Everton in North America – 1961

It was just shy of 70 years ago that Everton Football Club first ventured across the Atlantic Ocean, although a surprisingly high number of former players had already made the switch to North American soccer. The Toffees’ 1956 tour of the USA and Canada was essentially ten exhibition matches played against local opponents plus Aberdeen FC, who had also made the long journey.

Five years later, the Blues, with a substantial injection of cash and ambition from chairman John Moores, were nominated by the Football League to participate in the American Soccer League Challenge Cup - an initiative to get soccer to take root in the land of baseball, basketball and American Football.

In late January 1961 the secretary of the League, Alan Hardaker stated: ‘We must decide which club is best fitted to represent us in the United States, so the decision was taken to invite Everton to go by a special distinction.’ All clubs in the First and Second Division had been written to by the League to elicit their interest, with a good number demurring. When Everton were selected, Johnny Carey was reported to be delighted at the news. John Moore told the press: ‘I am pleased that Everton have been given this distinction, I am pleased also for the sake of the boys who will enjoy the trip.  I hope all our injured men will be on deck in time for us to field our strongest team. I hope to travel with the party, though New York in June is liable to be very hot for me.’

Harry Catterick, Johnny Carey’s replacement as manager in April 1961 was less than enthused at the prospect of the trip, as his priority was to get the measure of his squad and then make preparations for a tilt at the League Championship title in 1961/62. However, the die was already cast, and the club was not going to walk away from a guarantee of $2,500 per game. In his Liverpool Daily Post column, Roy Vernon wrote: ‘Look out America, here we come!  I don’t think anyone will doubt now that Everton are worthy representatives of British soccer to take part in the New York tournament.’

Leaving Goodison Park for North America

Having had a fortnight’s break after the final match of the 1960/61 season, the Everton party consisting of the manager, trainer Gordon Watson, four directors and 17 players (Alex Young would join them after fulfilling Army football duties), assembled for the journey. Only Tommy E. Jones and Brian Harris had been on the tour in 1956; the former would send regular updates on the tour to the Liverpool Echo. They flew to Montreal on a specially chartered flight, which left Prestwick at 2am, in the company of fellow participants Shamrock Rovers, Besiktas, Kilmarnock and Brazilian team Bangu, who the Toffees had played in a friendly match (that was anything but) at Goodison Park. Assigned seats amongst the Besiktas players, Tommy E. Jones and Jimmy Gabriel did their best at getting to know their future opponents in what he described as ‘pidgin English’. Press, TV and film crews greeted them after touching down but Jimmy Gabriel was more preoccupied with reporting his missing suitcase to the airline’s handling agent.

16 clubs would participate in the competition, in two leagues of eight with the top-placed sides going forward to a two-legged final. Almost right up to Everton kicking a ball in anger there were concerns of sanctions for participating in a competition that had not been given FIFA’s blessing. In desperation, having not obtained firm assurances from Sir Stanley Rous, secretary of the Football Association and a FIFA executive, John Moores put a call in to FIFA secretary-general Dr Helmuth Kaeser. Kaeser, at the 11th hour, confirmed that Everton should have no concerns.

Everton's tournament got underway with a 1-0 defeat of a rough-house Montreal Concordia side which was spurred on by a partisan crowd. Both sides had a man sent off (Billy Bingham and Hector Lopez) and there were several bouts of fisticuffs, but Alex Young’s goal was enough to see the visitors over the line. Tommy E. Jones wrote:

This was a game which made you proud to belong to Everton, a game which had everything – soccer, spirit and a never say die attitude from all the team. ‘You may remember the Bangu friendly at Goodison towards the latter end of the season. Well, this game was a repetition, only even more so. After 20 minutes Billy Bingham was sent off after being butted by one of the opposition and retaliating as any normal being would. The hacking and kicking after the ball had been played had to be seen to be believed. But the boys in blue never wavered an inch. In fact, they came back for more and threw everything into the game that their physical attributes could afford.  We played football, football and more football.’

Derek Temple recalls: ‘Mick Meagan and I were sitting on the touchline and about two yards behind us were the spectators and there were some feisty looking blokes supporting the opposition. Mick was getting a bit worried. He said, “Hey Nat, I don’t like the look of this - we could get a knife in our back.”’

Next up was a match against Kilmarnock, runners up to Rangers in the Scottish league. Frank Wignall replaced the injured Roy Vernon to play alongside Alex Young, but it was another Scot, skipper Bobby Collins who grabbed a brace and the English side ran out 2-1 winners.

