Everton History

“He Took My Breath Away”

The latest installment of Becky Tallentire's Real Footballers' Wives features Johnny Morrissey's wife, Celia

Real Footballers' Wives – Celia Morrissey

There were four girls and two boys in our family but we were born in two batches, so mum was a housewife who really had her work cut out. Lionel, Patsy and Gordon were quite grown up when she had my twin, Angela, and me. We’re not identical; we don’t even look like sisters, and then came the baby of the family, Betty, 18 months after us.

My father was a Jack of all trades and master of none; he worked as a painter and decorator more often than not, and kept himself busy. I went to St Mary’s Catholic school in Douglas, a mixed school where the teachers were nice to me but, to be honest, I wasn’t really in love with it and always looked forward to leaving.

I was very much a homemaker. Mum would go to work in the summer because trade was, and is, very seasonal on the island, and I was the one who would be at home doing the cleaning for her and tidying up after everyone. When she came home she would be so delighted and she’d say, ‘You’re the only one who ever helps me in this house’. None of the others would bother but I was a home bird and I always loved cooking, too.

John was from a family of Reds, and had recently signed for Liverpool when I met him. He was 17 when he came over to Douglas on holiday, with his mum and an uncle. I was 16 and had worked in the Scottish Wool shop since I left school a year earlier. Our mothers were distant relatives so Aunty Nelly arrived at our house to visit with John in tow. He was so handsome, and the first time I saw him he took my breath away.

We went to the pictures together that evening and I suppose that’s where it all began. After he went back to Liverpool we wrote to each other for months and he would phone me about twice a week. When the football season finished he came back over to the Isle of Man and it was lovely to see him again. I travelled back to Liverpool with him on the ferry, met the rest of his family and they invited me to stay for a while.

When we were apart I missed him terribly and after much pleading and cajoling, Mum eventually agreed that I could go over to Liverpool and lodge with John’s parents at their house in Athol Street, off Scotland Road, so we could continue our courtship. I was 17 when I arrived. John has three sisters, they all spoilt him rotten and all still lived at home. Both sets of parents were very old fashioned and we didn’t live together as a couple because that was completely out of the question, but there was plenty of space in the house so we had separate rooms and some nights we would go to the pictures or dancing at the weekend.

He was a really dedicated player who loved football and took it very seriously. He hardly drank, never smoked and was always in bed really early, so sometimes I’d go out dancing with his sister Kitty. All we used to do was dance and we didn’t even start drinking until we were about 21. John likes a drink now, but still goes to bed early.

John’s dad was a docker and had opened a shop on the Wirral, which sold bits of furniture, and his mum bought a grocery shop on Scotland Road. I would help her out from time to time to earn a bit of extra money, and give her a hand around the house whenever I could.

In the summer of 1962, Everton made John an offer he couldn’t refuse. Bill Shankly, Liverpool’s manager, was away scouting in Scotland and when John returned to Anfield after a training session, there was a message that Harry Catterick was waiting to speak to him in the office. Everton’s manager told him they had put in a bid of £10 000, that they would increase his wages from £17 to £20 a week and he that he would be guaranteed first-team football, starting the very next Saturday. They agreed the deal and John was told to go to Goodison that afternoon, where he would be introduced to the press.

Shankly returned shortly afterwards and was so furious the deal had been done without his knowledge that apparently he threatened to walk out. He rang John and told him there had been a mistake, he was part of his plans for Liverpool and he was to ring Everton and tell them he had changed his mind. There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing but there was no going back and John became a Blue that afternoon. For the next few years, whenever he played against Liverpool, the fans would shout ‘Traitor’ and ‘Judas’ but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. As soon as the wage cap was lifted in 1963, his money more than doubled, to £35 a week

As promised, he made his Everton debut against Sheffield Wednesday the next Saturday, in August 1962, and they won 4-1. I was at that game with a Liverpool reserve player, Alan Jones, who used to be John’s room-mate. It was a bit strange to watch him play football, I’d never been to a match before, but all the same I quite enjoyed it, even if I didn’t really know what was going on.

I didn’t go to many games. Saturday was the day I would get my hair done but I used to look forward to the match finishing because that was always the big night out. We’d usually go the Lord Nelson for a meal and some weeks we’d meet up with Pat and Jimmy Gabriel then we’d all go to the Royal Tiger club. It was the time of Beatlemania and even now, every time I hear a Beatles song, it reminds me of those days. We’d be on the street waiting to go in and the music would be belting out from downstairs. We used to love dancing, not many of the players would get up on the floor, but John was a great mover.

When Everton won the League in 1963 the players and their wives were taken for a two-week holiday to Torremolinos. I didn’t go because that was in the May and we didn’t get married until June, so I wasn’t allowed. The club didn’t want to be seen encouraging that kind of behaviour, but I went to Wembley with them twice.

The first was in 1966 and I was there again two years later. John didn’t play in ‘66; he’d injured an ankle and wasn’t fit, and neither was Fred Pickering, so they swapped the side around a bit and brought in Mike Trebilcock who ended up scoring twice. Who knows what would have happened if John had played. The history books might have been written differently, but we’ll never know.

The men had gone down to London on the Thursday so they could get settled in and we went a day later. We travelled down on the train from Lime St and were booked in to the Waldorf, which was a beautiful, majestic place. We went for a meal and to watch a show at the theatre on the Thursday night. I spent most of my time with Gwen Wright, Tommy’s wife.

