2 February 1943 – 13 June 2024
Rob Sawyer
Everton FC Heritage Society has learned of the passing last week of former player Mick Gannon. Born 2 February 1943, Mick was raised with his nine siblings on Scotland Road, with Cilla White (later Black) as a near neighbour. He joined Everton straight from school, signing as a professional soon after his seventeenth birthday in 1960, and learning his trade under the likes of coach Les Shannon.
The defender was given three senior starts by Harry Catterick, all at left-back, at the tail end of the 1961/62 season, his debut coming on 14 March 1962, at Bramall Lane. Dennis Stevens also made his bow for the Blues in that match – a 1-1 draw with the Blades.
Mick recovered from an early error which led to the home side’s goal, by laying on the pass for Billy Bingham to grab the equaliser. He then made his home debut, keeping a clean sheet in a heavy defeat of Chelsea. The Liverpool Echo match report stated: ‘Gannon did well, after being chopped for speed by Brabrook in the early moments.’ Lastly, came another draw on the road, this time at Ewood Park.
Having seen Mick in action, and knowing that he could call on George Thomson, Colin Green and Mick Meagan at left-back, Harry Catterick took the decision to sell the Liverpudlian to Scunthorpe United that summer for £5,500. After two seasons in Lincolnshire, he joined Crewe Alexandra in 1964, enjoying a long association with the Railwaymen, encompassing over 200 appearances and promotion to Division Three in 1968. He moved on after the 1969/70 season, and played for non-league outfit Altrincham.
Mick settled on the Wirral and trained to be a joiner, his chosen career until retirement in his sixties. He enjoyed keeping in touch with the Toffees by attending Everton FC Former Players’ functions, and had the pleasure of seeing both his son-in-law, Dave, and grandson, Danny, pull on the famous royal blue shirt. Dave O’Brien was an England Schoolboy international, who became a member of the Toffees’ FA Youth Cup winning squad of 1984, alongside the likes of Ian Marshall, Ian Rimmer and Rob Wakenshaw. He subsequently played for Blackburn Rovers’ reserve team and then moved into non-league football before being forced to retire at twenty-eight through injury. Danny O’Brien (Dave’s son, with his wife, Mandy) was with the Everton youth set-up at the turn of the 2010s, winning the Milk Cup youth tournament with them in Northern Ireland. He moved on to Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic before playing for Kraft and SJK in Finland. He gained England Under-17 honours along the way.
Although Dave and Ian may have represented England at junior levels, Mick always trumped them when pointing out that he had represented the Mersey Millionaires!
We send our condolences to Mick’s wife, Sheila, and the rest of the family.
Mick Gannon
2 February 1943 – 13 June 2024
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Steve Zocek interviewed Mick in 2015 for his For The Boys In The Royal Blue Jersey book series. With Steve’s permission, we share it here.
HOW DID YOUR ASSOCIATION WITH EVERTON BEGIN?
One of my schoolteachers (Tom Moore) used to write articles in the Liverpool Echo. I played for Liverpool schoolboys with Liverpool full back Chris Lawler and was there for four years. My brother (Terry) was signed by Cliff Britton. He (Cliff) was later replaced by Ian Buchan who happened to show an interest in me. Mr Buchan sent somebody round to the house and my brother told me to go to Everton, to see if I liked it. I went and liked it, signed as an amateur and was on the groundstaff for a two-year period.
YOU WERE A MEMBER OF EVERTON’S FA YOUTH CUP FINAL TEAM IN 1961 WHERE YOU LOST TO CHELSEA 5-3 ON AGGREGATE. WHAT ARE YOUR RECOLLECTIONS FROM THAT TWO-LEGGED FINAL?
I knew Terry Venables, who was on the opposite side that day, because we had trials together for England schoolboys. They had two brothers: Ron, who went on to make a record number of appearances for Chelsea, and his brother Allan.
We lost the first leg at Stamford Bridge 4-1 but we won the home game at Goodison 2-1.
I remember most of the lads. The goalkeeper was called Willie Mailey, we played together later on in our careers at Crewe Alexandra. Roy Parnell was one of the full-backs, with me on the other side. The right half was Alan Jarvis, with Dave Gorrie, the centre half. George Sharples was the right-half, he was supposed to be the next Duncan Edwards, George went on to Blackburn Rovers.
