Why Everton ??????

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Started to keep up with American footballers overseas and Joe Max Moore was playing for Everton at the time. Started to follow the club a bit more closely and then next thing I know, I was hooked. There was something about Everton Football Club that was different but I couldn't put my finger on it. The supporters seemed pretty level headed compared to some of the other clubs supporters as well.

I confess that it's only over the last few years that I've developed a healthy disregard for the red quarter of Merseyside.

Lots of Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool, and recently Chelsea bandwagon fans over here in the States so I always get the question "why Everton?"

I could give 'em plenty of reasons today but back in the late 90's, when Walter Smith was managing, it really was "born, not manufactured."

In fact I remember when I went to England to see Everton play Spurs at Goodison followed by a trip to London and then a jaunt up to Leeds to see Everton play. One of the cab drivers in London asked me where my wife and I were from. Then he asked why we were in London and I told him that we came over to watch some football matches.

Naturally he asked who I had come to see play and I told him "Everton." Then of course I got the "why Everton?" question which I was happy to answer. One I'm proud to answer to this day.
 

Bluelass said:
My dad, sadly no longer with us, he was an Italian immigrant (don't all scream at me) and came to work in north wales in the early fifties. He loved football and started to watch the local teams Wrexham, Chester, Tranmere and Everton. Every weekend him and his mates would watch a game of footy but within a few months he started going more regularly to watch the Blues even though it was the hardest place to get to from south of Wrexham.

From as long as I can remember he always talked about Everton and the beautiful football they played. 'They are the gentlemen of football, Liverpool are the cavemen'. Those were his words back in the sixties when I took a more avid interest in football.
Bear in mind that little girls didn't go to football matches very often but I stuck with it, even when I lived in Italy and had to wait til Tuesday to get the Sunday papers, it was always straight to the back page.

Now, I'm fortunate enough to have a season ticket, have travelled to a couple of away UEFA games but sadly missed Wednesday night's game as my mother suffered a major heart attack on Tuesday night. First game I've missed in about four years - since she was last ill in fact.
Obviously I wanted to be with her as it was touch and go for a couple of days but I was with you all in spirit if not in body.

Live a Blue, Die a Blue, can there be any better fate in life?
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Sorry to read about your Mum, and hope she makes a speedy recovery.
 
I'm from a long line of reds, I was chosen, they were not(y)(y)(y)

I have since spawned a whole new generation of blues so job done(y)
 
Bluelass said:
My dad, sadly no longer with us, he was an Italian immigrant (don't all scream at me) and came to work in north wales in the early fifties. He loved football and started to watch the local teams Wrexham, Chester, Tranmere and Everton. Every weekend him and his mates would watch a game of footy but within a few months he started going more regularly to watch the Blues even though it was the hardest place to get to from south of Wrexham.

From as long as I can remember he always talked about Everton and the beautiful football they played. 'They are the gentlemen of football, Liverpool are the cavemen'. Those were his words back in the sixties when I took a more avid interest in football.
Bear in mind that little girls didn't go to football matches very often but I stuck with it, even when I lived in Italy and had to wait til Tuesday to get the Sunday papers, it was always straight to the back page.

Now, I'm fortunate enough to have a season ticket, have travelled to a couple of away UEFA games but sadly missed Wednesday night's game as my mother suffered a major heart attack on Tuesday night. First game I've missed in about four years - since she was last ill in fact.
Obviously I wanted to be with her as it was touch and go for a couple of days but I was with you all in spirit if not in body.

Live a Blue, Die a Blue, can there be any better fate in life?
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that about your mum. Hope she gets well soon
 

At the age of 8, in South Africa, Alan Ball chose me. When all the other kids were talking about Man U and Bobby Charlton / George Best, I watched a film of the 1966 World Cup Final, and thought Bally was the best player on the pitch. (Turns out that Bobby Charlton agreed.) By the time I watched it, Bally had been signed by Catterick. So I really had no choice.

The fact that Everton had, and still has, by far the best fans of any team is just a happy coincidence :D
 
My first matches were in 1961 at the age of four. Being sat by my dad on the white wall at the street end with my feet on the perimeter path. Dad, Grandad and all my uncles (on my fathers side) are/were fanatical blues. In typical Merseyside fashion, my father had married into a red family. All my other uncles (Mums side) are red. (I'm raising my son as a blue but my younger daughter has chosen to go red so a typical Liverpool family even though we live in Banbury)

I can just recall Alex Parker and others in that first team. My fondest memories were later. The Golden Vision, Ray Wilson, Roy Vernon, Gordon West and all the others.

Then - in my teens - The Holy Trinity made an indelible stamp on my life that lasts to this day. Whenever Bally played, I thought we would win. In 1967, I stood with 65000 other scousers (and 40000 more on the screens at Anfield) and went completely nuts when we scored.

