Make a date with latest Dundee book

IF any Dundee fan worth their salt was asked to name the significance of the date April 28, there’s a fair chance without a hint of hesitation they’d be able to tell you.

It was, of course, on that date their club celebrated their one and only Scottish title with a 3-1 victory over St Johnstone at Muirton in 1962.

If that goes down as the greatest day in the Dark Blues’ history, given they’ve been around for 124 years now, there are very few dates on the calendar that haven’t seen some event of note.

With that in mind, Dens Park Jackof-all-trades Kenny Ross has just brought out his latest Dee-related book, Dundee FC On This Day.

It’s a diary of happenings on any given day and, in keeping with an eventful history, as he put the book together Kenny discovered there are very few dates when his favourite team have never seen action.

“Researching the book I could find just seven days in the year when Dundee haven’t played a game, though I’m told by people who’ve done similar books that’s quite a low number.”

There’s a good reason for that. As older fans may remember, as well as many other adventures down the years, Dundee were always a club who liked to travel the world.

“Late June and early July tend to be the times when you struggle to find games but, thanks to summer tours to places like South Africa in the 1950s and Australia and New Zealand in the 70s, Dundee have played a few games around then.

“So, for the record, the only dates you can’t find a match on are 25, 29, 30 of June and July 2, 3, 5 and 8.”

For Kenny, though, the book was more than about just finding games to fill dates. He took time to include details of when many big off-field moments took place.

For instance, it was on one of those game-less dates — July 3 — that George Anderson joined the board in 1944. As owner/manager, he brought two League Cups to Dens as well as