Dad was no ordinary Joe – and just loved Newcastle
had, isn’t it?” Joe always seemed destined for the United job – it was all but promised to him when he took his first managerial job, heading over to Barrow in 1956.
It would still be seven years until the dugout at St James’ Park would be his, but Joe had been told by the directors – who he knew very well after his playing days at the club – to go out and learn his trade. Barrow and then Workington presented the ideal opportunity for Joe to really get to know whether he had what it took to make it in management, as Ken explains.
“When he first went to Barrow, I’m not saying the Newcastle job was guaranteed, but they more or less said ‘right, you’re going out to learn how to be a manager, and see the problems you’ve got!’
“When he got the job, he was at Workington, Charlie Mitten was in charge at Newcastle, he was a disaster, and that’s when they brought him back.
“He knew everyone who worked there anyway – Sandy Mutch and Stan Seymour – he knew everyone personally, there was no issue coming back.
“Going away was an apprenticeship to learn the ropes.”
Upon getting the Newcastle job there was no real celebration in the Harvey household; nothing, as Ken put it, about ‘going home.’ Just his dad getting ready to make the most of the opportunity.
Fast forward to the 1964-65 season and United lifted the Second
Joe Harvey as manager of the Fairs Cup-winning United side in 1969; top right, lifting the FA Cup as a Newcastle player in 1952; right, with son Ken
Division title – the team were freeflowing and with the likes of Ron McGarry, who had worked with Joe at Workington, they knew where the goal was.
But that season, and the initial start to the job, wasn’t as easy or plain sailing as many might remember.
“If you stood next to him in the dug-out,” Ken recounts, “you’d hear him shouting all the time with a fag in one hand, and sometimes you caught him with a fag in two hands!
“He could go through 30 or 40 smokes in an hour and a half – that tells you how hard it was to do the job.
“But when the game was finished, that was it.
“Players, managers and referees all went into his office to have a drink and a chat – there was no problem, the game was over.
“The result may not have been very good, and he did worry about that at times. I think when he first took over they maybe went 11 games