Everton FC were founders of the football league and crowned champions for the first time in 1891. They won their first FA Cup in 1906 against Aston Villa and followed this with another two FA cups before the Second World War along with four league championships.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Everton legend Dixie Dean made history for The Blues averaging a goal a game after signing from Tranmere Rovers, just across the River Mersey. In 1928 Everton FC won the league championship once again with Dixie Dean’s best ever record of 60 league goals in 39 matches – a record that has stood ever since to this day.
The nickname Dixie is unknown to most, but it was said that it was given to Dean because of his curly hairstyle that was similar to many people of African ethnicity, popularly nicknamed Dixies at the time. Dixie Dean is said to have not liked the nickname but reluctantly accepted it.
In 1933, Everton FC were crowned FA Cup champions yet again and followed this with another football league championship in 1938 – 1939 season.
Following the Second World War, the 1960’s is regarded as the golden era of Everton FC by many of their loyal fans. Goodison Park saw the arrival of manager Harry Catterick and Everton FC conceded fewer goals than any other team in the league and finished 4th in Harry Catterick’s first season.
Following on from this, the season after saw The Toffees scoop the league title and record breaking striking partnership Roy Vernon and Alex Young scored more goals between them than any other 2 Everton FC players.
In 1966, the same year the English international team won the World Cup, Everton FC took home the FA Cup after overturning a 2 goal deficit against Sheffield Wednesday in the final to win 3-2. Everton went on to reach the 1968 final, but were unable to overcome West Bromwich Albion at Wembley and became runners up.
A year later in the 1969 – 1970 season, Everton won the Championship again thanks to Joe Royle, who later managed the club to FA Cup success himself in 1995.
After a brief spell with Dave Watson in charge as the caretaker-manager, Howard Kendall took on the job as manager again, but was only there for 1 year and was replaced by Walter Smith. However, he found things hard at Everton and after bringing the club close to relegation a few times, the club changed managers yet again, bringing in Mr David Moyes from Preston who made an instant impact. He kept them up solidly in his first few months and took them to the brink of European football in his 1st full season.
David Moyes broke the club record for the highest transfer fee paid on four different occasions. He signed James Beattie for £6 million in 2005, Andy Johnson for around £8 million in 2006, Yakubu for £11 million in 2007 and Fellaini for £15 million in 2008.
Everton finished 6th in the league under Moyes in the season of 2006 – 2007 and qualified for the UEFA Cup the same season, along with the following season of 2007 – 2008. In the 2008 – 2009 season Everton FC reached the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1995 but were runners up to Chelsea who beat them 2-1 at the final whistle. Louis Saha scored the opening goal after just 25 seconds of play, the fastest ever goal in an FA Cup Final.