Alex Parker, Frank Wignall and Alex Young in the stadium in Canada

The Alpine Inn Resort

In Montreal the players indulged in the novelty of burgers and French fries and spent an evening as guests on board the Empress of Britain which was in port. They also met Sam Chedgzoy, the great Everton winger of four decades previously who had settled in the Montreal area and wanted to catch up with people connected to his old club. Harry Catterick, meanwhile, arranged a trip out to a mountain resort forty miles away called The Alpine Inn at Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, Québec. The lads enjoyed the use of the golf course and the swimming pool there, with Frank Wignall inciting Harry Catterick’s ire by pushing him in.  The more intrepid members of the group explored some mountain trails.

The Blues’ fixtures then switched to New York, which was reached by an arduous 11-hour rail journey. Symptomatic of the poor standard of organization experienced during the tournament, the Empress Hotel was found to be sub-standard, and Harry Catterick had no hesitation in marching his squad out of the door and over to alternative accommodation at the Paramount Hotel near Times Square. The bustling city made a huge impression on Derek Temple:

New York was an experience - a different world. Everything was an eye-opener for a young lad. When we got in taxis at the station it was amazing. The driver, this little fella, had his right foot on the dashboard - we’d never seen automatic cars before. We were right on Central Park and all you could hear was the sirens and the clatter of the air conditioning.’

Eschewing the New York Subway, the party took taxis to get to Central Park for a spot of training in the New York heat. Matches were to be staged at the famous Polo Grounds, better known as a baseball venue and home to the New York Giants. With over a week to go to the first run out, the party had plenty of time to take in the sights of the Big Apple, including the Empire State Building, Coney Island, horse racing at Belmont Park and a boxing bout. Along with Kilmarnock, some players accepted an invitation to a dance organised by the United Scots Clans of New York at the Caledonian in Flushing, Long Island. They also witnessed the televising of the Garry Moore TV show and some took a trip to Greenwich Village. Derek Temple and some teammates went to Madison Square Garden and saw the veteran boxer Archie Moore fight a young pretender: ‘He was whacking this youngster and some in the crowd were shouting, “Come on Archie - school’s out!”’

The relative peace and harmony in the Blues camp was broken with the bombshell that Roy Vernon, the sometimes wayward but supremely talented number ten, had been sent home for breaking curfew. In his unpublished memoir notes, the Welshman would state that he had been meeting a family friend and got back to the team hotel a mere few minutes late for the 11pm curfew. He was spotted and the next morning Harry Catterick delivered the message for him to pack his bags immediately and fly back to Britain. The famously authoritarian manager was putting a marker down on a squad he felt had been given too much leeway by his predecessor. It was Vernon’s misfortune to be the one to have transgressed and become something of a fall guy. He would get a second chance under the manager and would captain the side to the league title two years later.

At Belmont Park

Back to football and Everton faced Karlsruhe at the Polo Grounds. In the stifling 30-degree heat Everton cruised to a 5-2 victory in front of 14,572 paying customers. Alex Young got Everton off the mark with a header but Jimmy Fell’s solo effort for the fifth was the pick of the goals.

Against Dinamo Bucharest of Romania, the Toffeemen received treatment similar to that meted out by Montreal Concordia. Skipper Bobby Collins and Ivan Dimitra got their marching orders in the first half - the Scot claiming with some justification that he had been trying to split up a scuffle. The Blues built on the 1-0 first half lead to romp to a 4-0 win but left the field with many walking wounded, including Jimmy Fell, Alex Parker, Brian Harris and Frank Wignall. The squad was particularly thin with Vernon sent home and Mick Meagan, Tommy E. Jones and Derek Temple unfit to participate in matches. The injured trio would busy themselves refreshing their clubmates with oranges, lemons, orange juice and other soft drinks during the matches and at half-time.

Bangu were up next, in a match which saw a further dismissal for Billy Bingham. The streetwise Brazilian team held on to a two-goal lead by expertly holding on to the ball, making the exhausted Toffees do the chasing in the ovel-like stadium.

Three days later, the patched up side took to the field against Besiktas. Micky Lill was drafted in for his first start since knee surgery, in place of the injured Fell. Centre-forward Frank Wignall set the Blues on their way with the first goal, which Alex Young, and Bobby Collins (2) added to. This win put Everton in pole position to win the group and progress to the final, ahead of Americans of New York. This progression was confirmed with an easy 7-0 defeat of the USA-based team (managed by a Welshman and containing mainly British players), played back in Montreal. Lill, Collins, Bingham grabbed two each, with Frank Wignall getting one. During the seven group stage games, Everton had scored 25 goals.

With the match over, the party then had to return to New York, from where they would catch the red eye flight home, arriving into Manchester Airport on 19th June. The bronzed players, sporting typical American headwear were surprised to be greeted by their wives and girlfriends, who had been transported to Ringway as a surprise by the club. The players also had the bonus of sharing, pro-rata, the $1000 dollar prize received by the club for topping their group, the club, meanwhile bank a net profit of £2,843. Harry Catterick was tight-lipped when asked by the press at the airport for comment on the Vernon affair and what he thought of the club’s prolonged stay during the supposed close season.

