Star Exhibits
2. The itinerary from the first overseas tour in 1905. This was also the first overseas tour of any club and took three weeks by sea, train and horse and cart!
Everton have been the trailblazers of football in many different areas - not least, overseas travel. Travel by Boeing 747 was pure science fiction when the Club first ventured overseas in 1905 for an Austro-Hungarian tour.
Travel arrangements were made by Thomas Cook and Company who supplied every player concerned with a detailed itinerary of the tour arrangements. The itinerary for this expedition is included in the Collection and shows that Everton's players and officials travelled by rail and boat from Liverpool via Dresden to Budapest - a journey which took a full 48 hours!
It was no junket for the players as they played eight games in three weeks. Their first contest on foreign turf was in Budapest against Magyar AC. Everton won 11-2. This was followed by three games in Vienna, one of which was against fellow tourists Tottenham Hotspur, and four games were also played in Prague. Everton won every match.
In addition to a players' itinerary, the Collection contains a Bohemian sports magazine dated May 1905, which reports on all the games played in Prague.
The Collection features 10 overseas travel itineraries for the Club from 1905 onwards, including an itinerary from one of the most adventurous end of season trips ever undertaken by a football club, when Everton and Tottenham Hotspur set off to introduce the beautiful game to South America.
Included in the Collection are details of the extensive arrangements for the long sea voyage to Buenos Aires and beyond in 1909. The players took part in five games while they were in Argentina, and turned out twice to play two exhibition games against their old sparring partners from North London.
