Uncle Billy, the Shankly starlet who gave Wayne his talent
Rooney at 30... the secrets behind the man with the golden boot
WHEN Wayne Rooney threw open his doors to Gary Lineker and the BBC for a unique glimpse into his life and career to mark his forthcoming 30th birthday, one question was left unasked: where exactly did England’s record goalscorer get his talent from?
That answer is almost as remarkable as Rooney’s career itself, and with a particularly intriguing twist given his own strong club affiliation to Everton as a boy.
The genes Rooney inherited to become the captain of Manchester United and England were from his mother’s side, the Morrey family. There were nine Morrey children — Wayne’s mum Jeanette was the youngest — and of the six boys who all played football, the best of the lot was the eldest, Billy.
Following Rooney’s revelation in the television documentary that he defiantly wore an Everton shirt for a trial at Liverpool, he might not have been told that Uncle Billy was destined to be part of Bill Shankly’s great Liverpool team of the Sixties and Seventies until his headstrong personality saw him walk out on the club in a dispute with echoes of Rooney’s dispute at United four decades later.
Billy Morrey received only the briefest of mentions in Rooney’s ill-fated autobiography in 2006 but more than anyone it was his talent passed on to the £240,000-a-week superstar.
He might have made it in his own right but for a row with Liverpool over cheap second-hand boots. But he still managed to become a famous non-League figure as a winger with FC Marine, most notably scoring against Fourth Division Barnsley in a 1975 FA Cup upset.
‘Billy was a sensational player. He was the city sprinting champion, very fast, and very strong,’ reveals his brother John,. ‘He was in the Liverpool A-team [reserves] at 16. Reuben Bennett, part of Shankly’s famous Boot Room, was the manager and he kept Brian Hall out of the team even though he was three years younger, and Brian went on to win the league and FA Cup.
‘Billy was lightning quick and you’d get players literally jumping on his back to stop him. They said he was the same sort of build as [Liverpool legend] Billy Liddell. He was also two-footed, he’d had an accident as a young boy when a slab of concrete fell on his feet. He was in traction for six months and had to work hard to recover the strength in both his right and left, it ended up helping his football.’
YET, as a teenager nearly 50 years ago, Billy took a fateful decision that saw him leave Liverpool and meant the family would have to wait many years before they could boast a footballing legend.
‘There was a row between Billy and Liverpool. Because he was a local lad, they didn’t provide proper equipment for him, yet all the apprentices from outside Liverpool had it all paid for by the club because they were acting as their parents and guardians,’ says John.
‘The lads from Scotland or Ireland would be getting boss equipment, Billy would be given hand-me-down boots used other players. There were nine of us crowded into a second-floor council flat so my parents couldn’t afford new boots for him. But it wasn’t just the money aspect, it was more the lack of recognition from Liverpool that hurt him.’
Morrey was offered a contract by Bolton Wanderers manager Nat Lofthouse but disenchanted he opted to qualify as an electrician and play non-League football. With Altrincham, and Marine, he became a well-known figure for both his talent and a fiery personality that seasoned Rooney-watchers would appreciate. He scored 85 goals in 391 matches in three spells for Marine where fans used to chant ‘Billy Morrey, quicker than a lorry’. His shot from near the corner flag against Barnsley became the stuff of legend but in the second round exit at Hartlepool, he showed his other side as the team had dinner in town after the match. A book on the history of Marine records: ‘Bill tried to stir up a waiter with a memory of the famous Hartlepool wartime story about hanging a money thinking it was a German. The players were then escorted by over-zealous police the wrong way out of town to escape any fans’ aggro. They were on their way to Scotland before they were pointed in the right direction’.
Other entries in the book point to regular red cards, usually with John recalling: ‘He used to lose money after all the fines had been taken.’
In 1972, he was picked for England Amateurs but missed out on a cap when he injured his hip in training.
Billy emigrated to Australia around the period Wayne was born and played semi-professionally there before working in a factory. Now aged 65, he still lives in the Melbourne area where his 16-yearold son Lucas is an emerging local footballer.
In 2004, he gave an interview to his local newspaper expressing his pride in the emerging Rooney and in 2008, met Wayne and Colleen after flying to England for a diamond wedding anniversary party for his parents (Wayne’s grandparents), appropriately held midway between Anfield and Goodison at Stanley Park.
Wayne’s grand-dad, also named Billy, was good enough to play professionally but discovered he could earn more playing in the Welsh League on Wednesday, the Lancashire League on a Saturday, and have a day job as well.
When Wayne was emerging, he was his No 1 fan, travelling around the country to see him play youth games for Everton and England. ‘Billy Senior was a real extrovert, we’d be in the motorway cafe and he’d burst into song for everyone,’ recalls Rooney’s agent at the time, Peter McIntosh.
WAYNE’S shy side came out when he signed for Everton shortly before his ninth birthday after being watched by academy head Ray Hall on a nearby playing field.
‘We arranged for our first-team manager Joe Royle to meet him,’ said Hall. ‘When Joe came in, Wayne’s jaw just dropped, you can imagine what it meant to a kid from the Everton heartland.
‘I said to Joe, “This is young Wayne Rooney, I am sure you are going to hear a lot more about him”.
‘Joe asked him where he was from, and Wayne was so nervous he stuttered out “Croxteth” quickly like a machine gun. So quickly, Joe thought he said “Toxteth”. He said to Wayne’s father: “If he’s as good as the other boy from Toxteth [Robbie Fowler], he’ll be all right”.
‘At under-15s he started to turn in performances that took your breath away,’ added Hall. ‘We were smashed 5-1 by Manchester United in one game but Wayne was head and shoulders the best player.
‘I heard from one of the United staff he went to Alex Ferguson’s house straight after to say he’d come across a player as good as he’d ever seen.
‘When he scored against Tottenham in the FA Youth Cup, our chairman Bill Kenwright came up to me and said he’d just been offered £3million by Spurs, and what should he do. “Don’t sell” was my advice!’
Despite several bumps in the road, his reputation as a United and England great is assured. When he blows out his candles on October 24, he might give silent thanks to an uncle 10,000 miles away in Oz.