Brief Introduction

The version of the sport this guide entry is refering to in this instance is known internationally as Association Football. More specifically this artical shall be focusing on a Team based in Merseyside, England, known as Everton Football Club.

EVERTON FOOTBALL CLUB

The early years

Everton FC were founded in 1878, under the name of St. Domingos FC, as it was a Sunday School Football team for the St. Domingos Church. It was initially set up for something the kids could do when the cricket wasn't on during the winter. A year later in 1879,because there were so many people outside St. Domingos church in the surrounding area of Everton who wanted to join the team, the name was changed to Everton FC, its current name. Everton's first official game was against a team called St. Peters, played at local Stanley Park on December 20, 1879. Everton won 6-0.

Everton, moved to a park on Priory Road in 1882, but two years later moved to Anfield. In 1885 Everton became a professional side, and three years later in 1888, became one of 12 founder members of the football league, with their first league match being against Accrington Stanley, which Everton won 2-1. In 1891 Everton had won their first title. To date Everton have notched up nine titles.

Goodison Park

In 1892, Everton fell out with the landlord of Anfield, John Houlding, and so decided to get their own ground. A man by the name of George Mahon, who had lead the move away from Anfield, already owned a part of Stanley park near Goodison road and at lightening speed built the ground in time for the 1892-93 season. The first league match was a 2-2 draw against Nottingham.

The Other Lot

It was at this time, those who had decided to stay behind at Anfield, players and board members alike, formed a new club called Liverpool. When Liverpool were eventually admitted to the league, the split caused a rivalry between Everton and Liverpool, with the matches played between them being called derbies. The first ever derbies were played in the 1894-95 season, with Everton winning the first game of the season at Goodison Park 3-0 in front of 44000, and the second game being a 2-2 draw at Anfield in front of a 26000 crowd.

Theme-tunes, Nicknames and The Kit

In the early years, Everton wore a blue and white striped shirt. However, when players started to transfer from different clubs they would wear their old clubs kits. This ruined the idea of uniformity. So in order to keep the team wearing the same kit, all the shirts were died black, and so Everton intially got the nick name the "black watch". However Everton's nick name changed to "the blues", as they started to wear their now traditional Royal Blue kit in the 1901-02 season.

However, Everton's more famous nick name is the "Toffees" or "Toffee men". There are probably many different ways this came about, one being to do with a toffee shop near the ground, another being that it was another name for the Irish, of which there were a lot of in Liverpool at the time. There was also an old ticket for an Everton match, which had "The Taffees" written on it, suggesting there could be a Welsh connection. Alternatively the person writing the ticket didn't know how to spell toffee. Whatever the origin, it is a part of Everton history.

Most UK football teams run out onto the pitch to a particular tune or anthem, and Everton are no exception, though the choice of music is rather unusual. The tune is originally from a folksong composed by Johnny Todd which was better known as the theme music from the 1960s BBC TV series "Z Cars", a gritty and innovative police series set in a fictitious town in Lancashire.

According to the unofficial Everton fansite "Toffeeweb" (www.toffeeweb.com) one of the cast of Z Cars was an Everton fan who brought along other members of the cast to watch the game. The story goes that the players ran out to the Z Cars theme in their honour, and the tune has stuck ever since, apart from a brief and thoroughly unsuccessul period in the mid 1990s.

The School of Science

The 1960's were to herald major changes in organisation and style of football in Britain. The abolition of the players' maximum wage led to full-time professionals with increased levels of fitness and organisation and would galvanise British football paving the way for England to be crowned World Champions and see both Celtic and Manchester United be crowned European Champions. Everton would not be left behind and were to take a leading role in this revolution.

At the beginning of the decade Everton were comfortably ensconced in the top division but had not won a major trophy in over twenty years. Tottenham Hotspurs had won 'The Double' in 1961 but were being challenged hard by the likes of Manchester United. In order to help revive the Club's fortunes the Everton board invited local businessman John Moores to join the board. Moores was originally from Manchester but had built his Littlewoods Empire on Merseyside and had taken Everton to heart, he would also become Liverpool's largest shareholder. Making large sums available he quickly became chairman and he did not take long to show the extent of his ambition. Unhappy with the performance of the side he sacked the manager, Johnny Carey, whilst in a London taxicab. Everton were fourth at the time.

Moores turned to Sheffield Wednesday's talented manager Harry Catterick. Moores backed Catterick's judgement with record-breaking amounts of money, which earned Everton the nickname 'The Bank of England Club'. Within a few years they had earned a new nickname- The School of Science. Despite his dour exterior, Catterick's ethos was one of inventive flowing football and this reached its peak with his record-breaking side of 1970. Powered by the legendary midfield trio of Ball, Harvey and Kendall they strode away with the Championship, Catterick's second at Everton.