Then on to the championship in 1970 and the wilderness years before the mid eighties. Rotterdam, wembley (four times) and Sheedy's left foot. Happy, happy days.

One question that plagues me today is that in those distant days, Everton were one of the clubs to which players aspired. We were one of the elite and admired by many neutrals. Some posters above have said that what attracted them to Everton was the underdog syndrome. Not in my case. We were the top of the pile back then and admired for it. I know that the money has gone in a different direction since then but I still can't explain why we're so actively disliked and scorned by so many neutrals. Have they forgotten the school of science? Have they never heard of Ray Wilson - the best full back in the world in the sixties? Nobody likes us any more and I can't understand it...

Still can't imagine life without Everton in it. Still get goosebumps when I'm within sight of Goodison. I still hum z cars to myself when I'm nervous...

I now feel that those goodtimes are coming back. I watched on wednesday night as Yak carved his way through their defence for that chance in the first half and I realised that I was expecting him to score. If not in that incident then later in the game. The current side has got me thinking "we can win this" for every game. I've not felt that since 1987. Thank you David Moyes for giving me back my youth...
 
my first memory of football is the 1970 fa cup final & replay between chelsea & leeds united, i also remember the flickering black & white images from mexico that summer. i was 8 years old & suddenly enthralled by football.

my mum's sister came to stay & picked up on this & asked me who i supported - i didn't know, i'd never even thought about the idea of supporting a particular team. she told me everton were the best (she was right, they were league champions!) & then, with just a hint of menace said "you're going to be an evertonian, arent you." it wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

later that summer my mum took me down to meet one of her aunts who was on a coach trip to my home town of worcester, on the coach with her was brian labone's mum & upon hearing that i was an evertonian she promised to get the great man's autograph, which duly arrived on a post-card.

the funny thing is, it was only over the next few years that i found out that most of my mum's family are evertonians & that she is the odd one out in turning to the dark side - even though she still remembers seeing dixie with the cup in '33 when she was not yet 5!

my first matches were away game in the midlands around '79/'80-ish & living in the south since'81 meant that away matches were the only opportunity to see the blues & my 1st competitive match & 2nd trip to goodison wasn't until the coventry city game at the end of the '97/'98 season. since then i've joined essca & been able to enjoy many enjoyable days supporting the blues - some of the matches haven't been too bad either!

tbh, i count myself as very lucky to be chosen & actually feel rather sorry for people who aren't evertonians - as if they're missing out on something special & they don't even know it. now my kids are interested, my attitude is one of "what makes you think your worthy of being an evertonian?" - so far it seems to be working!
 
the esk said:
My Great Grandfather played for Everton and actually scored in the 1897 FA Cup Final against Aston Villa (although we lost).

All males in the family have from that point on, been fanatical blues, particularly my grandfather who never missed a home game for more than 35 years.

Sadly I can't match his record but have the same passion (y)
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Your great grandfather would be proud to know the tradition has been well preserved through the generations. :)

I also forgot to mention (for those who are interested in such things) that I am related to the late Bill Dean (Scouse comedian and famous Evertonian/not THE Bill Dean) who ensured all his prodigy were Evertonians by informing them that Analfield was a special hospital where all bad children went if they were Reds - and they wouldn't be let out until they were cured. That was guaranteed to ensure the Blue Blood Line - his sons and their children are all regular attendees at the Royal Blue Temple.

TD

TD
 
Near enough all my family are red, in 1983 I remember watching Everton and thinking that they we're the tits (we weren't). I kept it down until the 1984 FA Cup Final and the teacher in school on the Friday showed us how to make rosettas. Loads of lads opted for the yellow and red of Watford but I wanted got a blue and white one.

My family were horrified, and still are to this day. The majority of my mates are followers of FC Liverpool Soccerballers too. I get abused from all angles.
 

chicoazul said:
Near enough all my family are red, in 1983 I remember watching Everton and thinking that they we're the tits (we weren't). I kept it down until the 1984 FA Cup Final and the teacher in school on the Friday showed us how to make rosettas. Loads of lads opted for the yellow and red of Watford but I wanted got a blue and white one.

My family were horrified, and still are to this day. The majority of my mates are followers of FC Liverpool Soccerballers too. I get abused from all angles.
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Sounds like a good friday night out for you chico....:D
 
I'm the youngest of six (Three of each). funny mix. Dad and eldest brother not interested in footie. Eldest sister red. middle sister was a blue but turned to the dark side when we sold Alan Ball. Youngest sister and middle brother both blues along with my mum. It was the blue brother who took me to my first game in 77 against Forest. But I'd been a blue since he told me we were the best in 1970. And I always will be:)
 

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