Everton mourn the passing of Jimmy Husband

Jimmy was a fine player who deserves to be remembered for far better things than his late miss in the 1968 FA Cup final. I watched him a couple times in the team that won the FA Youth Cup in 1965, then as he progressed into the first team in the second half of the decade.

He was a key member of that superb footballing side of 1968-69, and in those rather more romantic days he was allowed to take a last minute penalty in the 7-1 win against Leicester City which meant that numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 were all on the scoresheet that day.

The following season, of course, he helped the team to the top of the league before injury hit him.
He earned his medal.

RIP Jimmy.

He chose Everton.

God bless.

I didn't see him play much and thought he was a winger. I said this to him and he was offended, insisting that he was a “streikhah” (trying to imitate his Geordie accent).

He also told me vehemently that his team was “Newcastle Unitehed”, not Everton. He was very very pissed.

If only now his playing spirit could be brought into the current Everton squad.

RIP, Jimmy.

Similarly after seeing Jimmy play against Colchester in the FA Cup on the Saturday, Ferenc Puskas identified him as the one to stop in the European Cup Quarter Final first leg. Two brutal fouls in the first 7 minutes saw Jimmy carried off.

He was a tricky winger with good dribbling skills and an eye for goal in an era when forwards received minimal protection. His volleyed goal at the end of a sweeping move involving Hurst, Harvey and Ball against Chelsea in January 1971 was one of the best goals I have seen.

Ditto.

One of my favourite players as a kid. RIP, Jimmy.

That's from his obituary on the official site. I met Jimmy a few years back at an ex-players fundraising event in Northampton.

He was most indignant, even annoyed, when I called him a winger, insisting he was a striker. My first game was the game he was chopped in half by Mackay.

RIP Jimmy.

A player who could delight and frustrate in equal measure but always one of my favourites.

RIP, Jimmy.

With respect to Sir Alf Ramsey, years later, I had the opportunity to sit next to him at a dinner in his honor in Rotorua on his visit to New Zealand. We discussed many things that night, he was such a gentleman, impeccably dressed and well mannered.

One subject of course was his lack of wingers when one of my idol's names came up, Jimmy of course. He said, "A wonderfully talented player at the time but I never really considered him, or others because I wanted the team to play a certain way, he and some other very good players just didn't fit that way, in the end of course it was the right thing to do."

My love of football took a dent that night; and again this morning: another childhood hero has gone. RIP, Jimmy, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

RIP, Jimmy.

Jimmy was then an inside-forward working the right-side channel and wing, often against really tough opponents with dubious tactics.

Great with ball with both feet and an eye for goal. I would've loved to have met him to recall some magical moments I witnessed as a kid in the special team he was part of.

RIP Jimmy, thanks for the memories. Condolences to his family.

Trouble is… what first comes to mind was the header in the '68 FA Cup Final. RIP Jimmy.

Top bloke but an early whipping boy from what I recall – and not just for his miss in the FA Cup Final. Thanks for the memories, Jimmy. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQhBgaSK2Ls

Unfortunately that miss in the ‘68 FA Cup Final was my first thought about Jimmy as well.

Paul @29,

Yes, my best memory of him was scoring twice in the ‘68 quarter final when we beat Leicester 3-1 at Filbert Street.

He was unlucky to lose his place (through injury?) to Alan Whittle and didn't play in the run-in to the end of the triumphant 69-70 season.

So sad that he has gone so shortly after John Hurst. I saw them both play in the 2nd leg of the ‘65 FA Youth Cup Final when we beat Arsenal.
.

Another one bites the dust and, like others, I'm of an age to be looking over my shoulder… where did all those years go?

RIP.

The year we won the league he played a blinder at St James' Park and scored two tremendous goals in a 2-1 win. The headline in the papers was "Husband Goes Back To Destroy!" It helped set the tone for the season to come.

RIP Jimmy.

I saw him once or twice in the Coffee House in Woolton village with a young lady I used to work with at BluFlu.

Jimmy wasn't a winger but a striker asked to play wide right and I sometimes thought this was to stretch the defence for the Holy Trinity.

