By    : Ian Macdonald  : 22/01/07

What position in a football team excites you?  Is it the goalkeeper, or the centre half?  The midfielder or winger?  I think most people would answer the centre forward, the man who scores you the goals to win your aims in football.  What if I told you we Evertonians had in our team the greatest centre forward the country has ever seen and ever will.

If you ask any Evertonian who is the player that makes you proud to be associated with our great club I think there is only one name that will make your heart go whooohooo, do I have to spell the great man's name out?

Well here it is: WILLIAM RALPH DEAN, affectionately known amongst the masses as ‘DIXIE’; to his close friends just Bill.

Every parent who has brought up their child as an Evertonian feverishly and proudly tells of the great mans exploits; he was that good.

His parents had been married for 15 years and lived in Birkenhead.  They had four girls at the time, but on the 22^nd of January 1907 the boy they had hoped for was born.  Christened William Ralph two names forgotten in later years but not the surname DEAN.

Dixie’s father was a train driver, his mother a housemaid and both lived to reach ninety, quite an age at the time.  I think their son’s exploits spurned them on.  At the age of eleven young William went to Borstal! Voluntarily I must add as the school had better football facilities, the sport he loved.

He got a job helping the local milkman whilst at school which entailed him getting up at 4am seven days a week lifting heavy milk churns.  This helped build his magnificent physique.  William’s dad took him to see his favourite team across the Mersey just before the outbreak of World War One.  His dad was an EVERTONIAN, the bond and love of our team was sealed forever.

As a school kid he was a sensation, so good he was asked to play in adult teams, he was football mad.  So obsessed was he, he once took his baby sister out for a walk in the pram by Bidston hill, where he was invited to play in a game of football  (the pram becoming a goalpost!) and they played till dusk.  After the game he went home and but forgot the pram!  He ran back to find his baby sister was safe and still asleep.

Young Dean left school at 14 to work as an apprentice boilermaker at his father’s employers, Wirral Railway.  He was spotted by Pensby and played for them until he was 16 when Tranmere persuaded him to sign for them.  Dean signed, on one condition that they supplied a new kit for Pensby.  Tranmere later reneged on that deal.  Dean thought that the secretary of Tranmere had no interest in him as a person bar to exploit him and make money out of a transfer deal (how long has been PJ associated with Tranmere? Only joking Peter!), Dixie was a man of principals and did not have time for people who did not.

 The name ‘Dixie’ was given to Dean by the Tranmere fans because of his jet-black thick curly hair, not a racist call but a similarity to coloured people’s hair - hence the name ‘Dixie’.  To be honest Mr Dean did not like the nickname, a bit like Bruce Springsteen not liking to be called ‘The Boss’, which he is.

Dean was paid £4 5shillings a week, the normal pay for a third division professional player but still a lot of money compared to the average wage away from football.  Dixie could play with two feet and had a remarkable heading ability rarely matched to this day with a third of all his goals scored coming from his head.  My dad said that Dixie could head a ball harder than most footballers could kick it.  He had a neck on him like Mike Tyson and the strength of a bull.  He was a good all rounder in sports, excelling in both golf and cricket.  At a later date he even played American baseball during the close season in America.  His speed was phenomenal and his reading of the game second to none, he could dribble like a winger, the complete footballer.

Dixie played with only one ball quite literally.  During his Tranmere days a Rochdale centre half kicked him in the crown jewels and subsequently he was rushed to hospital for a small minor delicate operation.  So, you see, Hitler wasn’t the only man as the song goes with one ‘ball’.  I don’t think the injury made a ball’s up of Dean’s career though, unlike Hitler’s.

Whilst at Tranmere young Dean’s reputation grew, he was a real star drawing a crowd wherever he played.  Fifteen thousand people would go to Prenton Park to watch his goal scoring prowess.  During his last season with Tranmere the team scored 44 goals with Dean bagging 27 of them.  Many big first division teams tried to sign Dixie but there was only ever one club he wanted to play for: EVERTON FC.

Then Dixie’s dream move came true with Tom McIntosh, the then Everton secretary, going to Dean's house, to ask him to sign for his boyhood club.  Dixie was not in at the time but when he found out from his mum who had called he ran like a demon to meet Mr McIntosh at the Woodside Hotel to discuss terms.  Dixie did not hesitate, signing there and then for a King's Ransom at the time, a figure of £3000.  The Tranmere secretary promised Dean 10% of any signing fee, he got just £30 . The 30 pieces of silver was given to his mum who in turn donated it to the local hospital.  That was the type of people they were.  Dixie had got his heartfelt boyhood wish and he was going to play for his beloved Everton.

This is the bit that really hurts just now.  At the time Everton, the club, gained a reputation of applying grace and artistry to the game.  A capacity to produce play of a very high standard.  It was also said at the time the game of football owes a great deal to Everton.  No matter where they play, and no matter how badly placed in the league table, they always manage to serve up football of the highest scientific order.  Everton always worship at the shrine of craft and science and never do forget the standard of play they set out to achieve.  Hence the nickname, ‘THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE’.

That’s it, I’m sending this to be nailed on the dressing room doors of Bellefield and Goodison.  Really I am!

