1960-1969

My first football match: Everton v Blackburn in the harsh winter of 1962

My first football match: Everton v Blackburn in the harsh winter of 1962

[Hot Bovril and Cold Terraces series] Paul McParlan [This article first appeared in These Football Times, 28 July 2018] I was seven years old and driving my mum mad. My younger brother had been born just over 18 months earlier and was occupying most of her time. Match days always followed the same routine in our household: my dad would put on his suit and leave to meet his friends in the pub, prior to going off to Goodison to watch Everton. Occasionally he would depart a few hours earlier to catch a bus or a train to an away…
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‘He Took My Breath Away’ – Celia Morrissey

‘He Took My Breath Away’ – Celia Morrissey

Becky Tallentire So incensed was Bill Shankly when John Morrissey, then twenty-two, was sold to Everton in 1962 for £10,000 without his say, that the Scot threatened to quit Anfield. Morrissey went on to carve out a decent career at Goodison Park, playing 311 games at outside-left. He scored fifty goals and collected Championship medals in 1962-63 and 1969-70, and an FA Cup losers’ medal in 1968. He is a successful property developer today, and lives in Blundellsands, north Liverpool. The following article first appeared in Real Footballers' Wives by Becky Tallentire (published in 2004) Celia Collister (born 4 April…
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Jessie Milne: The First Lady of Goodison Park

Jessie Milne: The First Lady of Goodison Park

Reflections on a pioneering woman's half century of service at Everton Football Club Jamie Yates With women’s football firmly back on the map and growing once more in popularity, much has rightly been made in recent times of the abrupt ban placed in December 1921 on women playing the game at Football Association affiliated club stadia in England. Twelve months prior, on Boxing Day 1920, Goodison Park had hosted a record crowd for women's football of around 46,000 (with as many as 10,000 more locked out) for a match between St Helens Ladies and the famous Preston factory team Dick,…
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Mike Lyons and Everton’s De La Salle connection 

Mike Lyons and Everton’s De La Salle connection 

Simon Hart In late October 2002, as the interest surrounding Wayne Rooney exploded after his wondrous first league goal – that winning strike against champions Arsenal – the Guardian newspaper marked his 17th birthday with an article charting his path to the Premier League from “the terraced street in the working-class suburb of Croxteth” where he grew up – and still lived. [The Guardian: Today is Wayne Rooney's birthday but for Everton it feels like Christmas ] “Two miles away in the Everton club shop, Rooney's replica shirt is outselling all others and the Merseyside club are reportedly fending off interest…
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1966 and All That – Everton FC FA Cup Winners and the World Cup at Goodison Park

1966 and All That – Everton FC FA Cup Winners and the World Cup at Goodison Park

Mike Royden [This was part of a day anniversary event entitled Do Look Back! Bob Dylan, the Adelphi, Football glory, Liver Birds and Liverpool on TV in 1966, hosted by Liverpool History Society, (not EFCHS) at the Sefton Suite, Adelphi Hotel, relating to the 1966 visit to Liverpool by Bob Dylan and the FA Cup win by Everton.] Part of the famous photoshoot by Barry Feinstein - Dylan at Dublin Street off the Dock Road. In an event mostly attended by members of the Liverpool History Society for their 25th Anniversary, plus a number of Dylan fans, it seemed a tall…
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From Kirkby Boys to Colwyn Bay; via Catterick’s Everton and a trip to Keflavik!

From Kirkby Boys to Colwyn Bay; via Catterick’s Everton and a trip to Keflavik!

Keith Williams: A Goalkeeper's Tale Jamie Yates Keith Williams was born at home, 21 Max Road in Knotty Ash, on 21 September 1952. Due to his father Oswald’s ill health, the Williams family relocated to Kirkby to live with his aunt Violet during the ‘Big Freeze’ of winter 1962. Everton Football Club were midway through their 1962/63 League Championship winning season at the time, and the extreme weather conditions caused much consternation as fixtures were cancelled up and down the country over the festive period. Keith attended Park Brow Junior School in Kirkby where he started taking his football a…
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Hey Blues – Paul McCartney at Goodison Park in 1968

Hey Blues – Paul McCartney at Goodison Park in 1968

Rob Sawyer Hey Jude / Revolution Monday 26 August 1968 saw the release of arguably The Beatle’s greatest single (and, yes, there are several strong candidates for that accolade*). Originally inspired by John Lennon’s son, Julian, Hey Jude, Paul McCartney’ seven-minute opus, featuring a four-minute chorus-cum-outro, would sit atop of British pop charts for two weeks. It would be knocked off its perch by  another McCartney composition, Those Were The Days, sung by Mary Hopkin. [* Sorry Rob, that has to be Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane. ;-) ed. ] Remarkably, a day after Beatles fans first rushed to grab copies of…
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The Great Goalpost Desecrating Craze of the 1960s

The Great Goalpost Desecrating Craze of the 1960s

Jamie Yates For anyone who grew up with the 1988 BBC Official History narrated by John Motson as part of their Evertonian education, one of the most exhilarating montages is made up of footage from the 1962/63 season, early on in Harry Catterick’s glorious reign as manager. One particularly notable sequence is the footage from Saturday 22 September 1962, the Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park.  Rival captains Ron Yeats and Roy Vernon lead the teams out from the tunnel for the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, Saturday 8 February 1964 (NB this is the season after the derby featured here. Thanks…
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The Life of Barrie Rees 

The Life of Barrie Rees 

Rob Sawyer Rhyl-born Barrie Rees followed in the footsteps of South Walian striker Keith Webber by swapping life at Goodison Park for the Goldstone Ground in the 1960s.  Barrie (often written as Barry) was born on 4 February 1944 and lived on Mayfield Grove, attending Christchurch Junior School and Glyndwr Secondary School. In 1959, as a fifteen-year-old, he attained Welsh Schoolboy football honours as a forward in a Wales v Ireland match played in Bangor. Rhyl FC of the Cheshire League, had him on amateur forms, but on the recommendation of Freddie Bennett, the Toffees’ man in North Wales, he was…
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Tommy Wright – A True Blue Hero

Tommy Wright – A True Blue Hero

Rob Sawyer In the sweltering early afternoon June heat of Estádio Jalisco, Guadalajara, England’s right-back slumps to the ground. Lying prone, he is approached by Brazil's number ten, the great Pelé, who proceeds to lift his opponent's leg and push the foot back in an attempt to alleviate the symptoms of cramp.  FIFA World Cup 1970 Pele (10) of Brazil tends to cramp-stricken Tommy Wright (14) of England after sustaining an injury during their Group 3 match at Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico, 6 July 1970 (photo; Neil Leifer) On England duty in the late 1960s This display of sportsmanship at…
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