Dean's record season recalled 80 years on

Dick White remembers clearly his father's words on the day "Dixie" Dean scored his 60th league goal in a single season, even though the still-standing record-breaking feat happened 80 years ago:

"Well, son, you have been privileged to see the great man achieve something that will never be surpassed."

It was May 5, 1928 and William Ralph Dean had just entered soccer folklore.

The Everton striker went into the final league game of the 1927/28 season needing a hat-trick to surpass the 59-goal mark that Middlesbrough's George Camsell had set in the previous campaign, in the second division.

The 21-year-old Dean had hit four in his previous outing at Burnley. Now, with Everton already crowned champions, 60,000 spectators packed into Goodison Park hoping to see him add the icing to the championship cake.

Dean made a dream start with two early goals, one a penalty. At halftime the score stood at 2-2 but, as the clock ticked on, the atmosphere grew tense.

"He only needed one goal and I can remember vividly that mounting tension: 'Oh he's not going to do it after all this'," recalled White, then 10 years old.

"Then we got this corner that Alec Troup, the left winger, swung over and the great man, of course, rose majestically and it was there. The explosion as it went into the net was absolutely fantastic. The place was bedlam." Just eight minutes remained of the season.

"All the players on the pitch, Arsenal and Everton, congratulated him and the referee too - all except one Arsenal player, Charlie Buchan."

Dean had stolen the thunder of Buchan, who was making his final career appearance in that 3-3 draw. "He was overshadowed and he didn't shake hands," added White of the player who went on to forge a reputation as one of the game's leading journalists.

HEADING PROWESS

Dean had joined Liverpool side Everton at 18, crossing the River Mersey from Tranmere Rovers.

Twice a league champion, he was famed for his heading prowess and his athleticism was such he could jump from a standing position on to a billiard table.

"His heading was supreme, especially when you think he was heading a leather ball made heavier by mud and rain and he would not merely head it into the net, but he would bring other players in, heading it down or even out to the wings," White told Reuters.

He also had immense courage. He lost a testicle after a dangerous challenge while playing for Tranmere and in 1926 suffered a fractured skull in a motorcycle accident.

According to his biographer John Keith, the latter episode enhanced the player's fame.

"If you invented the story people would dismiss it. He had this life-threatening motorcycle accident but within months he was heading the ball again. He had the metal plate from the operation taken out of his head but there was the myth that it never was removed and every hero needs a myth."

Dean, whose statue stands outside Goodison Park, scored 377 goals in 431 games for Everton and 18 in 16 England appearances and according to Keith was "a superstar before the word was invented".

His star quality once drew baseball great Babe Ruth to a game, where the American was astounded to hear how little Dean earned - eight pounds a week.

AUTOGRAPH SLIPS

After retiring from football, Dean became a publican and later worked for soccer pools company Littlewoods. Even then he would fill his pockets with autographed slips of paper in preparation for requests on outings to his local pub.

Former England captain Gary Lineker, scorer of 40 goals in all competitions for Everton in the 1985/86 season, says Dean's record will never fall.

"Football used to be really open in those days, everyone used to attack, and there were scores of 8-3 and 6-5," he said. "It's a different game now."

Dean's arrival at Everton coincided with a change to the offside law whereby only two, rather than three, opponents had to be between the attacker and the goal.

Dean, who had a leg amputated in 1976, died at Goodison after suffering a heart attack during a Merseyside derby on March 1, 1980.

Hours earlier, former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly had delivered a tribute to Dean at a lunch attended by Keith, who recalled: "Shankly stood up and delivered a eulogy that became his obituary. A tear came down Dixie's cheek. You couldn't script that - he died on his only visit to the derby match as a spectator."

"(Former team mate) Joe Mercer, his great friend, said: 'That's Dixie, he stage-managed that'."

Dean always had a sense of timing. Former Everton striker Bob Latchford recalled bumping into the Goodison hero after scoring his 30th league goal of the 1977/78 season.

"Dixie said, 'Well done, son. You did terrific today, I am really pleased for you'. Coming from Dixie I was on cloud nine. Then he added, 'Remember one thing, though - you're only half as good as I was!'."

($1=.5030 Pound)