Memory Number 3.
Cue the morning of September 14th, 1974 and the news came that Colin Harvey - my hero - had been sold to Sheffield Wednesday for £70,000.
I was heartbroken, moreso even than when Bally had left us for Arsenal.
I got an old bedsheet, hung it on my Mums washing line and with a blue aerosol spray, painted the words... "£70,000 is an insult to the White Pele".
My mate Gareth and I hitchhiked down the East Lancs from Salford early that day as we wanted to get into the Park End to hang the banner over the electric scoreboard... we succeeded and the rest, as they say it history.
The second part of this memory comes from October 21st when Sheff Wed organised a much belated testimonial game for former player Eric Taylor - Wednesday versus an England X1 on a Wednesday night (well it had to be didn't it?) at Hillsborough.
Sadly, Colin was struggling with injury at the time, but Gareth and I were keen to go and hopefully watch him play.
We took it in turns to keep ringing Hillsborough throughout the day to ask if Colin would be playing as Evertonians were coming across to see him play. The Hillsborough telephonist had no idea whether he'd be playing, but said she'd pass the messages on. Little did she know that the umpteen phone calls she took were from just two Blues.
We both left work a little early and drove over to Sheffield so as to arrive hopefully before the players started to arrive, wanting to try and see Colin and show him the "White Pele" banner.
In those days, the players entrance at Hillsborough - as with many other grounds in that era - was guarded by a large uniformed chap. We told him that we'd come to see Colin Harvey and good as gold, he told us to wait and he popped inside.
Two minutes Later, Colin appeared and started looking around for hordes of Evertonians - he'd got the phone messages
We said 'hello' and told him about the phone calls and he laughed. "Only Evertonians could think of something like that".
We showed him the banner and he was positively embarrassed by it, but thanked us for doing it and showing our appreciation of him.
He didn't play that evening, he was really struggling with the hip problems that cruelly cut short his glorious career, but to us, it didn't matter - we'd met and spoke to the man and he'd shook our hands and laughed with us.
Colin Harvey, truly the White Pele.
