Joseph Royle was born in Norris Green, Liverpool on the 8th of April 1949 and attended Ranworth Square Primary School. Passing his eleven-plus exam he then attended Quarry Bank High School in Allerton where he was an all-round sportsman and was once the Liverpool City high-jump champion, in his school days. Unusually for a grammar schoolboy, he was chosen to play for the Liverpool Schoolboys team, which was usually drawn from secondary modern schools, becoming the first Grammar School Boy in some years to be selected. He has said that Everton was ingrained in his family with his mother's brother a chairman of the Everton Shareholders' Association and his grandfather too was Everton mad. Bill Kenwright's family were also from Norris Green and they worked in the Co-op laundry together, with Bill's mother and Joe's father very good friends. Joe recalls, "Tommy Stewart lived on our street and he was a tugboat captain. His two sons were my best mates and my dad was an engineer but he was also a musician who played the clubs all weekend. He couldn't bring me to the games so Tommy did. We all got the 17D bus from Norris Green. When I was 13/14 years old and various clubs were knocking on the door, there was only one place I ever wanted to go and that was Everton. When I first went down to the John Moores Centre with my mum and dad, John Moores and Harry Catterick walked into the room and said that they wanted to sign me and had a contract ready for me to sign there and then, that was it, that was the start of a wonderful, beautiful relationship." Joe joined Everton's Youth Staff in August 1965 as an apprentice, a job that would include cleaning the dressing rooms for the likes of Eusebio and Pele at the 1966 World Cup.
Having played played wing-half, centre-half, outside-left and outside-right for Liverpool Schoolboys, he was converted into more of an inside forward upon signing and immediately began to make a name for himself in both the 'A' and 'B, teams. He was cleaning boots in the boot room with his overalls on when he was told that Harry Catterick wanted to see him. He had Joe's dad on the phone and told them both that he wanted him to play in the first team the following day to replace Alex Young. Making his debut at the age of 16 on a frozen Blackpool pitch, Joe became Everton's youngest player, a record that would stand for 40 years. His first goal would be at Goodison against Chelsea and he remembers, "I thundered one in from all of about seven inches. You don't forget that. As Mike Channon always said it was a feeling you can't scratch. I was only a kid but for an Evertonian to score for Everton in front of these fans, it was terrific,. terrific. Terrific."
Awarded the first of his six England caps against Malta in 1971, Joe seemed destined to have a great career representing his country too, after scoring for England against Yugoslavia at Wembley in 1972 and being awarded the man of the match award, Alf Ramsey commented that Joe was one of the best young strikers in world football. He went on to make 270 appearances for Everton, scoring 119 times and for five seasons he was top scorer, scoring 23 goals in the Championship-winning side of 1969-70. However injury problems, including two back operations, one of which was that bad they were just hopeful that he may walk, again threw his career thrown into doubt. His injury problems were not helped by the fact that he didn't see eye to eye with the new Everton manager at the time, Billy Bingham. This resulted in a move to Man City to find first team football again. Leaving there in November 1977, he joined Bristol City and then Norwich City, where won their 'Player of the Year' in 1981, before being forced to retire from the game in 1982 (aged 33) due to a knee injury.
In June 1982 he moved into management with Second Division Oldham Athletic but after twelve years he was feted to return to Everton. It might have been in 1990, succeeding Colin Harvey but he had to wait four years to inherit an ailing side from Mike Walker. With Everton adrift at the bottom of the Premiership Joe started as he meant to go on, with a 2-0 win v Liverpool in his first match. The team's subsequent revival was little short of miraculous, as he instilled some much-needed desire to win into the players. This was the birth of the fabled 'Dogs Of War' style of football. This annoyed Liverpool boss Roy Evans, who called it 'The death of the School Of Science' after that November defeat. Having experienced relegation battles with Oldham, Joe,was doing what he thought he had to to keep Everton up. Pretty football had to come second to winning matches. That season, Everton not only survived but won the FA Cup. After two shaky early-round ties against lower-division opposition, they looked invincible, especially in the 4-1 semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The final too was a sweet moment for Joe as he finally got the better of Alex Ferguson with a heartening 1-0 victory over Manchester United, the only occasion this great 90s team was beaten in a major final.
Joe Royle is rightly regarded as one of Everton's most iconic figures and was inducted as an Everton Giant in 2004.
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