As the club attempted to build on their success it appeared the club could only know bad luck. Evertonians could only shake their heads in despair as a procession of internationals exited the club. Colin Harvey, Joe Royle and Tommy Wright all had their careers cut short by tragic injuries. Retirements took key players and internal problems saw the departure of players such as Alan Ball. Despite spending heavily Catterick failed to build another side capable of challenging for honours. With the strains of the job beginning to take their toll on his health Moores replaced Catterick. Successive managers, despite heavy spending in the transfer market, failed to lift Everton into a serious Championship contender. To make matters even worse for Evertonians , their great rivals Liverpool had built a near perfect footballing Juggernaut at Anfield which swept all before them.

Whilst still owning the majority of Everton shares, John Moores advancing years and declining health led him to delegate the responsibility of running the Club to others. The Club was once again wallowing in the no-mans land of the top flight. Years of Liverpool success allied to an Everton barren spell left the club with a shrunken fan base and short of the financial firepower to be a big player. But things would get even worse before they would turn the corner.

The Return to success

Everton began their turn around in 1981 with the appointment of Howard Kendall. It initially didn't look that promising with Kendall almost sacked at the end of the 1983 season. The turn around started in the least likely of places. A fifth round tie against Oxford in the league cup. Everton won the match 4-1 and went on to play Liverpool in the final. Though Liverpool won the first ever all merseyside final. All thoughts of sackings were now forgotten now though, and soon the league final defeat was to be forgotten as well. Later that season Everton played Watford in the FA Cup, and won. This was their first trophy in fourteen years - but it was just the beginning.

The following season (1984/85) Everton went on to clinch the the League title and the European cup winners cup - our first piece of european silverwear. All was set for Everton to dominate European football, with plaudits for the team coming from all quarters. Sadly for the game of football, and for Everton, an event called the Heisel disaster where many fans were killed, was caused while Liverpool were playing in Europe that season. The football authorities judged Liverpool the guilty party, and decided that English fans should be banned. This was cruel blow for Everton, who could as a consequence not compete in the European Cup, as they would have done under normal circumstances.

Undetered, Everton went on to try to show the quality team they were. They narrowly missed out on the league title, and Lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup final. However, Everton came back with avengance the following season and won the League title of 1986/87 season. Though it was to be short lived. Everton once again had another cruel blow to deal with, as Howard Kendall decided the following season to try his hand at European football by moving to spain with Athletic Bilbao(who were still allowed in to European competitions). His number two Colin Harvey took over at Everton, and attempted to continue the success. But Everton were never the same side.

The Future

It is fair to say that, while the 1980's were probably Everton's most successful period, the 1990's were an awful barren spell with one bright spot in 1995 winning the FA Cup and the then named Charity shield (it is now called the community sheild). The future however is looking more promising, with young local players such as Wayne Rooney who scored the "wonder-goal" against Arsenal at Goodison Park (so that Everton won 2-1 after Tomasz Radzinski had scored earlier in the match), and Tony Hibbert. With the promotion of Everton's name over the world through television pictures and the Internet¹, the future looks bright. The future's royal blue.

Everton - The Legends

Everton through the years has had many great players. Probably the best to start with would be a certain gentleman by the name of
William Ralph Dean, who went by the nick name "Dixie" Dean.

"Dixie" Dean was the best player of his generation any where in the world, and many would argue he was one of the best of any generation. Dean was born William Ralph Dean on the 22nd January 1907 in Birkenhead, England. He got the nickname "Dixie" from his dark skin and thick black curly hair, he is known to have hated it and prefered to be called Bill. His greatest achivement as a footballer was, at the age of 21, to score 60 goals in the 1927-28 season. This is a record which has lasted over 70 years (The previous record was held by a Middlesborough player by the name of George Camsell, with 59 goals the previous season). In his Everton career he scored 349 league goals, with an average of 0.94 goals a game(473 goals in 502 matches). This all despite his serious injuries which he got from a motorcycle accident at the age of 19, only shortly after joining Everton. He died in 1980 at Goodison Park, after watching an Everton Vs Liverpool derby.

Howard Kendall, though a successful Everton player, will be most well known for his abilities as a Manager. He was born in Ryton-on-Tyne on 22nd May 1946. In march 1967 Everton signed him from Preston, going on to make 229 appearances and scored 21 goals. In 1974 he left Everton for Birmingham, but he did return (something he would make a habit of later on). In August 1981, Howard returned as a Player and a Manager (though he only actually played four games before he finally gave up playing). In 1984 he won his first major honour by winning the FA Cup against watford at Wembley. The score being 2-0 to Everton.

Born in 1958 in Llandudno, North Wales, Neville Southall played 751 games for Everton between 1981 and 1997, and was part of the 1980s Everton side which was among the best Everton have ever had. His part in the club's success of that era led to him being regarded as the best goalkeeper in everton's history, the best Welsh goalkeeper ever, and for a while in the mid-80s he was seen as the best goalkeeper in the world. He has played more games for Everton than anyone else, and at the age of 37 he conceded only one goal in the entire 1995 FA Cup as Everton claimed their only major trophy of the 1990s.

Everton Football Club Facts :-

Statistics

General Information