Kevin Lewis
Birthdate: 19 September 1940
Birthplace: Ellesmere Port, England
Other clubs: Sheffield United (1955-60), Huddersfield Town (1963-65), Port Elizabeth City (1965-68)
Bought from: Sheffield United
Signed for LFC: £13,000, 16.06.1960
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Liverpool debut: 20.08.1960
Last appearance: 27.04.1963
Debut goal: 20.08.1960
Last goal: 12.04.1963
Contract expiry: August 1963
Win ratio: 51.22% W: 42 D: 19 L: 21
Games/goals ratio: 1.86
Total games/goals opposite LFC: 3 / 0
LFC league games/goals: 72 / 39
Total LFC games/goals: 82 / 44
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Player profile
Lewis' timing could not have been worse to try making a name for himself on the wing at Liverpool with the continuous rise of one Ian Callaghan. Born in Ellesmere Port, Lewis returned to the North-West to play for Liverpool after 23 goals in 62 second division appearances for his first club, Sheffield United. The England youth international became one of Bill Shankly's earliest signings in June 1960. Lewis kept Callaghan out of the side at the beginning of his record-breaking career, scoring 22 goals in 36 games in his first season outscoring Roger Hunt by three. Although he started the next season as the team's right-winger, he was displaced by Callaghan. He did find his way back into the side in April deputising for Ian St John after having not made a first-team appearance for four months. A win over Southampton would secure promotion from the Second Division and Lewis scored Liverpool's both goals in one of the most legendary games in the club's history. Lewis found a way back into the side in 1962/63 after switching to the left taking over from the fading Alan A'Court. Lewis kept up his average of one goal every two games in his Liverpool career. He had a rocket of a shot and among local fans they were called “Lewis Expresses”. Once Peter Thompson was purchased from Preston North End in the summer of 1963 Lewis' Anfield days were numbered. He returned to Yorkshire in August 1963 and played little more than a season with Huddersfield before departing from the Football League scene at the very early age of 24 to play football in South Africa where he settled after a knee injury finished his career at the premature age of 28.
Life could have been very different for Lewis if Shankly hadn't convinced him not to go into the clothing business with fellow Liverpool striker, Dave Hickson. The Liverpool Echo reported on 3 May 1961: “Two famous players who cost Liverpool more than £20,000 in transfer fees have told the club they are quitting football and taking jobs outside the game. They are centre-forward Dave Hickson, an Ellesmere Port boy who became one of the game’s stormy petrels, and Kevin Lewis who learned his football at his native Ellesmere Port and made good with Sheffield United. Hickson has been working for some time with a Liverpool clothing firm and this shock move may well mean a partnership between him and Lewis in the South of England as an extension of the firm’s interests there. Shankly said: ‘Hickson and Lewis came to see me about this matter a few days ago. The Board were informed of their intention to leave football and to go into industry. There is nothing we can do. I’m sorry Lewis is taking this step because he is such a fine young player, and he is only 20. He has yet to come to his best as a player and his future was very bright.’” Shankly evidently blamed Hickson for trying to drive the impressionable Lewis away from football and sold him a couple of months later but kept Lewis offering him the highest-possible wage available to Liverpool's first-team players at the time.