History of Everton Football Club
My Team – The Peoples Club, Everton FC.
Everton is located in the northern part of the city of Liverpool the city of Liverpool is located in the north west of England in the United Kingdom Everton currently play in the Premier League the club's home ground is called Goodison Park which was opened in 1892 and holds 39,000 572 people Goodison Park was the first major soccer-specific stadium built in England with stands and proper turnstiles it's also worth noting that the club is planning to build a new stadium a couple miles west at the Bramley dock set to open in 2022.
Everton FC history begins with the st. Domingo Methodist Church which was located in the Everton district in the city of Liverpool in 1877 the church started a cricket team for young people in the parish because cricket can only really be played in the summer months they started the st. Domingo Football Club one year later in 1878 that quickly became popular in people outside of the church's congregation wanted to join so in November 1879 the name was changed to Everton Football Club at a meeting in the Queen's Head hotel near ye ancient Everton toffee house which we'll discuss in our next segment.
The Everton name was a reference to the neighbourhood where the church was located but interestingly the club has never actually been based in the district of Everton in Liverpool the club has two nicknames the blues and the Toffees the Blues nickname comes from Everton skit which is primarily blue it's really only used locally to differentiate the club from Liverpool FC who we're primarily red now the Toffees nickname originates from the club's close association with two local coffee shops ye ancient Everton toffee house which we mentioned in our previous section and mother noblets toffee shop these two shops were rivals and competed for Everton as customers before and after matches in the 1890s ye ancient Everton toffee house actually invented the famous Everton Toffees and were kind of a first candy shop on the scene at Everton mother noblets toffee shop then invented Everton mints these became a huge success which prompted ye ancient Everton toffee house to strike up an innovative deal with Everton Football Club to hand out Everton Toffees before matches kicked off, the club allowed it and the Everton toffee lady has become a tradition at the club handing out candy before match kick off.
Funny enough though the toffee is thrown out before matches these days are usually Everton mints since they were much more popular with the history of these toffee shops and their close affiliation with the club the nickname came about and has stuck the club crest used today can be traced back to a design from 1938 when the club secretary Theo Kelly was asked to design a crest which would be used on club official neckties the crest didn't make it onto kits until 1978 and versions of it have been used ever since Kelly's design incorporated the Everton tower also called Prince Rupert's Tower which is in the heart of the Everton district of the city the tower was originally a lock-up generally used to house criminals who committed smaller crimes for a night until they could be brought in front of the magistrates or judges it's a local landmark and is located very close to the queen's head hotel where the club officially changed their name to Everton FC in 1879 at the bottom of the crest are the Latin words Nil Satis Nisi Optimum which translates to nothing but the best is good enough and is the club's motto the year 1878 is a reference to the year the club was founded and the two laurel wreaths represent the Olympian sign of success.
Everton FC was one of the founding members of the Football League on April 17th 1888 at the Royal Hotel in match this league would grow and evolve into the English football pyramid and over 100 years later eventually become the Premier League the second event I want to discuss is from the 1927-28 season when Everton forward Dixie Dean scored a record 60 goals in 38 matches in the English First Division this is still a record that stands today remarkably he needed seven goals in his final two matches to reach the record he scored four against Burnley in the second-to-last match of the season before scoring a hat-trick on May 5th 1927 against Arsenal in a 3-3 draw his record-setting 60th goal came in the 82nd minute on a header from a corner kick and it's unlikely that this record will ever be broken and finally our third event I'd like to discuss is from the 1984-85 season which was truly remarkable for Everton FC the Toffees crushed many teams along the way and went through multiple runs of many matches without suffering defeat that season the club won the league by 13 points that season securing the title on May 6th 1985 in a match against Queens Park Rangers that they won - knew there was still five matches remaining in the season Everton amassed 90 points scoring 88 goals and going unbeaten from January to May over the course of 28 matches the club was utterly dominant and also won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup that season beating rapid Vienna 3-1 on May 15 1985. Goodison Park claims to be the only stadium in the world with a church in a corner of their ground.
Dixie Dean was Everton's record goalscorer and has a statue of himself outside Goodison Park Gary Lineker was only with Everton for a few seasons but he won the 1986 gold boot which is given to the tournament's top scorer at the World Cup while still an Everton player most people know him nowadays as a famous pundit for the Premier League. Kevin Ratcliffe was captain for Everton in the 1980s while the club enjoyed one of their best-ever spells winning multiple trophies and finally Wayne Rooney began it looks to be ending his career with his boyhood club of Everton in between he became Manchester United and England's all-time record goalscorer I'd like to discuss two managers in this section Howard Kendall and David Moyes Howard Kendall took over as player manager in 1981 and managed Everton to the highest heights in the club's history he led the club to the 1983-84 FA Cup 1984-85 First Division title along with the European Cup Winners Cup in the 8485 season and he concluded his trophy run with the 86 87 first division title he moved abroad for a few seasons and returned to Everton on two separate occasions in the 90s but he couldn't quite replicate his success from the 80s still though he remains the club's greatest and most successful manager the other manager David Moyes has fallen on some hard times recently but he had a great run with the club for over a decade Moyes became Everton manager in the spring of 2002 and turned the club from perennial relegation battlers into a stable Premier League club that still to this day can compete for European spots in the Premier League meaning they would finish in the top seven in the table he left in 2013 having won no trophies in his 12 seasons with the club and hasn't enjoyed too much success with other clubs but he was instrumental in building Everton into the stable Premier League club that we all know today.
Liverpool FC are without a doubt Everton's biggest rival matches between the sides are called Merseyside Darby's and reference to the county that the city of Liverpool resides in and a local river it's a local rivalry as the two clubs playing stadium less than 1 mile apart and the rivalry actually dates back to Liverpool FC's founding, Everton was playing at Anfield which is Liverpool's current home ground back in the 1890s but there was a rift between the ownership group and the club left the owner of Anfield then left the Everton board and started his own Club Liverpool FC though this happened in the 1890s the rivalry didn't really heat up until the 1980s when both clubs were dominant both in the English First Division and European competitions the two clubs have played each other over 230 times interestingly matches aren't incredibly intense both on the pitch and in the stands but there's no real hatred between the fans that is seen in other rivalries it's common to see families made up of both Liverpool and Everton supporters.
