Everton's Number 5's

(Scroll Down or Click for:   Number 5's 1887/88-1932/33          Number 5's 1933/34-1938/39

Number 5's 1945/46-1992/93          Squad Number 5's 1993/94 Onwards
   
World wide, shirt numbers had been used now-and-then in various countries as far back as 1911 - but up until 1928/29, shirt
numbers had not been used at all in English Football League matches.

However, the 1928/29 season began with two teams, Arsenal and Chelsea, wearing numbered shirts - Arsenal away at
Sheffield Wednesday in their opening day Division 1 game and Chelsea at home to Swansea in a Division 2 match.
Their opponents remained numberless.
The Arsenal players all wore numbers on their back, incidentally, and the Chelsea outfield players did so too – but
their keeper wore the number 1 on the front of his shirt!

The experiment was soon abandoned - indeed shirt numbering was banned by the Football Association! - and they
disappeared again until the early 1930's when firstly, and most famously, the 1933 FA Cup Final saw Everton wear
numbers 1-11 and Man City numbers 12-22.

Huge thanks to the Everton Heritage Society's Brendan Connolly for providing a pic of the Football Association's letter to
Everton instructing them to wear shirt numbers in that game - have a look at it here.

Tommy White wore the Number 5 shirt in that Cup Final but this use of numbering was an experiment - the exception
rather than the rule - and indeed the 1934 AGM of the Football League Management Committee
rejected the compulsory use of shirt numbers.

However, in July 1939 the Management Committee decided that teams should indeed wear numbered shirts - and it was the
new League President and legendary Everton administrator Will Cuff who was the driving force behind the decision.
Henceforth both sides were required to wear numbers 1 to 11, and so that is how the 1939/40 Division 1 season began - with
players from all teams wearing the numbers 1 to 11 on their backs.

Unfortunately, the 1939/40 season was abandoned after 3 rounds of games because of the outbreak of World War II and so, to
all intents and purposes, the mandatory use of shirt numbers began with the post-war resumption of official fixtures, specifically
the 1945/46 FA Cup and the 1946/47 Football League competitions.

Before their compulsory introduction in 1939 - and after the 1933 FA Cup Final - some teams did, intermittently, wear shirt numbers.

So, for instance, Everton wore shirt numbers in their next two games after the 1933 FA Cup Final - a 1-0 home win over Sheffield
Utd on 3rd May 1933 (the first time the club had ever worn them in a Football League match) and a 4-2 League defeat at Wolves
on 6th May 1933, after which the players were required to hand the shirts back to the club.

There is no evidence that Everton ever wore shirt numbers again in an official first-class fixture until their opening match
in the 1945/46 FA Cup competition - away at Preston on 5th January 1946.

The 1-11 shirt numbering system persisted until squad numbers appeared in the early 1990s, following the arrival of
the Premier League - although in reality goalkeepers' shirts had generally become numberless again in England in the
intervening years (an evolution that didn't appear to take place overseas).

The FA Premier League began in 1992/93 - but squad numbering wasn't introduced until the following
season, 1993/94 (when the competition had been renamed the 'FA Carling Premiership') and it has been with us ever since.

Listed below are all of those players who played at Number 5 for Everton in the pre-shirt numbering era, all of those
who wore the Number 5 shirt before the arrival of squad numbers - and all of the Squad Number 5's who have played for us
in the Premier League era.
 
 
Archie Gibson Jack Walker Charles Clark Louis Weller David Reid
Robert Jones David Storrier John Russell Tom Fleetwood David Bain
Archibald McKinnon Tom Robertson Thomas Chadwick Andy Browell Tom Griffiths
James Weir George Meiklejohn Jock Maconnachie Bill Wareing Albert Virr
Johnny Holt Billy Owen John Borthwick Jimmy Galt Dick Forshaw
Frank Sugg Jack Taylor Bob Clifford George Brewster Tommy White
Ike Roberts Alfred Vaughan Val Harris Walter Leivesley Joe McClure
Wattie Campbell Joe Blythe Charles Pratt Hunter Hart Jock Thomson
Jack Elliott Tom Booth Robert Young Neil McBain Charles Gee
Dickie Boyle        
         
EVERTON NUMBER 5's IN THE 1932/33 SEASON
Just one! - Tommy White (he's also included in the list above)
         
EVERTON NUMBER 5's FROM 1933/34 - 1938/39
(Not including anyone mentioned above)
 
Archie Clark
    
   
Tommy 'TG' Jones
    
         
EVERTON NUMBER 5's FROM 1945/46 - 1992/93
(Not including Tommy 'TG' Jones who is already mentioned above)
Jack Humphreys George Heslop Neil Robinson Pat Van Den Hauwe Stuart McCall
Daniel Cameron Sandy Brown Billy Wright Darren Hughes Neil McDonald
Dave 'Ted' Falder Derek Smith John Barton Ian Marshall Ian Snodin
Tommy 'TE' Jones Roger Kenyon Colin Todd Alan Harper Martin Keown
Maurice Lindley Mick Lyons Garry Stanley Gary Stevens Mark Wright
Matt Woods Steve Seargeant Kevin Ratcliffe Peter Billing Ray Atteveld
Don Donovan Ken McNaught Derek Mountfield Dave Watson Gary Ablett
Brian Labone Mark Higgins Ian Atkins Kevin Sheedy Matt Jackson
Jimmy Gabriel Terry Darracott      
         
FULL LIST OF EVERTON'S PREMIER LEAGUE NUMBER 5's
Dave Watson Matt Jackson David Weir Joleon Lescott
Johnny Heitinga
Samuel Eto'o John Stones Ashley Williams Kurt Zouma
Michael Keane
         
Dave Watson
David Weir
Joleon Lescott
Johnny Heitinga
Samuel Eto'o
John Stones
Ashley Williams
Kurt Zouma
Michael Keane