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Dixie Dean
Personal information
Full name William Ralph Dean
Date of birth January 22, 1907
Place of birth Birkenhead, England
Date of death March 1, 1980
Place of death Liverpool, England
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1923–25 Tranmere Rovers F.C. 29 (27)
1925–37 Everton F.C. 399 (349)
1938–39 Notts County F.C. 9 (3)
1939–40 Sligo Rovers F.C.
International career
England 16 (18)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Ralph Dean (January 22, 1907 - March 1, 1980), popularly known as Dixie Dean, was an English football player and the most prolific goal-scorer in English football history,[1] best known for his legendary exploits at Everton.

Biography

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Born in Birkenhead, Merseyside, Dean initially played for his local club, Tranmere Rovers, before moving to his boyhood side, Everton, for a fee of £3,000 in 1925, and immediately made an impact, scoring 32 goals in his first full season.

Despite a serious motorcycle accident in 1926, in which he suffered a fractured skull and jaw, Dean fully recovered and went on to greater success at the club. He is still the only player in English football to have scored 60 League goals in one season (1927/28), a total that the entire Everton squad have surpassed just once since the inception of the Premiership. In the same season Everton won the Division One title. Although Everton were relegated to Division Two in 1930, Dean stayed with them, and the club subsequently, and uniquely, won the Second Division in 1931, followed by the First Division again in 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933 - a sequence of success not matched since.

By then, Dean was captain of the side. However, the harsh physical demands of the game took their toll, and he was dropped from the first team in 1937. Dean went on to play for Notts County and then Sligo Rovers in Ireland. After retiring, he went on to run a pub known as the Dublin Packet, and work at Littlewoods Football pools as a porter at their Cannon Place offices, where he was remembered by fellow workers as a quiet, unassuming man.

In total, Dean scored a total of 383 goals for Everton, in 433 appearances, an exceptional strike-rate. With modern scoring rates being much lower, both that record, and the record of 60 League goals in a season, are unlikely to ever be broken. He was also known as a very professional player, having never been booked or sent off throughout his entire career.

Only Arthur Rowley has scored more English league career goals, although it should be noted that while Rowley made 619 appearances, scoring 433 goals (0.70 goals per game), Dean scored 379 goals in 438 games (0.87 goals per game), and while Dean spent one prolific season in the Second Division, that was all, while Rowley spent several seasons in the third and fourth divisions.

He also made 16 appearances for England, scoring 18 goals. Six of those goals came in the way of hat-tricks. Dean scored three against Belgium in May 1927 and then another three against Luxemburg 10 days later.

His nickname "Dixie" is said to have been given to him by fans due to his dark complexion and curly black hair, which was, in their perception, similar to that of African-Americans in the Southern United States. Dean himself deeply disliked the moniker, preferring to be known as Bill.

Dean died from heart failure in 1980 at Goodison Park, Everton's home ground, whilst watching a match against their closest rivals, Liverpool. In 2001, a statue of Dean was erected outside the Park End of the stadium carrying the inscription, "Footballer, Gentleman, Evertonian." In 2002 Dean became an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame. In 2003, Littlewoods Football pools sponsored the ‘Dixie Dean Award’ for Everton Personality of the Year, at the Merseyside Sports Personality of the Year Awards. It was won by former Everton boss Howard Kendall.

Ability

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Dixie was a real legend of the game. His dribbling, running, shooting and ability to create goals for others were exceptional. But his most prestigious ability was his heading, he was known as one the most remarkable headers the game has ever seen. Dixie used to practice heading by using a medicine ball with fellow player Tommy Lawton. Many believe that he should be talked about in the same sentences as the likes of Pelé and Alfredo Di Stéfano but due to his achievements being pre-war, this is rarely the case. Bill Shankly, then manager of local rivals Liverpool, said (on the BBC) "those of us privileged to see Dean play, talk of him the way people talk about Beethoven, Shakespeare or Mozart, he was that good"

His goalscoring achievement, a lifetime record of 0.94 goals per game (Pele achieved 0.93), puts him in the same league as the true greats of sport, such as Bradman or Mark Spitz.

Achievements

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Awards

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The Ballad of Dixie Dean © Gerry Murphy 1980

I 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

II 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”

IV 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 F.A. Cup in 1933 The children sang

Chorus “Good old 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 And Liverpool Bay”

Middle On the field he gave his best He was always head and shoulders ‘bove the rest And when he scored, how they roared And the 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

V 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

Chorus 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.

References

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  1. ^ Beesley, Christopher (2007-01-11). "Living up to legend of number nines". Retrieved 2007-01-12.
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