Outside-right was a lad called Maddocks, inside-right was Alan Tyrer who was also a member of Liverpool Schoolboys with me. Keith Webber was a centre-forward who went on to play for Chester and of course we had George Morton who was the inside-left. Lastly, we had Stan Edwards who later played for Port Vale when Everton released him.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALISE THAT EVERTON WERE GOING TO SIGN YOU FULL TIME?
There were always reports on the lads in all games that we played. What the lads used to do, was empty the bins, so we could find the reports, just to see how we were progressing, so we had an idea.
We started in the Everton team that was called the Colts, going on to the C team, and about five of us graduated to the A team (third team) at the age of 17, which was pretty unusual then.
IAN BUCHAN, YOU MENTIONED, SIGNED YOU, BUT LATER JOHNNY CAREY WAS IN CHARGE. WHAT SORT OF A MAN WAS HE?
Johnny Carey was a gentleman. He once gave me half an hour off as I had got into a snooker final and played against Alex Parker at Christmas. I was beating Alex two frames to nil and he said, “I’ll catch you and win the next three frames.” I said, “I don’t think so, it’s the best out of three.” Alex, of course, went mad.
UNDER HARRY CATTERICK YOU WERE GIVEN YOUR DEBUT AT SHEFFIELD UNITED ON MARCH 14TH 1962. WHAT DO YOU RECALL OF THAT 1-1 DRAW AND YOUR OTHER 2 APPEARANCES?
I was marking a guy called Len Allchurch who was also a Welsh international in that game. My next game was my home debut against Chelsea, and I marked Peter Brabrook who gave me the run around. He was very fast – boy, could he fly. We won that game 4-0.
My last game for Everton was away at Blackburn. Again like my debut, it was a 1-1 draw. I was never on the losing side was I?!
WHAT DID YOUR TRAINING CONSIST OF IN THOSE DAYS?
We would have to be out there ready for 10 o’clock in the morning, having got the coach from Goodison to Bellefield. We would then go for a run around and have a game of five or ten-a-side. We had just started on the weights then, which was introduced to us by the manager Ian Buchan.
YOU WERE AN UNDERSTUDY FOR BRIAN LABONE, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE HIM AS A PLAYER AND A PERSON?
He was a great player as everyone who saw him play will tell you. He was also a great guy, and of course as a scouser, he nearly caught on to my jokes.
HOW DID YOU SOCIALISE OFF THE PITCH WITH THE EVERTON LADS?
We used to go to the Tiger club. I used to go out a lot with Roy Parnell, or “Pancho” as he was known to us. We once crashed in the Mersey tunnel and thankfully, it was his car. He was talking about the horses, and I said, “You had better hurry up Roy, as there are two hurdles just in front of us.” The council or whoever were about to paint, and had just put the trestle tables out.
We also used to visit all the clubs where the Beatles used to hang out, like St Luke’s Club in Crosby. The Tower in New Brighton was another venue. We also used to visit the Empress club, which was where I met my wife Sheila.
WHO WERE THE CHARACTERS AT EVERTON?
We had some great ones there, Alan Sanders, do you remember him? He was the right-back, who was there before Alex Parker.
When we used to train at Bellefield, we (the groundstaff lads and the professionals) had to get the coach from Goodison. We got Mick Meagan on the eve of bonfire night. We used to wear thick sweaters for training in those days. We got Mick, tied him up and put a sign in front of him, with ‘a penny for the Guy please’. Mick was a good lad and played in the reserves a lot with us.
Bobby Collins was a nice guy and of course, Jimmy Harris was a character too. There was Jimmy Tansey and how could I not mention Gordon West? Brian Harris was a character too. He used to take us to town sometimes for dinner. He would say to me when I was driving the car, “Open the windows, Mick”, he would take a water pistol out and fire at the people waiting at the bus stop.
YOU LATER LEFT EVERTON TO JOIN SCUNTHORPE UNITED. WAS IT A TOUGH DECISION TO LEAVE AND WAS THE STANDARD OF FOOTBALL IN THE LOWER LEAGUE A CONCERN FOR YOU?
