Dixie Dean - an extract from Sligo Rovers’ history
SEVERAL English football icons wound down their careers with spells in Irish football – Gordon Banks at St Patrick’s, Bobby Charlton with Waterford, Geoff Hurst at Cork Celtic.
But they were fleeting arrangements.
Dixie Dean’s links with Sligo Rovers are enduring - for almost three- quarters of a century.
If you’re reading this book you’ll already be acutely aware that Dixie accepted an invitation to cross the Irish Sea in 1939 and play for ‘ The Bit O’Red’.
You will also know he inspired Sligo to their first FAI Cup final and fired them to runners- up spot in the league.
But you may not know that such was the impression Dixie made on Sligo - and more significantly that Sligo made on Dixie – that he was invited back in 1970 as guest of honour when Sligo reached the Cup Final again.
And 43 years after that, in the summer of 2013, three generations of Dixie’s family returned once again to Sligo, where they were treated with the reverence and hospitality that the great man himself surely received almost 75 years previously.
The occasion was the visit of Molde in the Champions League.
Dixie’s daughter Barbara, grand- daughter Melanie and great- grandchildren Daniel and Scarlett were invited onto the pitch at half- time, and the reception they received and the way they were looked after by attentive Sligo officials confirmed everything you have ever read about outstanding Irish hospitality.
I know because I married Dixie’s grand- daughter Melanie and was fortunate enough to be part of the party.
We loved our trip, just as Dixie clearly enjoyed his time in Sligo.
He later recalled: “When I joined them they were £ 200 in debt. They paid me £ 15 a week, all found, even off- the- field clothing and, in all, I scored 27 goals for them.
“At times it was pretty rough. In our match against Dundalk five players were sent off and the referee was carried off. But we did well and I enjoyed myself there. By reaching the Irish Cup final the club made £ 600 clear profit and they really celebrated, I can tell you!”
The extent of those celebrations quickly became apparent.
His Cup runners- up medal went missing amidst the post- final celebrations and was nowhere to be found.
He did finally get it back… almost seven years later in an anonymous parcel bearing an Irish postmark delivered to his appropriately- named pub ‘ The Dublin Packet’ in Chester.
Daughter Barbara – coincidentally born in the Dublin Packet – only had to wait 24 hours for her memento of the latest Dean visit to Sligo.
A crystal carriage clock with a beautifully poignant inscription was intended to be presented to her on the pitch at half- time, but couldn’t be found.
“That’s just the way things are here in Sligo,” smiled one of the Rovers officials.
It turned up the following day and a special presentation was made at the County Museum in Stephen Street, in front of a display case containing many artefacts of her celebrated dad, by the Mayor of Sligo, Marcella McGarry.
Then in an historic photographic opportunity daughter Barbara donned the 131- year- old chain of office worn by her father in 1939.
“In appreciation of Dixie Dean’s services to Sligo,” was the message on the clock. The appreciation was two- way Seventy- four years ago Dixie recalled his departure from Sligo.
“We had a banquet in Dublin and I came back on the night boat,” he said.
“At the banquet the Sligo chairman Mr Flattery handed me an envelope. I didn’t know what was in it. I thought he might have bought me a couple of ties or something.
“But when I opened it on the boat I found 80 quid in it, in English pound notes.
“In those days I don’t think the difference used to be a shilling in the pound. Sligo must have thought as highly of me as I did about them. They wanted to see goals and, well, they got some.”
The town of Sligo clearly thought just as highly of Dean. His family think just as highly of the town of Sligo.