Joe Mercer - Later Life

Later Life

He was the first football figure to be selected as a special guest on the television guest show This Is Your Life, appearing for the edition aired on 25 March 1970.

After quitting as Coventry City boss, he served as a director of the club from 1975 to his retirement in 1981. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to football in 1976. He suffered with Alzheimer's Disease in later life and died, sitting in his favourite armchair, on his 76th birthday in 1990. He was survived by his widow Norah, who is now in her nineties. Norah remains a keen football follower, and still attends to Manchester City matches to support City.

He is commemorated by his old club Manchester City with the road Joe Mercer Way at the City of Manchester Stadium being named after him. On the road there are two mosaics by renowned Manchester artist Mark Kennedy of Mercer; one shows his smiling face lifting the League Championship trophy; the other is a version of a famous photograph showing the back of him as he looks out over the Maine Road pitch towards the Kippax Stand. His contribution to City was commemorated in the Kippax tribute still sung at the Etihad to the tune of Auld Lang Syne: "The Stretford End cried out aloud: 'It's the end of you Sky Blues.' Joe Mercer came. We played the game. We went to Rotherham, we won 1–0 and we were back into Division One. We've won the League, we've won the Cup, we've been to Europe too. And when we win the League again we'll sing this song to you: City, City, City."

At Maine Road a corporate suite, The Joe Mercer Suite, was officially opened by his widow Norah in 1993. A similar facility named after him exists at Goodison. In 1993 Mercer's official biography, Football With A Smile, was written by Gary James. This book sold out within six months and was revised and re-published early in 2010.