Dundee’s newest man between the sticks, Adam Legzdins, is the club’s 94th goalkeeper in its 127-year history.
And the Englishman will be hoping to join the long list of top-class goalies to have been the last line of defence at Dens Park.
Pat Liney, Bill Brown, Bobby Geddes, Ally Donaldson, Thomson Allan, George Anderson, Julian Speroni and Rab Douglas are just the No 1s in the Dundee Hall of Fame.
That’s eight goalkeepers to have been given that honour while the Player of the Year award has been won by goalies five times.
Chronicling every single goalkeeper and profiling the many talents to have played for the Dark Blues is Dundee Goalkeeping Greats, a new book from club historian Kenny Ross.
“The club has been blessed with goalkeepers in its time,” said Kenny.
“In modern times we’ve had a number winning Player of the Year – Rab Douglas three times, Kyle Letheren, Scott Bain, we’ve had a really good record with goalkeepers in recent times.
“Going further back you look at Thomson Allan, who went to a World Cup, Ally Donaldson is our record clean sheet holder and wrote the foreword for the book, Pat Liney won the league title, Bert Slater was a European Cup hero.
“Then you’ve got Bill Brown in the 1950s, so many names.
“Rab Geddes is another in the Hall of Fame and is still at the club, then Julian Speroni in the 2000s.”
And it was the Argentine favourite who sparked the idea for the book as he prepared for his testimonial match for Crystal Palace with his former love Dundee as the opponents.
“The genesis of the idea came a few years ago when I was helping out as part of the Hall of Fame committee and I realised how many goalkeepers had been inducted in recent years,” Kenny said.
“It really started off when Julian Speroni was being inducted to the Hall of Fame and I was speaking to him at the dinner. He asked me to write an article for his testimonial programme which I was delighted to do.
“Then I had done one for Rab Douglas when he did a charity fundraising dinner at the Invercarse so I already had a couple of them done.
The glory days
“And lockdown gave me the chance to finally write the whole thing.
“Going back through history there are so many wonderful anecdotes and stories.”
Some of the profiles hark back right to the beginnings of the club in 1893, taking in the World Wars and right up to the glory era of the 1950s and 60s.
Mentions of Bill Shankly’s famous boot room at Liverpool as well as one of the club’s greatest managers are included.
There’s also a family tie with Courier columnist Jim Crumley writing the profile of his grandfather Bob Crumley.
International recognition
“Going right back there were ‘Crumley’s Boys’ as the team in the early part of the 20th century were known – Bob Crumley was the goalkeeper,” Kenny said.
“His profile is written by his grandson, Jim Crumley. So that was a very personal piece written about Bob Crumley who went blind and suffered from shellshock from World War One.
“If you go right back to the start of the club and the first-ever season, Dundee had three players capped for Scotland and one was goalkeeper Francis Barrett. Then in the 1900s Dundee were runners up in the league three times and the goalkeeper then, Billy Muir, was capped.
“There’s also George Anderson, who was most famous as one of the club’s great managers, winning the League Cup with guys like Billy Steel in the team.
“He was a goalkeeper in his playing days and played for Dundee in 1917/18. Aberdeen didn’t play during World War One so Anderson joined on loan and ended up winning every competition Dundee entered into.
“There’s also Reuben Bennett, who was part of the famous boot room of Bill Shankly’s Liverpool. He won the B Division in his time at Dundee.
“There is also a great Bennett story he used to tell of being a hardman at Dundee.
“He said he was knocked unconscious in a game at Dens and was taken to hospital.
“He tells that he woke up in the DRI, left the hospital, ran up the Hilltown and then paid to get back into Dens and finished the game!”
The book includes every goalkeeper to have worn the shirt – great and not so great – until the end of last season, including young Harrison Sharp who made his debut against Elgin last year.