Howard Kendal was born in Ryton-on-Tyne on 22 May 1946. Kendall joined Preston as an apprentice in 1961 and turned professional in May 1963, making his debut at Newcastle in a 2-2 draw on 11 May 1963. Kendall made one further appearance in 1962/63, 4 days later at Middlesbrough.
The 1963/64 season saw Kendall make 9 league appearances scoring in his second game of the season in the 5-4 defeat at Southampton on 7 September 1963. Kendal also made a further 5 FA Cup appearances that season, including the FA Cup Final against West Ham when, at the age of 17 years and 345 days he was, (at the time), the youngest player to appear in the FA Cup Final. He had replaced the regular left half Ian Davidson who had been suspended by the club for an unauthorised trip to Scotland.
Over the next couple of seasons Kendall demonstrated his quality helping PNE reached the FA Cup 6th Round in 1966. As interest in his talents grew, Liverpool made an attempt to lure him to Anfield, only to be told he was not available. A few months later in March 1967 Harry Catterick, (PNE manager between 1975-77), had a bid of £80,000 accepted by the Preston board as PNE urgently needed some cash to finance new signings. Kendall’s last game for PNE before his move to Everton was at Crystal Palace in a 1-0 defeat. Kendall made 104 league appearances for the Lillywhites, scoring 13 goals.
It took him until the following season before he found his real form, moving into midfield with Alan Ball and Colin Harvey to form ‘The Holy Trinity’. Everton reached the FA Cup Final in 1967 and the Semi’s in 1968, but two seasons later saw Everton win the First Division Championship in which Kendall was a driving force making 36 appearances and scoring 4 goals..
Kendall missed only 10 games in the following three seasons. The 1973/74 season saw Kendall only make 7 appearances before being transferred to Birmingham in February 1974 as part of the deal which took Bob Latchford to Everton after 229 matches, scoring 21 goals.
Kendall made his debut for Birmingham on 16 February 1974 in a 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers and made 15 league appearances during 1973/74 season.
The 1974/75 season saw Birmingham reach the FA Cup Semi Final with Kendall making 39 appearances. The following season was Kendal’s most profitable in a Birmingham shirt scoring 8 goals in 36 appearances. After 115 appearances and 16 goals Kendal was transferred to Stoke in August 1977 for a fee of £40,000.
Kendal made his debut for Stoke in a 2-1 defeat at Mansfield on 20th August 1977.and was made player coach in February 1978. Kendall helped them win promotion to the First division at the end of the1978/79. After 82 appearances and 9 goals he became player-manager at Blackburn in July 1979.
Kendall made 41 appearances scoring 2 goals in his first season as Blackburn was promoted from the Third division. The following season Rovers just miss out on promotion on goal difference again, making 38 appearances and scoring 4 goals.
In May 1981 Kendal returned to Everton as player manager to replace Gordon Lee, (who went to managed Preston in December 1981), and after playing four games he finally retired as a player. Kendall struggled initially and was on the verge of being sacked in January 1984 before results improved and reached two cup finals. As Everton were defeated by Liverpool in the Milk Cup but beat Watford in the FA Cup Final.
In 1984/85 Everton won the league championship by 13 points, winning the Cup-Winners Cup and reaching the League Cup Final. Kendall was named manager of the year. The following season Everton narrowly failed to win the League and FA Cups. Due to the Hysel Stadium riots in 1985 Everton were denied a European Cup place.
1985/86 saw Everton win the title again by 9 points. But in 1987 Kendall left Everton, frustrated by the continued ban on English clubs in Europe. Kendal moved to Athletic Bilbao in Spain but was limited on players he could sign for the Basque club. During his stay in Spain he turned down the vacancy at Newcastle, but after a poor run of results he was sacked by Bilbao in November 1989.
The following mouth he returned to England to manage Manchester City and led them to a top five position, before returning to Everton for a second spell in November 1990. He was less successful this time around and resigned in December 1993 after the board would not grant him sufficient funds to buy Dion Dublin from Manchester United.
In 1995 he was appointed manager of Notts County but was sacked after three months. On 13 December 1995 he became manager of Sheffield United inherited a team next to bottom and helped them to avoid relegation. The following season Sheffield United reached the play off final but left on 24 June 1997 to manage Everton for the third time.
Everton struggled in the 1997/98 campaign avoiding relegation on goal difference to send Bolton down after their 2-0 defeat at Chelsea whilst Everton drew 1-1 at home to Coventry. Kendall left Everton for the final time in June 1998.
In November 1998 he was due to manage Spanish side Jerez but was put on hold due to a ban on foreign coaches in their division. Instead Kendall joined Greek side Ethnikos Piraeus but was sacked in March 1999 after being 8 points adrift in the Greek First Division.
Kendall never played for England at senior level, but won caps at Schoolboy, Youth and Under 23 level. Whilst at Preston he captained the England Youth side to the Little World Cup in 1964.
Kendall was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and remains the last English Manager to win a European trophy with an English club.
Howard Kendall passed away at the age of 69 on 17 October 2015.