When the young Dean first came to Everton, despite his massive fee, he was not a first choice player until he scored 7 goals in one reserve game and could not be overlooked any longer.  Dixie made his debut for Everton against Arsenal in March 1925. I n his first full season he scored 32 goals in 38 games.  He was the first name on the team sheet after that!

Then we nearly lost our legend.

In June 1926 Dixie took his girlfriend out to North Wales on his motorcycle. Whilst driving along the road to St Asaph they were involved in a collision with a motor cycle combination carrying two men.  All but the girl were seriously injured.   Dixie was told he would never play football again.  Just fifteen weeks later he proved the doctors wrong and was back playing football for his beloved Everton.  Dean had a broken jaw and a fractured skull.  Metal plates were inserted to help mend the skull.  But they were removed later destroying the myth of them still being in his head when he rose to power the ball in the back of the net with his head.  However, you can forget this if you want to protect the cult status and legend of Dixie.

Whilst recuperating in hospital he helped out transporting corpses to and from the mortuary.  One day young Dean was found swinging from branch to branch in an apple tree collecting fresh ripe fruit for the hospital patients and staff . The passing doctor looked up at Dean and said if you can do that you can go back to training for the Blues.  Dixie donned the Royal Blue again and played for the remainder of the season, scoring 21 times in 27 games.

Then came that season 1927 -28.

The highlight of Dixie’s whole career and yes you know why!  This is where fantasy football first started. In all the history of football there can be no story to match Dixie’s feats in that magical season.

In the first three games Dixie scored one goal in each.  The second game was against newly promoted Middlesbrough, who had George Camsell (who scored 59 goals in the second division which made him the record goal scoring holder), another great centre forward.

In the next six games Dixie scored 14 goals, five in one match against Manchester United.  After 13 games Everton scored 44 goals and Dixie 23 of them.

At the time there was an economic recession but Dixie’s exploits captivated not just the locals but the whole the sporting country.  Everywhere Everton went gates would go up to see this genius of a man who was just twenty at the time.  Over the Christmas period Everton travelled over one thousand miles by train playing four matches in a week. And to think that present day players and managers moan about having to play three games in a week, transported in luxury, thousands each week - and I don’t mean miles!

On January 2nd Dixie’s record stood at 37 for the season, just one short of equalling B.C.Freeman's club record of 38 goals for Everton in a single season.  By January 7th Dixie had broken Freeman’s and the club record with two goals in the 3-1 defeat of Middlesbrough (with two players sent off, unheard of in those days).  Now onto the next record to be smashed.

The Division One goal scoring record was 43, held by Blackburn’s Harper in the 1925-26 season and there were still lots of games to play.  Mr Dean went to Anfield to equal that record, scoring a hat trick.  In those days Dixie use to send the Reds' goalkeeper, Elisha Scott, a package the night before a derby game containing a bottle of aspirin and a note “Get a good nights sleep - I’ll be there tomorrow”.  Signed Bill Dean.

When Dixie scored at Anfield he would turn to the Kop and bow gracefully in a posture like a matador.  He’s a God now in my eyes!

Dixie now had 43 goals with only 13 games left to play, to get 17 more goals to smash Camsell’s record, it wasn’t going to be easy.  Defences concentrated solely on Dixie, sometimes unfairly, he was the centre of attention all over the country.  It must not be forgotten that Huddersfield at the time was going for the Double.  They boasted nine internationals in their team.  By mid March Everton trailed them by four points ( to the younger Evertonians it was only two points a win then) and Dixie hadn’t scored for four games!  Only nine more league games to play and Dixie could only play in seven of them due to International call ups - could he still do the impossible?  Seventeen goals in seven games. Nah no way, he couldn’t, could he?

On March 24th Dixie broke the Division One record scoring two goals in a 2-2 draw with Derby, a total of 45 goals.  Easter was kind to Everton, and they trailed Huddersfield by one point in the race for the Championship. 60,000 people turned up at Goodison to see Everton beat Blackburn 4-2 with two more Dean goals.  Everton drew with Bury on the Saturday with Dean scoring the only goal, the total was 48 goals with just five games to play.  But we were on top of the league on goal difference. The visit to Sheffield United saw Everton win 3-1 with two of his goals making it 50 goals from 35 games.  Fantastic!  Gary Lineker, eat your heart out!

But could Dixie get ten goals in the last four matches?  The pressure was getting intense but not to Dixie who had ice-cold blood, with a bit of sherry in it, his favourite tipple.  Everything was taken in his stride, it was only a little over twelve months ago that he was not expected to live never mind reaching immortality in the eyes of Evertonians..

The next game was midweek against Newcastle.  We won 3-0 with Dean only scoring one paltry goal!   How is he going to score nine goals in three games, surely it's impossible?  Villa at home next with the great centre forward ‘Pongo’, yes ‘Pongo’ Waring, also a product of the Tranmere scouting system.  Football fans love their clubs finding diamonds within their youth ranks especially if they are local.

Dixie won the personal centre forwards war 2-1 with Everton overcoming Villa 4-2.

So how is Dixie going to score seven goals in two games to become a living legend? Burnley away and Arsenal at home, both sell-outs even before a gate opened.  Oh and the Championship was still up for grabs..

Everton went to Turf Moor and stuffed Burnley 5-3 and guess who scored four bloody goals?  Yes him again, Dixie!  Believe it or not he was also injured in the game pulling a thigh muscle and becoming almost a passenger in the second half . There was no substitutes then, or magic sponges.

