User:TheBigJagielka/Bill Dean

William Ralph Dean (22 January 1907 – 1 March 1980), better known as Dixie Dean, was an English football player and the most prolific goal-scorer in English football history,. Dean is best known for his legendary exploits at Everton, where he spent most of his career, won several major trophies and scored a club record of 383 goals. 

Early years
Dean was born at 325 Laird Street in Birkenhead, Cheshire a major town on the Wirral Peninsula. It is on the opposite side of the River Mersey to Liverpool. Dean grew up as a supporter of Everton.

During his youth he had played football for Laird Street School (Birkenhead), Moreton Bible Class, Heswall and Pensby United.

"Dixie" nickname
The popular theory regarding how Dean acquired the nickname Dixie is that he did so in his youth, perhaps due to his dark complexion and hair which bore a resemblance to people from the Southern United States. However the Tranmere Rovers historian Gilbert Upton uncovered evidence that the name 'Dixie' is a corruption of his childhood nickname, Digsy - acquired from his approach to the children's game of tag, where Dean would dig his fist into the girl's back, hence 'Digsy'.

Dean never appreciated the Dixie nickname and preferred people to call him or "Bill" or "Billy.

Tranmere Rovers
Dean initially played for his local club Tranmere Rovers before moving to Everton. Whilst at Tranmere, he was on the receiving end of a tough challenge which resulted in him losing a testicle.

Everton
He moved 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.

Dean suffered a fractured skull and jaw in 1926, when involved in a motorcycling accident at Holywell in North Wales. He recovered fully and went on to greater success at the club. In fact, the very next day he scored several headers. He is still the only player in English football to have scored 60 League goals in one season (1927-28). In the same season Everton won the First Division title. Although Everton were relegated to Second Division in 1930, Dean stayed with them, and the club subsequently won the Second Division in 1931, followed by the First Division again in 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933 (in which he scored in the final itself) - a sequence of success not matched since.

By then, Dean was captain of the side. However, the harsh physical demands of the game (as it was played then) took their toll, and he was dropped from the first team in 1937.

Notts County
Dean went on to play for Notts County

Sligo Rovers
At 32, Dean signed for Irish team Sligo Rovers in January 1939 in time to help the club with their FAI Cup campaign. On his arrival, the Railway Pub in Sligo town centre was said to be crammed with wondrous locals, clamouring to catch a glimpse of the legendary player. He scored 10 goals in seven games for the Connacht club including 5 in a 7-1 win over Waterford which remains a club record for the most goals scored in a single game.

He also played four Cup matches scoring once. His goal came in the final against Shelbourne which ended in a 1-1 draw, Shelbourne taking the replay 0-1. Subsequently, Dean’s runners up medal was stolen from his hotel room. On a return trip to Ireland to watch Rovers 39 years later in the 1978 cup final a package was delivered to his hotel room with the medal inside.

Ashton United
He ended his professional playing days with Hurst F.C. in the Cheshire County League, managing two games and one goal before the outbreak of war truncated his career.

International career
Dean made his début for the England national football team against British rivals Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham February 1927 less than a month after his 20th birthday.

The only international competition during Dean's international career was the inaugural FIFA World Cup which took place in 1930 but England did not participate.

His final game for England came in the form of a 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland in October 1932 at Blackpool F.C.'s Bloomfield Road when Dean was 25 years old.

In total Dean represented England 16 times and scored 18 goals in 8 games including hat-tricks against Belgium, France (scored 4 goals) and Luxembourg.

Post-football career
After retiring, he went on to run the Dublin Packet pub in Chester, England, (Everton and the Dublin Packet commemorates this with memorabilia) and work at Littlewoods Football pools as a porter at their Walton Hall Avenue offices, where he was remembered by fellow workers as a quiet, unassuming man.

Death
In November 1976 he had his right leg amputated due to a blood clot. His health was waning and Dean could not leave his house as much as he would like to.

Dean died on 1 March 1980, aged 73 after suffering a Heart attack at Everton's home ground Goodison Park whilst watching a match against their closest rivals, Liverpool. It was the first time that Dean had visited Goodison Park for several years due to ill-health. "Dixie was the greatest centre-forward there will ever be, He belongs to the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt."

Legacy
Dean was an internationally renown figure and military records show that during the second world war an Italian prisoner of war was captured by British troops, clearly unhappy about the predicament the Italian told the British "fuck your Winston Churchill and fuck your Dixie Dean" which exemplifies how highly regarded he was.

In May 2001, local sculptor Tom Murphy completed a statue of Dean which was erected outside the Park End of the stadium at a cost of £75,000 carrying the inscription, "Footballer, Gentleman, Evertonian".

In 2002 Dean became an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame.

There is an award named the "Dixie D ean" which is given to the Merseyside player of the year, it has has been won by players of his former clubs Tranmere and Everton - and even Liverpool F.C.

When asked if he thought his record of scoring 60 goals in a season would be broken, he said: "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 the fellow that walks on the water. I think he's about the only one."

In total, Dean scored 383 goals for Everton, in 433 appearances, an exceptional strike-rate, including 37 hat-tricks. Modern scoring rates are lower, so both that record, and the record of 60 League goals in a season, are unlikely to be broken. He was also known as a very professional player, never booked or sent off throughout his entire career despite suffering rough treatment and provocation from opponents.

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 Dean spent only a single season in the Second Division while Rowley spent several seasons in the third and fourth divisions.

Everton

 * League Championship: 2 (1928, 1932)
 * Second Division Championship: 1 (1931)
 * FA Charity Shield:2 (1928, 1932)
 * FA Cup: 1 (1933)
 * Central League Championship: 1 (1938)

Sligo Rovers

 * League of Ireland Runners Up: 1 (1939)
 * FAI Cup Runners Up: 1 (1939)

Individual

 * England Caps: 16
 * England Goals: 18
 * Football League Representative Appearances: 6
 * Football League Representative Goals: 9
 * 'Sunday Pictorial Trophy' for 60 League Goals in 1927-28
 * Lewis's Medal to commemorate 200 league goals in 199 appearances
 * Hall of Fame Trophy (1971)
 * Football Writers' Association inscribed silver salver (1976)
 * Inaugural inductee in The National Football Museum Hall of Fame (2002)