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 Jack-of-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 the legendary Billy Steel in the early 1950s.
Being a life-long fan, Kenny, who is chairman of the Dundee Supporters’ Association and club historian, knows only too well following the club involves pain as well as pleasure.
Remaining true to that, he’s included some dark days, a few of which he feels illustrate what a crazy ride those 124 years have been.
“One I found interesting was Saturday, April 30, 1938. Having won 5-0 at Somerset Park just a few weeks earlier with almost the same team, Dundee needed to beat Ayr at Dens to avoid being relegated for the first time ever.
“They could only draw, went down and, because of the war, had to wait a long time to get back up.”
Maybe it’s because of historical twists like that, but Kenny reveals even the dates he regards as his favourites have a link to darker times.
“It would be easy to name the days we won trophies or promotion but my own favourite is January 25, 2004.
“That was the day of what became known as the Monopoly Derby when United fans were waving Monopoly money at us because we’d just gone into administration.
“It also happens to be my birthday, but the main thing for me was Dundee won and, as I say in the book, we were down but still fighting.
“My second favourite relates to another period of administration. The day that happened again was probably the worst in the club’s history because they were so close to closing, but it did lead to the Deefiant run.
“For me, the highlight of that was when the manager now, Neil McCann, came out of retirement to help out and scored a 94th-minute winner against Raith Rovers on February 12, 2011.
“Moments like that are so precious, you can’t make them up and I hope I’ve managed to include a few of them in the book.”
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