KEN WATERHOUSE 1965 -1969 & 1970 - 1972
It is said by many when Ken first applied for the job as Manager of Morecambe in 1965 he beat Brian Clough to the job. Whether this is true is not known. Born in Ormskirk, he played for Burscough before joining Preston North End (1948-58), mainly playing for the reserves. He did however make 22 first team appearances for PNE. He move to Rotherham in 1958 and stayed there until 1963, playing in 115 games in the League. 1963-64 he went on to play for Bristol City in 16 games before moving to Darlington in 1964-65 appearing only once for them in the League. As a qualified coach in 1965 Ken was appointed Player-Manager of Morecambe. He played for the club until he broke his leg in October 1967, having made 76 league and 33 cup appearances, netting 2 league goals and one in the cup games for the Shrimps. Under Ken the club had what some older supporters would call its Golden Era. Indeed the 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons were successful in winning the Lancashire Combination Championship twice, the Lancashire Senior Cup (the only non- league club to win, beating Burnley 2-1 at Christie Park) and the Lancashire Combination Cup twice. In 1968-69 (the first season of the Northern Premier League, of which Morecambe were founder members) they won the Lancashire Junior Cup. Ken left the club in 1969 to become a member of Blackburn Rover's coaching staff, thus ending his first term as manager.
After the period of joint Caretaker-Managers Gerry Irving and Ronnie Mitchell, due the sacking of former manager Ronnie Clayton, Ken was re-appointed Manager of Morecambe. He was unable to repeat his earlier successes with the team, only finishing mid-table in the league, though the club did fair better in cup games. Ken was sacked by the board in May 1972, the reason being given that they wanted a player-manager.