I was stood on the terraces in the Gwladdy when Mackay took him out and he never seemed quite the same after and as somebody said something similar happened against, I think, Panathanaikos, Domazos(?) the culprit.

RIP

I was at Leicester that day. My Dad had managed to get me a ticket in the stand amongst the home fans. They treated this lone 12-year-old boy well, none of them shouting for stewards to have me ejected when I jumped up when we scored, as would probably happen now. I've had a soft spot for Leicester City ever since, because of that.

When did people become so precious and offended by everything?

We have occasional Reunion dinners at the Winslow and invite along our Presidents:- Jimmy, Joe Royle and Martin Dobson. Joe couldn't come last year and sent along (his words) “The Cultural Attaché for Huyton”, Peter Reid, Jimmy and Reidy had never met before but were chatting like old friends. A joy and a privilege to listen.

We knew Jimmy couldn't come this year but he was thrilled that we had raised enough for a Commerative Stone in his honour in the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. Sadly, he won't see it but his family and friends will, as will many other Blues.

As Elaine said on our WhatsAps group last night “Jimmy Husband on the wing to Heaven”. A lovely, modest man and a wonderful player. We loved him to bits.

I used to see quite a few footballers. John Aldridge lived around the corner and I would often bump into him in the local off-licence. My aunties and dad had grown up living near his family in the Garston tenements.

Steven McMahon. I've mentioned this before. My best friend's Granddad used to take him to Goodison on the bus. I'll always remember a night in Woolton when he barged his way to the bar, jumping the queue.

I challenged him. His response?

"Don't you know who I am"?

Well talk about igniting a trigger. I got served before him!!

Back to Husband. Some great tributes from those who watched or met him. One day, hopefully I will get to meet Kevin Sheedy.

My era was the mid-'70s onwards but I grew up on stories of the '60s teams.

It seems that, apart from those who watched them, given there was no continuous media coverage back then, the likes of the recently departed Hurst and Husband were in the shadow of more hallowed players. The limelight taken by Alex Young, Brian Labone, Kendall, Ball and Harvey. Is that a fair view?

And just on the basis of various comments and in my early Evertonian years and reading, Tony Kay.

A classic generation that, in typical Everton fashion was not built on the platform it established and broke up.

We repeated in the '80s. And I would say Joe Royle's side in the '90s. Platforms to build on that we failed to do so.

Sorry to go all dramatic early on a Monday morning. There is a classic song sung very well by the Dubliners: The Town I Loved So Well. It was about Londonderry.

We could rearrange the words about Everton!

Good God, Noooo Danny! With apologies to the moderators that IS Koppite behaviour!!!

By the way — are people from Woolton also known as Wools??

Technically, Halewood (Finch Farm), Huyton, Kirkby and Bootle aren't. But tell those people who live there they aren't scousers.

I'm all for the great Liverpool city region. And for you, Mark, I'd include St Helens in that as part of Merseyside!!!

Cos I'm not.

I do get upset though when people tell me I'm not a “proper” Blue and I should support Man Utd because I'm not a scouser.

And believe me, that happens quite a lot when people hear my accent – too often.

UTFT

It's like telling my son he's not a blue because he has a neutral accent having lived abroad and in London since 2004.

Des, my brother's mate from Milton Keynes who goes when he can.

My very good friend from Warwick.

The global blues and the US cohort. The West Country Blues.

All Evertonians regardless of where we come from or live.

L36 covers (I think) the Tarbock Road, St John's Road etc.

Even though Huyton is Knowsley, it's part of Liverpool as far as I'm concerned. Likewise Halewood (Knowsley - L26), Bootle (Sefton - L20) and Kirkby (Knowsley - L32).

It's a city region. We should long ago have embraced the Greater Manchester concept.

We're getting there.

I grew up a long way from Goodison Park… but it still had a Liverpool postcode – L47. Yet no way was it ‘Liverpool' – although in those days it was technically a so-called dormitory suburb of the great metropolis.

Ha! Just checked and it's now CH47!!! Someone in your City region musta realized and gave us Wools the good old Post Office boot!!!