Scunthorpe came in for me and with all respect, I didn’t even know where Scunthorpe was on the map. I, in some ways, wanted a move because I kept getting played at left full back, where my natural position was a wing-half, really.
Scunthorpe then were in the old Second Division (which is now the Championship). I wanted to play first team football too.
DURING YOUR CAREER WHAT WAS THE BEST STADIUM YOU PLAYED IN?
Goodison was always a top stadium then. We went on tour as young lads to Holland for a tournament, and played in a nice stadium, but it was so long ago, and I can’t remember the venue to be honest.
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS FROM YOUR CAREER?
No, no, I had a great time and played until I was about 30 years of age. As I have said, I went to Scunthorpe, then had six years at Crewe Alexandra. After Crewe, I went to Altrincham for a few years after that before trying a stint as player-manager for the Welsh team, Holyhead, but only lasted about 6 months.
WHAT WERE YOUR LIKES AND DISLIKES OF THE GAME?
I was a very placid lad and loved everything about my duties. I was always getting fined £2 for being late. When the referee was about to book me for committing a foul and asked for my name, I would say Michael, Joseph, Patrick, Vincent, Paul, Andrew, Philip Gannon. The ref would ask, “Why have you said that?” I replied, “By the time you write it down, the game will be over.” Some refs would let me off quite a lot, because when they saw me, they had to write it all down, and they must have thought, “Oh no, not him.”
WHO WAS THE BEST PLAYER THAT YOU PLAYED WITH AND AGAINST?
Bobby Collins, Alex Young, Roy Vernon, they were brilliant. Jimmy Gabriel was another. I was with Gabby a few years ago at the Adelphi when we had a function for Alex Scott.
Against? Apart from Peter Brabrook I’ve mentioned, there was a lad at Manchester United called Phil Chisnall, an inside-forward who, incidentally, played together with me for Lancashire schoolboys, was tough. Alan Oakes and Tony Coleman, both for Manchester City too. Tony was a hard case, a local lad from Huyton.
WHAT WAS THE BEST COUNTRY YOU VISITED WHILST IN FOOTBALL?
I went to Southern Ireland when I was with Crewe and can’t remember exactly where it was, but they had a wonderful golf course which was elevated.
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR PRE-MATCH ROUTINE ON THE MORNING OF A GAME?
I would get up and just relax by reading the newspaper, have a light lunch which would have been egg on toast.
WHO WAS YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE DURING YOUR CAREER IN FOOTBALL?
Les Shannon, he was the coach of the Everton youth team who brought us all through. In those days, the club didn’t bring young lads through then, but he (Shannon) introduced Willie Mailey who played in the first team, as did Roy Parnell, myself, George Sharples, Alan Jarvis and Keith Webber.
WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER YOUR FOOTBALL CAREER WAS OVER?
I trained to be a joiner, which I continued to do for 35 years. I worked on the buildings for ten years before working on the ships for 20 years.
IS THERE ANY PART OF YOUR CAREER YOU WOULD WISH TO FORGET?
(Laughing) Yes, playing against Peter Brabrook.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE EVERTON FORMER PLAYERS’ FOUNDATION?
They are very good. I remember when they (the organisers) first came to see me, it was when I was out of work at the time, actually they invited me over. Other than that, I was writing on shirts for these functions they used to hold at the Adelphi.
I always get invited to the Christmas dinners, which are always nice. I went to a game last season, which was a youth team game as my grandson plays for Aston Villa. As for the first team games, I don’t bother.
Saddened to hear Mick Gannon has passed, saw him play many times for Crewe Alex. Lovely article , RIP Mick.
I remember Michael well from his time with Liverpool Boys and I think All Souls school team, a good player but maybe the wrong time to be at Everton when the squad was merging into a great title winning team. I remember lots of the players Michael played with at Everton, not forgetting his brother Terry who played in the first team under floodlights in a friendly against Belgrave Red Star at Goodison, one of his older brothers was a real character, Tommy, who was very well known playing in the amateur game for various clubs.