After signing from Tranmere Rovers in 1925 for £3,000, Dixie scored 32 goals in his first season as an Everton player. The league record at the time was 38 goals, but his chances of beating this record were doubted following a motorcycle accident in 1926. He sustained horrific injuries and was told he would never play football again. He did play again and such was his aerial expertise that many believed surgeons had left a steel plate in his head after his life-saving surgery! Dixie was never once booked or dismissed despite the kind of desperate tackles from the opposition that once saw him lose a testicle in a game.

In his record breaking season 1927-28, Dixie scored in each of the first nine games, including all five against Manchester United. He went on to score three against Liverpool and a double against Aston Villa, meaning that Dixie entered the last match of the season against Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal requiring a hat trick for the magical sixty. Two goals took him to 59, and with 5 minutes to go, Dixie’s head met a cross ball and Dixie’s Sixty was complete.

For a man who is so revered at Everton Football Club, it is fitting that he died at Goodison Park in March 1980, minutes after the final whistle of a derby match. A true legend.

“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.” Alex Young