Dixie Dean was one of the greatest footballers of his generation and many of his goalscoring records still stands to this day.
Dean grew up an Everton fan and would go on to be one of their greatest players in history amassing 349 league goals in 399 appearances between 1925 and 1937.
There is even a statue of the legend outside Goodison Park that has been there since 2001.
His iconic moment came in the 1927/28 season when he set a record for the most league goals scored in an English season.
The striker found the back of the net an astonishing 60 times in the league that campaign with the last of those coming on May 5, 1928 – exactly 92 years ago.
On the final day of the season, Dean needed three goals to better George Camsell’s tally of 59 and he did so by scoring a hat-trick against Arsenal in a 3-3 draw at Goodison Park.
What makes it even more remarkable was he was just 21 years of age at the time.
After a five-goal haul against Manchester United, opposing goalkeeper Lance Richardson told a reporter: “Dean is the best forward I have met. There was no fluke about his goals. Two or three of them passed me like cannonballs. His placing was the inch.”
On his record, Dean joked: “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 feller who walks on water. I think he’s about the only one.”
And he was right. The record still stands to this day with no one coming close and not likely to either.
Dean is third on the all-time topscorer list for goals scored in the English top flight with 310 in 362 games (one of his Everton seasons came in the second tier).
Only Jimmy Greaves (357) and Steve Bloomer (314) rank ahead of him.
Much of the information we have to rely on about Dean, and just how good he was, comes second hand because it was so long ago.
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There is scant video footage of him but some of the quotes from legends of the game give us an idea of his talents.
Liverpool great Bill Shankly said: “Dixie was the greatest centre forward there will ever be. His record of goalscoring is the most amazing thing under the sun.
“He belongs in the company of the supremely great like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt.”
Alex Young, who won the league with Everton in 1962/63, said: “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.”