Harry Cooke the then Everton trainer was much loved and respected by his players and he spent the whole week nursing Dixie at his home to help him through his injury so that Dixie could meet his destiny the following week.

Picture it now at Goodison - 60,000 expectant Evertonians not just willing on Dixie’s Herculean task but the Championship at stake as well.  But wait, one of the goals was reached before the Arsenal game kicked off!  Huddersfield were beaten mid-week and Everton were declared Champions with the trophy now winging it’s way to Goodison to be presented to our captain at the time, Cresswell, after the biggest game in Dixie’s life and the lives of every living Evertonian then, and football fans in general.  Imagine what the great God Sky would have made of this event, box office dream stuff and of fat cat agents or what?

Talk all week was of the event to come, like a pilgrimage to a shrine, with people coming from afar on boats, trains, trams, bikes, motorcars, motorbikes, planes and airships to see if the messiah would deliver.  Over sixty thousand converts came to pay homage.  I can remember Big Bad Bob needing to score against Chelsea for the thirty-goal mark to win the £10,000 on offer from the Express and feeling that I was there when  ‘history’ was being made.  We all celebrated that day as if it was a historic landmark.  Bloody hell imagine the feeling of expectancy of seeing your hero score twice as many goals as the Latch!  If I get a chance of going into Doctor Who’s time machine this game is top of the wish list.  To walk out of the police box and join the queuing throngs outside Goodison, waiting to gain entry to see if Dixie could gain immortality.  Only problem would be what money could I use?  I know I’d get one of those white fivers off my mate Barry Murray (he’s that tight he won’t part with any money old or new), and live like a king for the weekend until the doctor takes me back to the present day.

Three goals against no pushovers Arsenal, the world’s media and my Dad there to see if real history was to be in the making.  Imagine the electric atmosphere generated by the great man running down the tunnel like some bygone Gladiator to put Arsenal to the sword (Russell Crow eat your heart out, this was the man) in the arena called Goodison.  I bet there would have been enough electricity generated by that adoring crowd to match the power created by the Hoover Dam!

The game kicked off but Arsenal never read the script - they scored first - the matador of Anfield saw the red of Arsenal now, as a bull would.  Dixie from the restart ran towards the Arsenal goal and struck a blow to the insolent bullish Arsenal, a thunderous twenty yarder was unleashed - the 58th goal of this fantastic season was registered; it was also Everton’s 100th of this title winning campaign.  The crowd was fervish, expectant now that they would not be present to witness history; a true “I was there” moment.

Midway through the first half Dixie was brought down in the box - penalty!  Now who do you think should take it?

The crowd bayed “Give it to Dixie”!  This was his calling everywhere he played, even in internationals matches. Dixie placed the ball on the penalty spot, a silence known only in a graveyard descended.  How many people turned and looked away or covered their eyes we’ll never know, but they were hugged by strangers as a long lost relative when Dixie delivered the record equalling goal.

The miracle was on, but so was Arsenal’s resilience to stop Dixie.  It was also Charlie Buchan’s last match for the Gunners, a great stalwart in their defence.  Charlie was determined Dixie was not to spoil his day.  Yeah, right.  An own goal made the scores level at half time.

In the second half Arsenal played the off side trap (and copied it later on into the eighties and early nineties!) to try and strangle Dixie’s birthright.

More clock watching must have been done by the crowd that second half than any bored school pupil ever has.  The minutes ticked away like a man on Death Row.   “Come on Dixie”!  All thoughts centred on the greatest centre forward we’ve ever seen to achieve his own mission impossible.

Just five minutes were left on the referee’s watch when Everton took a corner.  An Alec Troupe special!  Time stood still, then moved into freeze frame as Dixie leapt up like a salmon above the surrounding packed penalty area and headed the ball into the Arsenal net.  The ticking bomb inside Goodison exploded, people in the city centre (and in Chester!) knew Dixie had achieved the impossible; the volume of noise was that great.  All the pigeons and birds in Merseyside flew up into the air as one, as if they'd just been shot at.  They blotted out the sun, as John Wayne turned to a fellow Roman and said that truly he is the Messiah!

Oh what joy, an explosion of gratitude of being there and seeing the miracle happen, the game was held up for several minutes as Dixie was exhalted on high. Mission finally accomplished and Immortality.

Oh the game finished 3-3 Arsenal sneaked a late goal whilst everyone was shaking hands with Dixie.

The Championship trophy was presented to this special Everton team.  Never forget the fact that this side provided the ammunition for Dixie, without his surrounding team mates this achievement of scoring the sixty might never have been attained.

Dixie’s name was now on everyone’s lips, he was a celebrity.  An agent from America came over to get Dixie to play over there.  A fantastic offer of £150 and twenty pounds a week was baited to the great man.  But Dixie said it was not about money, “I don’t want to leave Everton at any price”.  I can think of a couple of young past Everton strikers who should have a copy of this.

At end of this historic season Everton did a tour of Switzerland playing Basle, Berne, Zurich and Geneva, winning all four games in front of packed stadiums.  Dixie scored five more goals making his personal tally to 100 for the season .At the end of the season supporters presented him with a silver plate inscribed with all the teams he scored his goals against (29 games in all); it was Dixie’s most cherished possession.

