Source: Liverpool_Echo
Part two of the Echo’s tribute to Harry Catterick
Harry Catterick (158)[LNB]HE was the most successful Everton manager for 90 years. Throughout the club's trophy laden history, only Howard Kendall has won more silverware. And no-one has managed an Everton team, in more matches. Yet Harry Catterick's legacy is often shamefully overlooked. [LNB]A man who generally shunned the limelight, his record of two league titles, one FA Cup and six top four finishes in eight seasons bears comparison with any of his contemporaries. It is 25 years since Catterick passed away - appropriately watching his beloved Blues at Goodison Park - and here is the second part of the Echo's tribute to his legacy.[LNB]HARRY CATTERICK was among a generation of great managers who were denied the chance to make their names as players by the intervention of the Second World War.[LNB]The record books hint at the young Catterick's potential to have found fame, if not fortune, as a striker. He scored 50 goals in 77 wartime friendly games for Everton, Manchester United and Stockport during the hostilities.[LNB] However, seven seasons that would have counted among the prime years of his playing career were lost.[LNB]The 18-year-old apprentice marine engineer who signed his first professional deal with Everton in 1937, had to wait until he was 27 to make his League debut in August 1946.[LNB]Catterick went on to make 59 appearances for Everton between 1946 and 1951, scoring 19 goals. But more often he played for the reserves.[LNB]Dropping down the divisions to become player manager at Crewe Alexandra, he continued to score goals but locked onto a course that would eventually lead him back to Goodison.[LNB]Catterick's two years at Crewe were followed by five at Rochdale, where he established a reputation that prompted Sheffield Wednesday to come calling in 1958.[LNB]Catterick soon led Wednesday to the Second Division championship, then succeeded where his recent predecessors had failed by keeping the Owls in the top flight.[LNB]His vision of the best way to turn Wednesday into an established first division force brought him into disagreement with the Hillsborough hierarchy and ultimately led to his move to Everton in 1961.[LNB]Writing his own account of events for the Liverpool Daily Post a decade later, Catterick explained: 'In 1961, as manager of Sheffield Wednesday I had my disagreements with the policy of the club. There was no long-term planning for player development and they were going to great pains to develop a wonderful stadium.[LNB]'There was nothing wrong with that but I felt their priority was wrong. I would rather have built a top-class side. As there was no point in pursuing my own policy, I resigned.'[LNB]Such was Catterick's standing in the game that he had four job offers within 24 hours. Then one came in from Everton.
