May 5, 1928: Dixie Dean Scores 60 Goals In a Season

May 5, 1928: Everton Football Club play Arsenal Football to a 3-3 draw at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Everton's biggest star, forward William Ralph Dean Jr., known as "Dixie" Dean, scores all their goals -- his 58th, 59th and 60th of the Football League Division One season. This remains, far and away, a record for English soccer's top division.

The preceding Saturday, April 28, Dean had scored 4 goals in Everton's 5-3 win away to Lancashire team Burnley. Huddersfield Town defeated Portsmouth, 4-1 at Leeds Road in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. As a result, Everton clinched the League title.

They finished 2 points ahead of Huddersfield, 53 to 51, with 2 points for a win at the time. In fact, Everton had clinched the League title on May 2, despite not being scheduled, when Huddersfield, in a makeup game, lost to Aston Villa, 3-0 at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Had Huddersfield won that game, Everton would have needed at least a draw against Arsenal to take the League title. With a draw, the title would have been decided on goal ratio. In which case, having Dean would have been more key than he already was, in this, Everton's 50th Anniversary season, having been founded in 1878.

Born on January 22, 1907, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, across the River Mersey from Liverpool, William Jr. had been taken to a game by William Sr. in the team’s last title season, 1915, and made him a fan for life. His nickname was unfortunate: Some people thought his dark complexion made him look like a black man of the American South, and so he was nicknamed "Dixie."

Dixie Dean was a lifelong resident of that city. He and his contemporary, American baseball pitcher Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, almost certainly never knew of each other. It is also unlikely that Dean knew much about another baseball star, George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who, the previous September 30, completed a record-setting season of 60 home runs.

Dixie Dean helped Everton win the League title again in 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933. Oddly, he was not selected for the England team that beat World Cup winners Italy, 3-2 at Arsenal's home, Highbury, in 1934. His Everton teammate, right half Cliff Britton, was selected. And, since a dispute with FIFA meant that none of Britain's "Home Nations" competed in the World Cup until 1950, Dean never played in the World Cup. Nor was he, or any other Everton player, included in the 1935 match in which England defeated Nazi Germany at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane.

Dean died on March 1, 1980, of a heart attack, in the stands at Goodison Park, while watching Everton play their arch-rivals, Liverpool Football Club. He was 73 years old. A statue of him now stands outside the stadium. His total of 60 goals in one season remains the record for the top division in any of the Home Nations: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or (no longer part of the United Kingdom) the Republic of Ireland

Bill Shankly, who starred for Preston North End in the 1930s before coaching Liverpool F.C. to glory in the 1960s and '70s, said of Dixie Dean, "He belongs to the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt." As much as any British athlete of the decade, he made "The Roaring Twenties" roar, but he was timeless.

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May 5, 1928 was a Saturday. This was also the day that the famed West Indies cricket team debuted. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at Yankee Stadium. George Pipgras pitched a 7-hit shutout. Babe Ruth went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. Lou Gehrig went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-3 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Mel Ott went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson managed them) beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Watson Clark outpitched future Hall-of-Famer Jesse Haines. Del Bissonette and Harry Riconda hit home runs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Ty Cobb, playing for the A's against his former team, went 2-for-5. Tris Speaker, also wrapping up his career with the A's, went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 6-5 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Braves, 6-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Paul Waner went 1-for-4. Lloyd Waner went 3-for-4. For the Braves, Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Although it was the 1st Saturday in May, which is the traditional date of the running of the Kentucky Derby, that was not yet traditional. In 1928, the Derby was run on May 19, and Reigh Count won it. His son, Count Fleet, won the Triple Crown in 1943.