For the anoraks, Dixie's scoring record was as follows, for that scintillating season, never to be repeated unless they change the rules.

Five goals in one game, four in another, five hat tricks, fourteen doubles and eight singles.

The following season Dixie carried on where he left off scoring goals as if by order.  In the fist two games he scored two hat-tricks but was plagued by injury that season due to the over-zealous attention of defenders but still he went on to score 26 goals in 29 games, maintaining his Everton career record of a goal a game average.  168 goals in 169 games to be precise.  Later on it was revealed that the famous Madame Tussaud’s had made a wax model of Dixie.  Now, that’s when you knew you had made it big at the time.  It stood next to the great cricketer Jack Hobbs who was later knighted.  So why wasn’t Dixie for his achievements?  We’ll never know.  Is it too late?  Ask your local MP.

Herbert Chapman, the great Arsenal manager of the time, came to Goodison to try and prise Dixie away with a blank cheque.  Dixie was not interested and thankfully so was the Board, who would have been hung by the crowd anyway.  But it was not all rosy and after two more seasons’ the unbelievable happened, we were relegated! Dixie, like all Evertonians, was devastated he hadn’t played in many matches, due to injury, and he couldn’t stop our decline.  We licked or wounds and re-grouped and started in earnest to rectify the wrong that Everton was in the Second Division.  We won our first four games to massive crowds in the division, such was still the pulling power of Everton.

On November 8th Dixie broke another record at the age of just 23 he scored his 200th league goal in only 199 games.  Everton beat Wolves 4-0, two goals by Dixie to set the record.

Everton went on to win the league in the 36th game out of 42 with a record of winning 28 games at the end of the season scoring 121 goals, 39 by the great man.  Dixie had also scored his 200th league goal for Everton in just 198 appearances.  Wow!  In the same season Everton reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, being beaten by WBA 0-1 at Old Trafford in front of 70,000 with 20,000 locked outside.

After just one season in the Second Division Everton came back to the First Division with a bang!  By the end of October, just listen to this, they had beaten the Reds 3-1 at Anfield (Dixie with a hat-trick), Sheffield Utd 5-1 away, Sheff Wed 9-1 at home, battered Newcastle 8-1 and scored a total of 44 goals in 13 games.  Oh to be an Evertonian then.  By the end of the year we had scored a total of 78 goals.  In 32 games the team had passed the hundred mark and had 10 games left to pass Villas record of 128, unfortunately we only scored a further 15 to make the total of 116.  But we had a little consolation prize in winning the League Championship after our first season back in the top flight, where we belong.

Something was missing in Dixie’s trophy cabinet, a FA Cup winners medal, and this was to be rectified in a glorious cup run in 1933.  This was to be the hat-trick of success, two successive league championships and a visit to the twin towers at Wembley.

The third round tie was Leicester away, a 3-1 success with one for Dixie.  That was followed with a visit to Goodison from Bury with the scoreline the exact same as in the previous round, Leeds in the fifth round were beaten 2-0 at Goodison with Dean again scoring one.  Then the sixth round draw gave us Luton at home, a slippery one at the time, they were in the Third Division and everyone knows about cup upsets, we struggled through 6-0.

West Ham United next in the semis, at Wolves.  Dixie was the captain of Everton now and had scored in every round up to now.

West Ham fought hard but lost 2-1 and Everton were in the Final, with Manchester City the opponents.  Both teams played in Blue but ours is Royal Blue.  Nevertheless, the FA had two kits to be worn in the final - one red, the other white.  Dixie would never play in red so we wore white, the red flag to the bull in Dixie again.  Wasn’t our Dixie great eh?

For three weeks before the cup final the team refrained from drinking alcohol. Can there be a greater sacrifice in the history of mankind?  Hmm maybe sex!   Everton meant business.  Dixie's incentive win bonus was £30 in vouchers to be spent in nominated stores.  What would the present players think of that?

The 1933 Cup Final was also the first final to have numbers on their shirts, 1-22, and guess who was handed the first number nine jersey - Dixie.  How fitting it was that the greatest centre forward that Britain has ever seen was the first to wear the symbolic number nine.  It was fate!  The night before the big game the Everton team was tucked up in bed before twelve after a supper of tripe and onions.  I know what Everton’s fiendish plot was now; they were to put the wind up City literally...

The Northern hordes descended upon Wembley in forty special trains to Euston Station in a cacophony of sound, banging drums, ukulele’s and banjo’s.  They were determined to have a great day out whatever the outcome.  Now onward to Wembley, joined by the fellow supporters who travelled down in charabangs (coach’s to our young fans and with no toilets!), and cars.

Before the match the Duke and Duchess of York (no not Fergie, the then Duchess was the Queen Mother) were sat next to the Mayor of Merseyside who proceeded to point out the names of the Everton players to the Royal members.  The Duchess, when the Mayor pointed to Dixie to say who he was, cut the helpful Mayor down with the words “even I know who Dixie is!”  In a tremendous atmosphere Everton totally outclassed City and won an entertaining match 3-0.

Of course Dixie scored in an effort reminiscent of Andy Gray’s against Watford at the same venue.  The Duchess presented Dixie, the captain, with the FA Cup and he gestured as if drinking from it to the masses of Evertonians.  Well, they had not had a drink for three weeks!  I’ll bet they had a few that night and the next.  When they recovered from what is  commonly called a hangover the team boarded the train back to Merseyside on Monday to be greeted by scenes never before witnessed in football at Lime Street station back in Liverpool.  Over 50,000 were at the station alone to greet their heroes.