John and I got engaged when I was 20 but my mum died tragically young a year later. She was the person I had most time for and it broke my heart that she didn’t see me married. We had a white wedding five years after we met, on June 22, 1963, at St Anthony’s Catholic Church on Scotland Road, and we had the reception in the Lord Nelson. A few players were there, Alec and Jean Parker and Nancy and Alex Young. My little sister, Betty, was my bridesmaid and we moved into our first house in Aintree Lane.

It had three bedrooms and cost £3,500 and we really thought we’d made it to the big time, but we were worried we’d be paying off the mortgage for the rest of our lives. Pat Gabriel lived round the corner and so did Alex and Nancy, before they moved out to Aughton. Pat and I had our babies around the same time so we’d sometimes see each other at the clinic and have a natter.

Our first son, John, was born in March 1965 at Park House nursing home in Waterloo. He was due on the Sunday but arrived on the Monday night. John Snr wasn’t at the birth, they didn’t do things like that in those days, they just dropped you at the hospital and off the men went to wet the baby’s head.

He didn’t have much spare time because he had a little newspaper shop near Oriel Road in Bootle. He’d go training and then he’d pop into the shop and see if anything was happening or needed doing. John was very hard working, ambitious and always wanted a better life. He was very sensible considering he was so young.

John had a reputation for being a hard player and he often came home badly injured. When he was still with Liverpool he got involved in some kind of scrum against Portsmouth: there were fists and boots flying and he ended up with a broken jaw. He’s also had teeth knocked out and his nose was broken two or three times. One of them was against Leeds, courtesy of Norman Hunter, and another was when he played against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final in 1971. He was caught up in a mêlée so he wasn’t sure who was responsible, but when the dust settled Larry Lloyd and Chris Lawler were closest to him.

I suppose we were quite well off at that time, but it was nothing compared with what they earn today. Towards the end of his playing days, John was earning £100 a week. Everton were known as the Mersey Millionaires and they had 50,000 or so fans paying in every week, but I think it was the club that made big money, not the players. There was a crowd bonus and a bit of extra money for winning the game on top of the basic though, so I suppose we were quite comfortably off really.

It was a penalty in the semi-final against Leeds got us through to the 1968 FA Cup final. I was pregnant with Stephen at the time, but I was at the game. Alan Ball was injured and Harry Catterick told John that if there were any penalties, he’d be taking them. I remember sitting with my head in my hands when the moment arrived, because I couldn’t even look. It seemed to take the longest time and I only looked up when I heard the screams and knew it had gone in. A newspaper photographer came to our house on the Sunday morning and took John and young John down to the canal. The next day’s papers were full of pictures of them with a little tiddler in a jam jar.

Aunty Nelly looked after John Jnr when I went in to have my second baby and Stephen was 8lb 9oz and also born by caesarean on the November 9, 1968. It was a Saturday morning and Everton were playing Ipswich at Portman Road. They drew 2-2, and it couldn’t have been further away

John phoned Park House before the game and the sister told him he had another son. He didn’t get to see us until the Sunday because Suffolk was so far away and they only got home really late at night. The nuns were lovely to me, Mother Monica was a beautiful person and Sister Celia was lovely as well. She took me up to the operating theatre and made me feel really at home, which was just as well because you had to stay in for a fortnight in those days.

I was lucky we didn’t need to move house because we stayed in the North-West when John finished at Everton in May 1972; he had a season at Oldham before retiring. After his success at Goodison, the interest wasn’t there anymore and he only played a handful of games before he hung up his boots in the summer of ‘73. The passion was gone and it made training and recovering from injury that much harder. He’s still and Evertonian and still follows football, he loves watching it on the television, and we watched young John play professionally all the time. It’s a little bit unusual for a footballer to have a son who can play, too.

John Jnr signed for Everton as an apprentice when he was 17 but he was only there for a couple of years. Howard Kendall was the manager but released him in 1985. Wolves signed him up, but John had to commute every day and his dad told him to move down there or leave. He used to get up at 6.30 in the morning to get to the Wolves on time for training, and that was the same every weekday. He was spending so much time on the road it was taking away from his game.

He went to Tranmere and ended up staying for about 12 years and playing almost 600 games, he really loved it. We would go on a Saturday to watch him and really enjoyed it. I preferred watching him to watching John because I wasn’t as keyed up about it. Stephen was also on Everton’s books for a short time, but they both work with their dad now, buying and selling property.

People used to knock on the door all the time asking for autographs, although it didn’t bother us. I would have done the same when I was a kid, so we never refused anybody.

When I weigh it all up, I don’t think I made any sacrifices for John’s career. I’ve always been the motherly and homely type. When I look back I think if I had my time over I’d have liked to be a beautician or something like that, but even so I’ve had a good life and I’m happy with my lot. I loved being at home, bringing up the children and cooking nice meals. It suited me down to the ground.

Given the chance, I don’t think I’d like to be a footballer’s wife now though. There seems to be an awful lot of pressure on the players and the wives, but we were lucky in the 60s because football gave us a great start in life. Now we have a place in Florida and usually spend four months a year out there, on and off between October and March, and that way we miss the worst of the English weather

No matter where we go, though, somebody will recognise John even though his hair is completely white now. Of course now they’re all of a certain age but it doesn’t matter where we are in the world, there will be somebody who wants to shake his hand or come over and say 'hello'. We were in Disney World in Orlando with my son and two of our grandchildren a while back and somebody shouted over to him. It doesn’t really surprise me because Evertonians are like that, they remember everyone who played for them and they cherish them. I think John quite likes it when it happens, and it makes him smile.

Taken from Real Footballers' Wives — the First Ladies of Everton, still available for purchase in book or Kindle form
© Becky Tallentire 2004

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