Even in the mid-sixties, Huyton didn't come under Liverpool City regs regarding things like pub licensing hours (which were a bit longer) and the City boundary was where Wheathill Road and Naylor's Road met.

I think it's only since the introduction of postcodes that the water has been muddied. Huyton, Kirby, Skelmersdale, were the overspill areas for, in many cases, families who were basically homeless after losing their homes during the war.

I think that Roby actually predates Liverpool and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Allthis while he was still playing but he wasn't somebody I took to but maybe his attitude was because so many people would have wanted to chat with him. Just for interest, I think nearly all the stone for the Anglican Cathedral came from Quarry Street and at one time, so I'm told, there were 51 pubs in the village.

Still, enough about Woolton.

Michael, all Liverpool to me. All part of the city we love.

I could walk literally 200 m from my house and cross Macket's Lane and be in Halewood. Different coloured bins. It was hardly the Berlin Wall! I just had to watch the traffic and cross the road. Right opposite George Harrison's old family home.

Still all Liverpool to me.

Ray, one of my cousins lives in Roby. She and her husband (massive Evertonian) grew up in Speke.

Tell her she doesn't live in Liverpool. I wouldn't!!!

Somewhere along the line, no doubt as his popularity increased and more in keeping with the swinging sixties, he must have decided calligraphy was redundant and he opted for a hard-to-decipher “Jimmy Husband”.

Strange, the things you remember from your youth.

That two-goal effort and one from Howard Kendall made it a good day at Leicester on our way to Wembley. Unfortunately the brace he scored at Nottm Forest the year before was not enough to earn us a victory thanks to Ian Storey-Moore's hat-trick.

What I liked about Jimmy was he seemed to be an unassuming fella and never went mad when he scored a goal but just accepted that he was doing his job, a bit like John Hurst.

Thanks for the memories, Jimmy, there was quite a few. Rest in Peace.

I remember the shop John Gidman had in Woolton village. I'm not sure if he lived in Garston though but I do know he lived in what was at the time a brand new housing estate off Yewtree Road which runs parallel to Calderstones Park.

I remember one weekend, probably a Saturday night, he was in the Halfway House pub on Woolton Road and he was absolutely Brahms and Liszt.

At the time, the Halfway was popular with students from the two colleges which are now Hope University, and one student in particular was pestering Gidman all night. In the end, Gidman snapped and threatened the student, saying he was going home for a “Shooter”. It took four of us to literally carry him out the pub and into a taxi to take him home.

Needless to say, he never did go back to the Halfway with his gun, but I doubt very much he would have recognised the student anyway.

Funnily enough, there is a girl who walks her dogs in Calderstones quite regularly and we often chat. She told me a few weeks ago that John Gidman is her father-in-law and he now lives in Spain. Still enjoying a pint as well!

No chance, Danny, I've run out of brave pills!

I loved Jimmy with his own playing style and his silky skills with the ball. Us oldies go on about that awful Dave Mackay tackle because of its cynicism and its brutality.

I still clearly remember seeing, from my seat in Row B of the upper Gwladys Street, Mackay deciding to lay on the turf and beat his fist on the ground before raising his arm to attract attention to a non-existent injury to himself, thus escaping a red (or yellow) card. Hated Mackay ever since. RIP, Jimmy.

I have little time for many of the so-called 'hard men' of those days. I regard many of them as cowards who would hurt players of Jimmy's physical stature but fill their kecks when faced with a real hard man.

I could take the hard but fair defender but those who attacked the players like Husband really naffed me off. Husband is often overlooked when excellent players of yesteryear are mentioned. RIP Jimmy.

Incidentally, Bernard, weren't red cards not used till years later?

And if I'm being impartial, Gary Stevens snapping Beglin's leg right in front of me. Looked awful.

Seamus's was a bad one but fair credit for how he recovered.

The one I can't watch is David Busst. Horrific. Schmeichel senior clearly distressed.

Occupational hazard and we've all had our injuries, but never pleasant to see.

I was in the Paddock the night Mackay finished his chances of getting a full England cap. It puzzles me why Ramsey had such a downer on Everton players at the time.

Howard never won a cap, Colin just one vs Malta, Westie only got three, Big John not one, neither did Mogsey, even Brian Labone, possibly the best post-war English centre-half only won 20-ish.