As the motorcade of horse drawn carriages made its way through the city centre Dixie held the Cup up like an all-conquering Caesar and his sceptre, like Jason with the fleece, Hercules with the Hydras head, Neptune with his Trident and Arthur holding up Excalibur.  This was Dixie’s greatest moment, tears ran down his face as he was the proudest Evertonian alive. All his childhood dreams of winning the cup had become a reality.  As the chariots, I mean carriages, moved towards Goodison over half a million people lined the streets throwing petals at their heroes feet.  There were 50,000 at Goodison alone to meet them at their journey’s end.  Such an outburst of love and passion has never been seen since that magical day, not even when the Pope visited Merseyside.  Don’t forget we were in the middle of a recession and Dixie’s heroes made the hard life experiences forgotten for just a little while.

The following season Dixie was still breaking more records than a one armed juggler in a music store. By September Dixie had scored his 300th goal in 310 games and he still only 26. But tragedy struck and Dixie would need an operation to remove two pieces of bone from his left ankle, he was out of action for months. I wonder if he asked for a transfer when he got back from long term injury like so many present players.

In the 1935 season Dixie was involved in a game widely perceived as the greatest game ever played the 4th round FA cup replay against Sunderland.  Another huge Goodison crowd was present, over 60,000 in total, to witness the event that would leave another lasting memory for life on the Evertonians lucky enough to get in.  Unbelievably Dixie never scored  in this game but instead pulled all the strings.  There was 15 minutes to go Everton were winning 3-1 but Sunderland fought back to equal the score and extra time ensued. Everton would score three more times and Sunderland once.  The whistle blew, Everton had won a thrilling tie that had everything.  6-4 was the final score.  This was a game talked about for generations afterwards; it was that great a game.

The hard tackling and physical demands were taking their toll on our Legend  and in October of 1937 Dixie was to play his last match for Everton, his 399th league game, against Grimsby Town, after scoring an incredible 383 Everton career goals.  Why not wait till he played one more league game?   This echo’s Tony Cottee’s departure from Goodison on 99 goals - why not be left to leave after reaching a milestone goal tally for these great servants. I like round figures, like myself.

A young pretender named Lawton was being nursed at the time to take over from Dixie.  In fact they played together for a while.  The lad was to be Everton’s next centre forward.  I believe he never made too bad a job of it either.

Dixie was left in the reserves much to the dismay of his adoring subjects and there was uproar when he was sold to Notts County for £3000, ironically 13 years after he signed for the same fee.  The same feeling of disbelief would be repeated when Bally left Everton.  It was revealed later by Dixie that the then club secretary Theo Kelly drove Dixie out with his autocratic disagreeable attitude to him and the other senior players.

Dixie was constantly injured during his County career and later left to join Sligo Rovers in Ireland, in January 1939, but really he left his heart at Goodison.

It was a sensational coup for the North West Irish team.  When Dixie turned up for duty at the local railway station thousands gathered around just to get a glimpse and welcome the great man.  Elvis and Ali all rolled into one had arrived in town.

Dixie played 11 games for Rovers and scored 11 goals to maintain his goal a game record.  The great man scored five in one game in a 7-1 win, a record individual goal scoring record for the proud Irish club.

But he could not win another cup winners medal when Shelbourne beat Rovers in the FAI cup final replay.  Sadly his runners up medal was stolen from his hotel but years later a strange twist happened.  When Dixie was invited over for Rovers 1978 Cup Final, a package was given to the greatest centre forward the game had ever seen and in it was his stolen medal!  You see even thieves recognise and honour a genius.

Dixie returned to Birkenhead with his family just before War broke out and took up a job in the local abattoir.  In 1940 Dixie joined the Army, with the Kings Regiment.  Obviously Dixie played in games to entertain the troops and he had his Indian summer of accolades.  After the War Dixie took over a pub in Chester ,‘The Dublin Packett’, and it became Chester’s biggest attraction for 15 years . I think it had something to do with the proprietor.

Many famous people would drop in to see our legend including the likes of Lester Piggott.

Then Mr Moores, the Everton chairman at the time, gave Dixie the call to come back to his real home on Merseyside and gave him a security job at Littlewoods.  Fellow workers said Dixie was a quiet unassuming man; tell that to the defenders during the Twenties and Thirties.  He did this for several years until he retired at 65 on a pension.  The wrong doings of leaving Everton without a golden handshake was put right with a testimonial match held at Goodison in 1964, a game between the English players and Scottish players from the Reds and Everton teams.  Would anyone remember him that much to turn up?  Well over forty thousand turned up for a player who last played for his team 26 years ago, what a tribute to the man.  Over £10,000 ( a tidy sum then), raised and put in trust for our special number nine.  After his retirement he was often employed as an after dinner speaker. 

In 1974 his wife died suddenly of a heart attack, he then went to live with his daughter Barbara.

In 1976 Dixie was asked to present the Footballer of the Year trophy in London.  Following his presentation to a player who played for Scunthorpe, Southampton and Hamburg and later on managed England, Newcastle and Fulham, Dixie himself received a silver salver with the words inscribed ‘To Dixie Dean. 60 goals in a season, more than most teams score today’.  That says it all.

