Articles – Page 11 – Everton FC Heritage Society

19

Oct

0 Comments

1910-1919, Articles, History, Latest, Players, Rest in Peace, Tony Wainwright, WW1

Lest We Forget

NB This article was due to appear in the Everton v Tottenham Hotspur Remembrance Day fixture of 7 November 2021. Unfortunately, due to the sad death of former manager Walter Smith, it was held over for his memorial article due to lack of space. It is reprinted in full below. Corporal 19024 Tom Gracie, 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Edinburgh) The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) The Life of Tom Gracie Among the names of the Fallen of Everton FC featured on the panels by the Dixie Dean statue is Tom Gracie. Born in Glasgow in 1899, he was a qualified bookkeeper,…

02

Oct

By Rob Sawyer

0 Comments

1890-1899, 1900-1909, 1910-1919, Articles, Latest, Players, Rob Sawyer

Jack Taylor – Everton’s Son of the Rock

by Rob Sawyer ‘He played anywhere readily and played well anywhere. No Everton player has left Evertonians with a more fragrant memory.’ Thomas Keates (1928) Portrait of Jack during his playing days There must have been something in the water in Dunbartonshire in the second half of the 19th century. Between 1889 and 1897, six footballers with strong connections to the Clydeside town of Dumbarton represented the Toffees. First there was Alex Latta, followed by Richard ‘Dickie’ Boyle, Abe Hartley and the Bell brothers (John and Laurie). But only one, John ‘Jack’ Taylor, would get his hands on silverware whilst…

Warney Cresswell – The Prince of Full Backs

22

Sep

By Rob Sawyer

1 Comment

1930-1939, Articles, Latest, Players, Rob Sawyer

Warney Cresswell – The Prince of Full Backs

By Rob Sawyer Warney Cresswell at Goodison in 1929 The retirement of Leighton Baines in 2020 reignited the debate about who has been Everton’s finest left-back. Unsurprisingly, the Kirkby-born England international was in the mix, along with World Cup hero Ray Wilson and the combative but effective Pat Van Den Hauwe. A natural tendency to favour players we have seen with our own eyes makes ranking players spanning many decades fraught with difficulty. The tactical evolution of the sport is a further complication. The modern breed of full-backs play an important role in attacking movements whereas the likes of Billy…

Tom Griffiths: The Player with More than one String to his Bow

22

Sep

By Rob Sawyer

0 Comments

1930-1939, Articles, Players, Rob Sawyer

Tom Griffiths: The Player with More than one String to his Bow

By Rob Sawyer Tom with Dixie Dean c.1927 Before Everton had T.G, there was T.P. On 16 March 1938, Tommy G. Jones (popularly known by his initials, T.G.) was sitting nervously in the changing room at the Racecourse Ground, about to make his debut for Wales. The 20-year-old was approached by his boyhood hero, Tom Griffiths, who was acting as an unofficial advisor to the squad. The older man gave the rookie a few quiet words of advice and encouragement’. Jones would later enthuse: ‘What a thrill those few words gave me. I’ll never forget it. I’ll always look back…

25

Aug

By Rob Sawyer

0 Comments

1980-1989, Articles, Rob Sawyer

“And the Linesman’s Name is Everton”

writes Fred Harvey, with Rob Sawyer John Everton, aged 75, had a distinguished career as a match official, which included service as a linesman for the Football League between 1984 and 1992. Six of those seasons saw him refereeing Conference (now the National League) games and in the ‘Pontins’ Central League when clubs fielded reserve sides. To cap it all, John Everton is an Evertonian! He reckons that he has trodden the hallowed Goodison Park turf on twelve occasions, three as a referee. What’s in a name? Research into the Everton family tree shows an 800-year progression from Northern France,…

27

Jul

By Rob Sawyer

2 Comments

1950-1959, 1960-1969, Latest, Obituary, Rob Sawyer

Mick Meagan (1934-2022)

Everton FC Heritage Society are saddened to learn of the passing of Mick Meagan at the age of eighty-eight. Rob Sawyer pays tribute; Mick Meagan, who passed away on 27 November 2022 was one of Everton’s great club men, giving twelve years of unstinting service. His reward was a League Championship medal in 1963. Born Michael Kevin Meagan on 29 May 1934, and raised in the Churchtown suburb south of Dublin, Mick was dubbed ‘Chick’ on account of his mother keeping hens in the back garden of the family home. He started off his soccer career with junior club Rathfarnham…

11

Jul

By Tony Onslow

3 Comments

1910-1919, Articles, History, Members Work, Tony Onslow, WW1

The Eventful Life of Billy Kirsopp

The Eventful Life of Billy Kirsopp. William Henry James Kirsopp was a Liverpool born inside forward who, like many of his generation, was to have his football career interrupted in order to serve his country in World War One. Having first worked on the Mersey Docks he volunteered for the armed forces and, after seeing action in Europe, returned to the family home having been wounded. Kirsopp was born on 21 April 1892, the second son of Charles, a landscape gardener, and his Scottish born wife Elizabeth. The family first resided at Drysdale Street, in the southend of the city,…

28

Jun

By Rob Sawyer

1 Comment

1920-1929, 1930-1939, Articles, Everton Women, History, Latest, Rob Sawyer

Goodison Park and Women’s Football

December 2021 marked the centenary of the directive which flung the women’s game into the wilderness for five decades. Less than a year before this myopic edict, one of the most significant football matches in Goodison Park’s history took place – but it did not involve an Everton team. During the First World War, football matches played between women’s factory teams boosted wartime morale and raised funds for deserving causes. Goodison Park staged a charity match on 1 April 1918, contested by Aintree Munitions Ladies and North Haymarket Ladies Football Club. However, a fixture on a far grander scale took…

23

Jun

By Rob Sawyer

0 Comments

1930-1939, Articles, Players, Rob Sawyer, WW2

Tom Robson – A Life too Short

By Rob Sawyer Everton Football Club has been ably served by many men and women with roots in the North East of England – Warney Cresswell, Harry Catterick, Howard Kendall, Jimmy Husband, Dave Thomas, Don Hutchison and Jill Scott spring to mind. Back in the inter-war years, Blyth Spartans, of the North Eastern League, gained an enviable reputation as a nursery club - developing young talent which blossomed at leading professional clubs throughout the land. The Toffees, notably, benefited from the loyal service of Gordon Watson – who joined from Blyth in a double-deal with his near-namesake Jack Watson in…

You Will Go to the Ball – Son of my Father – Part 14

18

Jun

By Steve Zocek

0 Comments

1960-1969, 2010-2019, Articles, Latest, Players, Steve Zocek

You Will Go to the Ball – Son of my Father – Part 14

'Who is the greatest of them all? Little, curly Alan Ball.' Alan Ball of Everton at Bellefield on July 24, 1969 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by W & H Talbot Archive/Popperfoto via Getty Images) I’m sure that sounds familiar to a majority of Evertonians who were present at the Old Lady from 1966 onwards. Personally speaking, I think I was smitten with Alan Ball before I fell head over heels in love with Everton. Bally was a footballing God to many, even making it very difficult to separate him from another hero of Goodison – Alex Young, the Golden Vision…