THEY stood shoulder to shoulder beaming with mutual pride as the city they both love recognised them as extra special citizens.
Super player and super fan – both indebted to each other in some way – and now honorary citizens of Liverpool.
Everton collection mastermind Dr David France, and celebrated former striker Dave Hickson were presented with the honours by Lord Mayor Cllr frank Prendergast at a town hall ceremony on Wednesday this week.
The two Davids have a friendship as strong as their admiration for each other, and backgrounds which mark them out as the truest of Bluebloods.
Typically, David France flew to Merseyside ahead of the ceremony a few days early, to unveil a plaque paid for by his wife Elizabeth, at Goodison Park in honour of the former Everton players who died in the two World Wars.
Designed as a “special memorial to special Blues who should never ever be forgotten”, it underlines Dr France’s commitment to the club he has worshipped from a tender age.
City council leader Joe Anderson, himself an Evertonian, presented both men with their scrolls at the ceremony and said he was delighted to have the chance to recognise their worth.
He said: “Half the football fans on Merseyside know his name and his accomplishments but little else about ‘Dr Everton’.
“I googled him to learn more about him. Wikipedia says that David France is an author, football historian and philanthropist and that he has been the driving force behind numerous initiatives related to Everton Football Club including Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame, the Everton Former-Players’ Foundation, the Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football and the Everton Collection.
“It says that he was educated in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany and moved to North America in 1978 to become the executive of an oil & gas corporation. He retired from corporate life in 1990 to concentrate on consulting and charity work.
“But I also discovered that there is far more to his life - and it is inspiring. For example, he was a slow-learner and couldn’t read until he was 14.
“He left school at 16 to become a gas-fitter and through part-time studies earned more degrees than a thermometer, BSc, MSc, MBA, PhD.
“He received international recognition for his fair share of academic medals for his research in combustion.
“He was awarded the prestigious Joule Medal for his pioneering work related to the hydrogen economy over 35 years ago.
His work was so highly regarded that his emigration to the United States was sponsored by Senator Teddy Kennedy.
“He consulted to NASA and to the US government and was a better rocket scientist and nuclear expert than he was a gas-fitter.
“He rose to the top of a major oil company, based in Texas, then retired at age 42.”
Cllr Anderson said he was amazed by Dr France’s regular visits to watch the Blues at Goodison, despite living on the other side of the Atlantic, and his award makes him only the second person to be honoured for contributions to football after Bill Shankly’s posthumous award.
“Since then he has devoted his time to worthier causes in North America and of course closer to home – one of which is Merseyside football,” he said.
“Dr France’s contributions to Merseyside football are unique, visionary and compassionate.
“In 1999, Dr France conceived of and founded the Everton Former-Player’s Foundation dedicated to alleviating the medical and other hardships of former footballers.
“It was the first organisation of its kind in the world. The beneficiaries are pre-Premier League players, who upon retirement, they were required to nurse their chronic injuries through the remainder of their lives.
“To date, the Everton Former-Players’ Foundation has raised funds and awarded grants in excess of £1,000,000. Details of individual grants are confidential, however, the Foundation has assisted 120 men and funded hip replacements, knee replacements and other surgical procedures for individuals who were unable to help themselves and may not otherwise have received treatment.
“Subsequently it has been embraced as UEFA’s model and replicated by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and 17 other leading European football clubs.
“His contribution to Merseyside history has been vast. He was one of the first people to recognise the cultural significance of the history of football and the very first private individual to protect the history of our national game.
“Conscious of the significant contributions that Merseyside has made to the development of football as the world’s game, he secured a huge part of the history of British football by compiling single-handedly the finest and most complete archives of football writings and football memorabilia in the world, according to experts at Christie's and Sotheby’s.
“They tell the week-by-week story of the evolution and development of the game over the past 130 years and have no match anywhere in the football world.
“From his home in North America, he was able to secure these rarities when collecting such items was unfashionable. So much so that it is widely accepted that it would be impossible to replicate his work today. His tenacity over a 25 year period has been relentless. So much so that he has travelled over two million miles from his home in North America to drive and support these initiatives on Merseyside.
“He assembled some of football’s rarest items dating back to Everton’s pioneering days in Stanley Park. In addition to hundreds and hundreds of unique items of interest to all football enthusiasts, the most priceless treasures are the official club ledgers detailing the minutes of all board meetings between 1886 and 1964.
“In an unrivalled act of generosity, Dr France transferred these archives at a fraction of their market value to the Everton Collection Charitable Trust.
“The artefacts, or more fittingly treasures, are maintained at the Liverpool Record Office and will be displayed at the new National Museums Liverpool, the National Football Museum, and public exhibitions nationwide.
“Now known as The Everton Collection, it is housed at the Liverpool Record Office where it took a team of experts some two years to catalogue the artefacts.”
Indeed, in the foreword to Dr France’s next book, Everton owner Bill Kenwright wrote: ‘Even though he never donned a royal blue jersey, David France is as important as those who did.
‘He is proof that kindness still exists in the game. The results of his initiatives have spread from Merseyside to Europe and many of the other leading European clubs have copied his ideas.”
Equally, Dave Hickson joins an elite band of sportsmen to have received the honour. Looking smart as ever as he received his award, with his trade-mark quiff still resplendent, Cllr Anderson admitted he was shaking the hand of his hero.
In a typically modest and brief speech, Hickson, reminded everyone of the valuable work carried out by the charities he supports, and reminisced about still pulling on his boots in his 60s for Ivor Scholes’ Over the Hill mob.
The 81-year-old, who famously played a starring role in Everton’s last promotion campaign almost 60 years ago, and earned the nickname “The Cannonball Kid” for his full-blooded style apologised for his brief acceptance speech, saying: “Well that’s just me”.
Hickson still works as a match-day ambassador at Goodison Park, and resumed work even after the death of his beloved wife Pat last November.
Hickson himself suffered a suspected heart attack just before Everton kicked off their 7-1 victory over Sunderland in 2007.
Bill Kenwright aborted plans to watch the game after travelling up from London and he rode in an ambulance with his close friend.
In October 2009 he discharged himself from hospital after two operations on his leg in the previous week to attend what he thought was an 80th Birthday Dinner at Club Everton with 20 or 30 of his close family and old time ex-colleagues. But the surprise event was packed out with almost 250 blues and he was in fine form satisfying all autograph and photograph demands from the enthralled audience.
Hickson was presented with a specially commissioned painting of himself as “The Cannonball Kid” by the club’s Life President Sir Philip Carter – and this latest honour simply enters a long list of credits to a much-loved Royal Blue legend.