In November 1976 Dixie had thrombosis and an amputation of his right leg was the only alternative.  Dixie would joke he had been in more theatres than Morecambe and Wise.  He managed to get about in a wheel chair.

Then in March 1980 a very sad day came not just for Evertonians but for true football fans around the world.  In the Main Stand after watching his beloved Everton in a derby game our living legend died. Where else would he die I suppose.  This man's life could not be scripted better by a Hollywood writer.

To those sceptical of the great man's exploits and how would he fare today?

I will say this; the ball Dixie headed and kicked was made in leather stitched up with a lace protruding, as it got wet it got heavier and more difficult to control.  The present day players would not kick such a ball, let alone head it, if they did they would want extra money for the resulting headaches and have to attend their hairdressers more often.  Defenders of the day were more physical, players given less protection those days by the referee.  Conditions of pitches were far worse and treatment of injuries dated.  My dad who saw Dixie score that magical 60th goal says to me that Dixie could head a ball harder than most players could kick it.  Also we must remember the hobnail boots they played in, not the kid goat type leather soft stuff of today.  With ‘predator’ ribbing. 

If a midfielder from Portugal, (Figo), can command £40million how much would Dixie be worth now?

Some titbits

The sixtieth goal was scored in the Park End it wasn’t sucked in as that famous Bayern night in the Gwladys Street End but dragged in by hysteria and thought power.  Sixty thousand Uri Geller’s willed it in.

At the height of his goalscoring the marking was getting ridiculous - so much so Dixie ran off the field during play; his marker asked where he was going Dixie replied “For a pee, you coming or what”?

Dixie use to practice heading the ball alongside a young upstart Tommy Lawton using ……..a medicine ball!

Strange that Tommy also went on to play for Notts County after leaving Everton.

Dixie, despite all the attention of Rotweiller like defenders was never booked or sent off.  A remarkable achievement from a remarkable man.

In his heyday Dixie Dean's greatest rival was, naturally, the Liverpool goalkeeper of the time, one Elisha Scott.  The two men locked horns in the great Merseyside derbies for many years and it has to be said that Elisha, while a great keeper was punished by the unfailing accuracy of Dixie's head and left foot many times.  He feared his encounters with Dixie Dean more than any other centre forward of the time.  One day Dixie was out shopping in Liverpool city centre with his wife when he spotted Elisha on the other side of the road, also leisurely shopping with his own wife.  A look of mild fear spread across Elisha's face as he registered his greatest adversary.  As Dixie nodded to greet him, Elisha unlocked himself from his wife's arm and dived instinctively and acrobatically into the road.  Remember that our centre-forward used to send Elisha headache tablets before the derby games.

Dixie didn’t like fuss but when Pathé News, a popular feature in cinemas at the time for news (there was no telly then), wanted to film him they said they would have to put powder on his face to take the shine away.  Dixie said, “I’ll put a shine on your face mate! If you put powder on my bloody face ”.

Before a match Dixie would have only a glass of sherry mixed with two raw eggs.  I’m sending that magic potion to Goodison as well.

After a game at Spurs Dixie was the last to walk off and a fan shouted to him, “we’ll get you yet, you black bastard! ”  A policeman overheard this but was pushed aside by Dixie saying, “It’s alright officer I’ll handle this. ”  Dixie jumped over to the fan and punched him sending him flying.  The policeman who saw the incident winked at Dixie and said “that was a beauty Dixie and of course I never saw it officially”.  Cockney police are dead helpful at times.

Dixie once scored a total of 18 goals in nine consecutive games.

Dixie would walk into his favourite pubs around Walton and Scotland Road and buy all the old folk a drink, a bit like Duncan Ferguson really.

Dixie got married to a girl called Ethel Fossard in the summer of 1931.  They spent their honeymoon on a tour of the racetracks around Britain.  They had three sons and a daughter. He nicknamed his daughter ‘Nina’ after a game in which we beat Southport 9-1.

Sadly none of his lads took up football.  They rented a house off Everton, not far from Goodison — can you see a superstar today doing that! 

In the 1932-33 season, Everton played Chelsea in a game where, at half time, the players just turned around and kicked off again, due to the fading light.  There were no floodlights in those days.  Everton won that game, 7-2 with Dixie scoring four with his head. 

Dixie Dean is the only English player ever known to walk off after a England v Scotland game to a standing ovation at Hampden, he was that good.  In 1927 the great American baseball player of the time, Babe Ruth, whilst in London asked to meet Dixie to just to shake his hand, such was the attraction of the great man.  It was an interesting fact that Babe Ruth had just accomplished a mirror-like scoreline of 60 home runs in a season, thought also never to be beaten at the time. 

Whilst on a end-of-season tour in Nazi Germany, Dixie, seeing all that was wrong under this tyranny, refused to salute Adolf Hitler (as I said earlier, one ball was all that Dixie had in common with Adolf) and told his team mates to do the same.  The first sporting team ever to do so, Everton champs again in the cause for Europe’s freedom!

When the Legend fell to ill health best wishes were sent to him from all over the world. S ome would be addressed simply, 'to Dixie Dean, England', and they would find their way to their destination.  Everybody knew who Dixie was, not least the Post Office.  As famous as Father Christmas was Dixie. 

