Early Life
Case was brought up in Allerton and was a distant neighbour of musician Paul McCartney on the council estate which had been built in the interwar years. He was a keen member of the local scouts. As a young teenager he was quite small for his age.
His credentials, however, were established locally when during a football game between the Garston Church Choir and the Allerton Scouts he gave the goalkeeper of the choir a hefty kick when the score was 23-22, with coats as goalposts. Jimmy established his reputation as a winner, if not a bad loser.
Even though Jimmy's team lost, his legend was born. There were subsequent games on Springwood Park where Jimmy played with such aces as John Gidman (Everton) and Billy Ashcroft (Middlesbrough).
Although small in stature, Jimmy graduated through the schools teams and then joined a tough dockers' side, Blue Union. The physical nature of these early games would have an impact on the rest of his football career.
Upon leaving school, Case served an apprenticeship as an electrician and continued with this even after signing for Liverpool and playing in their reserves.
Those who knew Jimmy as a teenager were amazed at his physical transformation. He always had determination, but by the time he left south Liverpool he had a physical stature and height that belied his earlier years.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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