club – Trinidad

The 1930s People’s Club The Trinidad Amateur Football Association (TAFA) was formed on July 23, 1908, and First Division play in Port-of-Spain included such teams as Casuals, Clydesdale, Local Forces, and Shamrock. League play was conducted in front of the Grandstand in the Queen's Park Savannah. By 1911, the local FA gained affiliation to the English Football Association and there were large gates at the top matches. The first league was reduced to just the top four teams while a second league was introduced to cater for the other teams. The influx of new teams in the second league caused…
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Jimmy Dunn and Sons

Jimmy Dunn and Sons

Jimmy dunn attacks the Park End as Billy Dean watches on John Dunn in conversation with Rob Sawyer Stein, Dean and Dunn – that trio of names is immortalised in Goodison folklore as the Everton scorers in the 1933 FA Cup Final victory over Manchester City. William Ralph Dean needs no introduction but today’s Blues supporters may be less familiar with the two scoring Scots: Jimmy Stein and his compatriot, Jimmy Dunn. Stein, the Coatbridge-raised forward who arrived at Everton via Dunfermline Athletic, marauded down the left flank for eight years. But it is the diminutive Dunn - 5ft 5in…
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Searching For The Blues Baseballers

Searching For The Blues Baseballers

Everton baseball team circa 1945 Featuring Gordon Watson of EFC and Theo Kelly as trainer wearing hat The Everton team you've never heard of as Blues search for sporting pioneers Everton were once a leading name in trying to establish a popular American sport on Merseyside  Because Everton have diversified into other sports in their long sporting history - and the Everton Heritage Society - the group of historians which seeks to research and chronicle all elements of the football club, is interested in discovering more about one particular diversion. Baseball. The Toffees have flirted with another sport with American…
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‘King’ Charles: Everton (Trinidad and Tobago)

Alfred Charles (Southampton Strip) Alfred Pious Charles was born in Trinidad & Tobago, 11 July 1909. He received his prestigious royal nickname from a 1931 match report when in 1931 the Touring Trinidad & Tobago national team played British Guiana: ‘Playing at centre-half. He shone like a beacon in that position and so amazed the Guianese that they christened him "King Charles". Alfred was very highly regarded in his school days at Newtown Boys’ RC – he was head and shoulders above other boy footballers in Port of Spain. In 1929 he joined the Port of Spain Football League side,…
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“Bunny” – The Robert Bell Story

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

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…
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T.G. Jones at 100

T.G. Jones at 100 Posted by Rob Sawyer on October 12, 2017 12 October 2017 marks the centenary of the birth of Thomas George Ronald Jones in Queensferry, Flintshire. The tall, quiet son of a Connah’s Quay coal merchant would find his footballing feet at Wrexham F.C. but he would achieve immortality at Goodison Park. His first two initials, T.G. became synonymous with the art of cultured defensive play. In March 1936 the footballing eye of Toffees director Jack Sharp - himself a playing great – recognised the promise in the leggy teenage centre-half. In no time T.G. had swapped…
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