Kevin Howley (17 May 1924 – 22 July 1997) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

from

Billingham Billingham is a List of towns in England, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed as part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority ...

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, who officiated from 1954 to 1971.

Career

Howley became a Football League referee in 1954 at the age of 30 and four years later reached the FIFA List. While 35 years of age he took charge of the 1960 FA Cup Final between

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, at the time the youngest ever referee to do so. A newspaper of the time christened this "The Dustbin Final," because Blackburn supporters, enraged by incidents during the game, threw rubbish at the Wolves players and their manager,

Stan Cullis Stanley Cullis (25 October 1916 – 28 February 2001) was an English professional footballer and manager, primarily for Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his term as manager between 1948 and 1964, Wolves became one of the strongest teams in the En ...

, as they were leaving the arena.

Dave Whelan David Whelan (born 24 November 1936) is an English businessman and former Association football, footballer. During his football career, he played for Blackburn Rovers F.C., Blackburn Rovers and Crewe Alexandra F.C., Crewe Alexandra. Whelan is ...

also suffered a broken leg during the first half. He was involved in a remarkable incident at the end of an FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Mansfield Town on 24 November 1962. Palace equalized with a late penalty and Mansfield's outfield players, annoyed at his handling of the match, sarcastically applauded him at the end of the game. As a result, Howley reported all ten Mansfield outfield players to the FA for their conduct. He took charge of the replay two days later which the midland team won resoundingly 7–2. Howley had the distinction on 22 August 1964 of refereeing the first ever match televised on the BBC's Match of the Day programme in which Liverpool beat Arsenal 3–2. Prior to this he represented England in the 1964 European Nations' Cup Preliminary round, when

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

defeated

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by 6–0 on 1 November 1962, and also two matches in the qualifying rounds of the renamed competition in 1968, the

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

. He was selected for the 1966

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, acting as a linesman throughout the tournament, notably for referee

Ken Dagnall Kenneth Dagnall (30 January 1921 – March 1995)
and latter place of residence: article at the ''ChorleyC ...

in the third place play-off match between

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and the

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Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. In his final series of 1970-1971 he refereed the European Cup match between U.T. Arad and Red Star Belgrade and a Fairs Cup match between Coleraine and Kilmarnock. The final League match of Howley's career was the match between

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

on 3 May 1971; Arsenal won the game 1-0 and with it the

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

title, which formed the first part of the Double they achieved that season.^† He closed his officiating career by serving as linesman to Jack Taylor in the 1971 European Cup Final at Wembley, his counterpart on the line being fellow Teessider

Pat Partridge Patrick Partridge (30 June 1933 – 31 October 2014) was an English football referee, and former President of the Association of Football League Referees and Linesmen. His occupation outside football was as a farmer.Hamlyn 2005 (p. 115),

Internet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howley, Kevin 1924 births English football referees FA Cup final referees Sportspeople from Billingham 1997 deaths Sportspeople from Yorkshire English Football League referees