While we cast our minds back again to Dixie, all we have had is some small memorabilia of the great man and a function room named after him.  Bill Kenwright and his Board have delivered a fitting statue of the greatest scoring Evertonian ever and a player who helped make this club a household name throughout the land. 

Bill and his board paid the biggest fee at Christie’s for a FA Cup winners medal at the time — £17,500 — because it was Dixie’s.  Before the auction, Bill said to me, “Don’t worry Ian, Dixie’s medal is going nowhere but home.” 

Dixie has passed away many years now and it has taken many years for a fitting statue to be made.  If we move, then Dixie’s statue can come too with all our memories.  Don’t forget this isn’t the first time we have moved, but true there are many many more memories attached to Goodison than our previous home.

Inscriptions around the great man's statue

When a fellow Evertonian dies we always say they will be playing with Dixie now in Heaven, no finer a tribute to the man.  As I say, a true legend and a gentleman.  There will never be another footballer like William Ralph "Dixie" Dean, a one-off in life’s Hall of Fame.  The statue is just a token to the great man's memory, always synonymous when we think of our great club.  What a player and what a man. He’ll be embarrassed now in Heaven when he sees his statue and the club he loved so dearly as a kid.

So when you get downheartened about our present state of play, close your eyes and think of the time when we had Dixie.  No other football fan except an Evertonian can get that feeling of pride in what he accomplished and the type of man he was.  Smile when you think of Dixie and a special part of this great man’s story is that he was one of us, an Evertonian! 

For the record this is what Dixie achieved, it’s phenomenal - he was truly a goal machine:

• 60 league goals in one season 1927-28
• 100 goals scored in 1927-28
• 100 league goals before he was 21
• 200 league goals in 199 games at 23 years old
• 300 league goals in 310 games
• 379 league goals in 437 games
• 349 league goals for one beloved club, Everton
• 37 hat-tricks in his career
• 200 goals for Everton in 198 games
• More than 20 league goals for nine consecutive seasons
• More than 30 league goals in four seasons
• Averaged 0.94 goals a game (473 goals in 502 matches)
• 16 International caps scoring 18 goals

Who, tell me, will ever hold a candle to the above? I'd like to thank the skills of Tom Murphy, the sculptor, who has honed our hero in Bronze in the famous pose, where Dixie runs onto the pitch with the ball under his arm, that made him a true legend.

Sadly not many people remember the name of Camsell who scored 59 goals in the Second Division, I must add because of Dixie.  On Friday 4 May 2001, I was there with my dad to witness fittingly the anniversary of Dixie scoring the magical 60th goal, 73 years ago, with the unveiling of his statue.

One of our fiercest foes of the past from across the park (who was welcomed and forgiven in his latter days at Goodison), Bill Shankly said of the great man, “Dixie was the greatest centre forward there will ever be.  His record of goal scoring is the most amazing thing under the sun.  He belongs in the company of the supremely great like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt.”

At Dixie’s funeral Shankly added tongue in cheek, "I know this is a sad occasion, but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death he could draw a bigger crowd to Goodison than Everton on a Saturday afternoon." 

Dixie on Liverpool, “There was nothing like quietening that Kop.  When you stuck a goal in there it all went quiet, apart from a bit of choice language aimed in your direction!  Scoring there was a delight to me.  I just used to turn round to the crowd and bow three times to them.” 

“Everton have always been noted for going out on the pitch to play football. We got called the School of Science quite rightly.  The other lot, the Reds…. well they were a gang of butchers! …. they should have been working in an abattoir.  McNab, McKinlay, the Wadsworths.  God bless my soul.  They’d kick an old woman!” 

Dixie on the record, “People ask me if that 60-goal record will ever be beaten.  I think it will.  But there’s only one man who’ll do it.  That’s that feller who walks on the water.  I think he’s about the only one.”

Dixie to George Best on escalating players' earnings, "When I was playing I couldn't afford a pair of boots never mind boutiques"

Alex Young on Dixie, “Dixie was unique.  A legend.  An icon.  The superlatives rain upon him and rightly so because his feats still seem unbelievable.  I feel privileged and honoured to be one of the players to have pulled on that Everton No 9 jersey and followed in the footsteps of a football giant.”

Bill Dean with Joe Mercer

---

Some nice pieces I’ve found immortalising our shining star:

The Ballad of Dixie Dean © Gerry Murphy 1980

On the Banks of the river Mersey
It is morning in the streets
There’s a boy in a football jersey
Playing music with his feet
He is bound for greater glory
Than the North End has ever seen
Generations will tell the story
Of the legendary Dixie Dean

He’s a child of the dockside
In the age of the First World War
He is a railway worker’s boy child
In the days when they had nothing at all
He is the hunter in that frozen field
In pursuit of a leather case ball
Little does he know he is going to be
The greatest of them all

Chorus: The children sing “Good old Billy Dean
You are the greatest centre-forward ever seen
How they say it is a pleasure to have been
To see you play
You are the legend of sixty goals
In one league season all told
The king of St. Domingo Road
And Liverpool Bay”

Well he started out at Tranmere
And “Dixie” became his name
From the ‘pool, Birkenhead
And all over Lancashire
In their thousands they came
He was the Goodison Park gladiator
He was working class royalty
And as the man strode up
to take the FA Cup in 1933