Danny, hope you are all for us Widnes blues in your city region as well as St Helens!!

I used to spend all my school holidays outside Bellefield getting autographs of the players and he was always willing to spend the time signing the kids' autograph books, as were most of the players, although some had their quirks.

I'll also never forget Alan Ball's Ford Anglia, Johnny Morrissey in what I think was one of the first Ford Capri 3.0, and Labone and West in a "sit up and beg" Rover (350 maybe?).

A great player in a great side of the time. RIP Jimmy.

After the big postcode/metropolitan borough shake-up of the early '70s some years later the citizens of Southport and all the other outer (wool) suburbs petitioned to ditch the L postcode prefix due to skyrocketing car and house insurance rates. Hence L47 became CH47.

And it was real woolyback land, there were sheep in the fields I passed as I walked to the nearest pub which was in Roby.

So many great Everton players have never had many England caps. Very few in fact. Not while they are at Everton.

Pickford is probably the current exception. Alan Ball before him, but that was in the days when you didn't get one for every match played? I'll need the more seniors to come in on that one without looking.

Sounds like Jimmy Husband lived close to where I did on Charterhouse Road?

It's been one cap per appearance for some time, the fact that you now get a cap if you come on in the 96th minute has devalued the award somewhat.

Eric, that's closer to the city centre than Speke.

I hope we pay tribute to Jimmy Husband at the next home match. I'm sure we will do.

I remember Catterick pointing out that, throughout his career, Husband "always scored in bursts."

I have not looked up the records but that is my memory too. He would fire blanks for ages and then suddenly go on a run.

I suppose he was comparatively slight for the time (although Greaves wasn't exactly Fred Pickering) but I think he would nevertheless be able to cut it in today's game.

He wore his hair long, drove a stunning E-Type Jag, wore trendy clothes and really was a bit of an icon.

He was an incredible player on his day. I remember him beating two men, slipped over but still beat the third then streaked past the fourth – not as good as Best but unplayable at times.

RIP, Jimmy – you were and always will be a Great!!

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for filling me in as I was not present for that change…

Bloody insurance companies. Why isn't there a nationwide campaign against their blatant overcharging and exploitation?

However, I do remember a night match in the '70s when he played for Luton Town along with an elderly John Aston on the opposite wing and the young Futcher twins. They battered us 4-1 I think and Jimmy played well.

Yes, red cards used in English football from 1976, I believe, after they were used at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico for the first time.

Jimmy was skillful with a great turn of speed a quick turn and he left the full-back looking for him. RIP, Jimmy, another of the great '60s stars who will grace the heavenly Toffees.

Substitute Jimmy Husband if you want.

This is from the Observer, an Everton match report from the sixties. I know, all these years but I always liked their understated way of reporting.

Everton - Derby County. Mr. Baldwin, the referee and Alan Whittle.

Baldwin's deficiencies were notable but less disturbing than the indifference to the rules shown by some of the players.

The most spectacular collision of the match, when McKay brought Whittle to a slamming halt five yards inside the Derby penalty area was responsible for the bitter atmosphere inside the ground for the last half hour.

Whittle, the crowd's favourite here because of his exciting pace and dribbling, had beaten two defenders
in his run from the halfway line looked menacing with his speed.

Mr Baldwin saw nothing wrong with McKay's tackle.
Whittle had to be treated on the ground by the trainer.

John I apologise for not including you in my post.

Just found his name in one of my old programmes, 11 March 1970. Tottenham v Everton. I am not sure he played in that game but I am getting to that age that I can't remember what I had for breakfast.

Jimmy could skip across a puddle without causing a ripple and we loved him. RIP, Jimmy. Legend.

Mr Catterick will be anxious to see how this move works in a competitive match, although it will be played at a casual pace. It was obvious that Husband, rated one of the best young forwards in the game, could not be kept out of the first team scene much longer. He has played 132 first team games for Everton including cup competitions.

Great player, God bless Jimmy.

Good night and God bless, Jimmy. Thanks for everything and every memory you and the team blessed me with which ease these terrible times.