After a month’s break, the players reported for pre-season training on 18 July, where they were met by new coach Tom Eggleston, who had followed Harry Catterick from Sheffield Wednesday. Heading for the Goodison exit was Harry Cooke, the octogenarian former trainer who had been pushed towards retirement. Stan Betham was another to go, with Gordon Watson being demoted from first team duties to take his position as reserve team coach. The club announced that, in light of their shortened summer break and focus on the Football League, they would not be entering the League Cup competition.

16 players (including the reinstated Roy Vernon), accompanied by two directors, Harry Catterick and Gordon Watson flew back to New York from Manchester on 31 July, in anticipation of the first leg of the final, to be played at the Polo Grounds on 2 August, with the concluding match taking place four days later. The opposition would be Dukla Prague, the Czech army-backed club who were the Eastern Block country's reigning champions and firm favourites to win the tournament. Publicly, Harry Catterick stated that he was confident of victory, but did make reference to the weather being an important factor.

The players enjoyed some more downtime in the Big Apple, but training was difficult due to a lack of available sports facilities at weekends, while training pitches and playing surfaces they did use were bone hard, leading to blistered feet.

The Polo Grounds, New York

The eleven selected by the Everton manager for the first leg was: Albert Dunlop, Alex Parker, George Thomson; Jimmy Gabriel, Brian Labone, Brian Harris, Billy Bingham, Roy Vernon, Alex Young, Bobby Collins and Jimmy Fell.

Having had an early Bobby Collins penalty saved, and seen Alex Young crocked by a high challenge which resulted in him limping through the match, the Blues conceded five without reply before the break. Vernon and Young pulled two goals back after the restart and the side gave it a good go, but hopes of an unlikely comeback were ended by two further Czech strikes. Billy Bingham said afterwards, ‘We were caught off balance. Next time we meet them we'll be a bit more wary. I think we'll stand a better chance.’ Harry Catterick, meanwhile, put it down as ‘just one of those things.’

20,000 showed up for the second leg, 7,000 more than for the first, and they saw a gallant effort by the English side, hampered by Frank Wignall (in for the injured Young) leaving the field of play due to a foot injury which required x-rays. With the hardworking Toffees tiring, goals in the 70th and 81st minutes assured an aggregate scoreline of 9-2 in favour of Dukla. The Merseysiders arrived back into Manchester Airport, via a stop in Prestwick, on 7 August, having caught a flight almost straight after the conclusion of their second leg defeat to the Czechs.

Arrival back at Manchester Airport

In the Liverpool Echo, Leslie Edwards was damning about the tournament and Everton’s participation: ‘Everton will not forget their first and probably only involvement in this tournament. The risk to their players, all of whom are wanted for the start of the season in nine-days, is not commensurate with the rewards.’ Everton director Edward Holland Hughes was quoted saying, ‘Dukla were an exceptionally fine side, but I think if Wignall had remained fit we would have won.

They had the advantage of being in New York for the second section of the tourney and were therefore better acclimatized. I’m a little disappointed, of course, but we did well to reach the final.’

At a board meeting held between the two trips across the Pond, made it abundantly clear that Everton had little intention of returning to compete in the competition in 1962: A report was given of the Tour to America, which was not a happy one, due to being badly arranged, poor hotel accommodation and lack of adequate training facilities.

As Catterick had feared, participation in the tournament meant that the Toffees were jaded and ill-prepared for the 1961/62 season, which started just 12 days after touching back down in Blighty. This was reflected in five defeats in the first seven matches. In spite of a rally later on, the team ended the campaign in fourth place, five points behind surprise winners Ipswich Town.

Aside from a transit stop in Hawaii after their 1964 Australian tour, the Toffees would not set foot on North American soil until playing matches as newly-crowned Football league champions in Toronto in 1985

Further reading:

Toffee Soccer: Everton in North America by David France, Rob Sawyer and Darren Griffiths (deCoubertin Books)
Harry Catterick - The Untold Story of a Football Great by Rob Sawyer (deCoubertin Books)
Blue Dragon: The Roy Vernon Story by Rob Sawyer and David France (deCoubertin Books)
Money Can’t Buy Us Love - Everton in the 1960s by Gavin Buckland (deCoubertin Books)

Other sources:

Newspaper reports transcribed onto bluecorrespondent.co.uk by Billy and Jay Smith
evertonfc.com
Dr David France
Colour slides and image scans from the 1961 tour used with kind permission of the Catterick family.
Other cuttings provided by the family of Tommy E. Jones
Interviews given to the author by Derek Temple and Mick Meagan