The children sing “Good old Billy Dean
You are the greatest centre-forward ever seen
How they say it is a pleasure to have been
To see you play
You are the legend of sixty goals
In one league season all told
The king of St. Domingo Road
And Liverpool Bay”

On the field he gave his best
He was always head and shoulders ‘bove the rest
And when he scored, how they roared
And they yelled for more
To meet a cross how he leapt
And the ball would more than likely hit the net
And when he died, grown men cried
to see such a brave one die

So on the banks of the river Mersey
We may be mourning in the street
Still the boys in their football jerseys
Play their music with their feet
They are bound for greater glory
In the ranks of our football teams
You can bet they will all know the story
Of the legendary “Dixie” Dean

So goodbye Dixie Dean,
You are the greatest centre-forward ever seen
How they say it is a pleasure to have been
To see you play
You are the legend of sixty goals
In one league season all told
The king of St Domingo Road
The best of all time so goodbye
You’ll never fade away.

 

From local writer, John Davies:

Dear dear Dixie Dean 

Dear dear Dixie Dean 
King of the thirties soccer scene
All-time goalscorer supreme:
Boy that must have made you scream.

Lauded in Goodison's sacred halls
Your pictures are on all its walls
Your footwork meant you took some falls
We also know it took some balls

They say you had a plate in your head
From a bike accident you might have been dead
Still loads of your goals were headers they said
We're glad you wore blue and never red

Fearless Dixie through every debacle
You wouldn't let defenders raise a hackle
You never would pull out of a tackle
Despite the effect it could have on your tackle

Dixie's records stretch footy knowledge
Blues' bets on him they'd never hedge
To honour him I'll eat, I pledge
A fitting meal - meat and one veg.

 

From Keith Armstrong, poet.

Dixie Dean - ‘Footballer To The Queen’

A leg
you swung and shook and balanced on;
a muscled lever
that launched you
up above the crowds,
like a fresh salmon
leaping for the net,
was hacked off
this afternoon;
severed,
bleeding goals from yesterday.

Away
from the floodlights,
on the sooty terraces
of retirement,
the careful surgeons
knifed
through,
with a bullet-head,
the baggy and square
defenders of our time.

Now
they are pickling
the lonely leg,
the explosive boot,
its ankle-pad,
its foot

swollen with kicks.

Bottling it up
for the boardroom scene,
labelled:

Dixie Dean — Footballer to the Queen

From an unknown fan;

A long time ago when I was a lad,
Folk spoke of a genius Everton had,
The greatest goal scorer the world's ever seen,
Who went by the name of William Ralph Dean.

This man was so lethal with the flick of his head,
He'd leave goalies flat out as if they were dead,
This working class hero was humble and poor,
He never bragged of the goals that he scored,

No flashy clothes, and no trendy car,
He'd drink with the fans in the Gwladys Street bar,
He never cared much for money or fame,
He just loved the Blues and the footballing game.

Though I was too young to have seen Dixie play,
His feats are remembered and talked of today.
I grew up an urchin down old Scotty Road,
No shoes on my feet, and a small, snotty nose,

We kicked cans on the cobbles
each kid with one dream,
One day we'd be legend's,
just like Dixie Dean."

 

Dixie Dean trophy shield

It is inscribed:

'Presented to William Ralph Dean (Everton and England) by The Everton FC Supporters Federation Club. To Commemorate his Football League Goal Scoring Record of 60 League Goals. Season 1927-1928'

The smaller medallions on the shield represent the matches that Dixie scored goals in during that season. Each one is individually engraved with the team played, a H or A for a Home or Away match, and the number of goals Dixie scored. (You can also see an arrow which someone, presumably a proud Evertonian has added which points to the game against Liverpool Football Club!).

I hope that I have done Dixie some justice in this short article, a small insight to this giant amongst men.  Oh for a Dixie now!  When Everton play Preston pre-season these days I go into the Football museum and watch Dixie play on some old Pathé News reel.  I get mesmerised and watch him over and over again.  I don’t think I’ve seen the start of any of the Preston games because of the old film of Dixie! 

I would like to dedicate this article to my Dad, William Macdonald — another Bill, my other hero, who like I say was there to see history being made when Dixie scored the 60th goal. It’s because of my Dad that I write such things about Everton and care so much.  He introduced me to these rollercoaster fortunes of the club way back in the late 60s when I was just a small child.

If Joe Royle, Alex Young, Bob Latchford and Graham Sharp - all of whom I have seen play - were not half as good as Dixie then he must have been some player. And he was!  

Yours sincerely
Ian Macdonald EISA

ps: Since I first wrote part of this article a few years ago, Wayne Rooney (our hopes of another Dixie) has left without a fight or a look back.  Geoffrey Dean, Dixie’s son, has died and, most important of all to me personally, my father William Macdonald has passed away. Thank you Dad for introducing me to the Everton extended family.

Mr William Macdonald, who was at Goodison Park to witness Dean scoring his 60th goal, at the unveiling of Dean's statue

A fanatical Evertonian's tribute to Dixie in North Merseyside, I hope he does not mind me showing this great Blues passion of ‘Our Dixie’.

William Ralph Dean: "Footballer.  Gentleman.  Evertonian."