The 35th Dixie Dean Memorial Award Evening took place at Goodison Park on Friday
Jack Grealish during an Everton training session at Finch Farm on October 20, 2026
Jack Grealish during an Everton training session at Finch Farm on October 20, 2026(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
View 4 Images
Just 24 hours earlier, Everton’s current left winger Jack Grealish was hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons but on Friday night, Blues came together at Goodison Park to salute a true Scouse talent who graced the ground.
Grealish, the first £100million English footballer, is one of the most gifted players of his era and we all know what an affable, kind and generous person he can be. However, as this correspondent and many other observers on the game have already noted, this week the Brummie ace badly let down manager David Moyes, his team-mates and the many thousands of Everton supporters by not turning up for a training session, an act which prompted the club to take disciplinary action and omit him from the squad to face Newcastle United in a potentially season-defining Carabao Cup tie.
Videoed singing: “One more year, one more year Jackie Grealish,” with pals at the Blues’ end of season awards back in May, everyone is also aware that the 31-year-old enjoys a night out.
But rather than going to some of the watering holes that he has frequented, a good starting point for his rehabilitation in learning what it means to be an Evertonian would have been to join myself and an enthralled audience, which included a True Blue Stephen McWilliam who sat next to me throughout and was great company, at the 35th Dixie Dean Memorial Award Evening in Goodison’s Alex Young Suite.
The trophy – a silver cup – was inaugurated by the ECHO following the passing of English football’s greatest goalscorer, inside the football cathedral he graced for the Blues, while watching a Merseyside derby on March 1, 1980. After this publication’s own awards nights ended, the baton was passed to the Everton FC Heritage Society to choose the annual recipients and with three generations of Dean’s family present – daughter Barbara, granddaughter Melanie and great-grandson Daniel – Johnny Morrissey is this year’s winner.
READ MORE: 'Never looked like a David Moyes signing' - Everton duo Brennan Johnson and Tyler Dibling questioned
READ MORE: Everton have James Garner hope but midfield conundrum as two players make life difficult
The magical evening began with a rendition of ‘The Ballad of Dixie Dean,’ by Gerry Markey before Everton FC Heritage Society members Jamie Yates and Rob Sawyer discussed their research on Dean’s motorcycle crash in North Wales ahead of his record-breaking 60-goal season and the centre-forward’s team-mates.
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info
It was magnificent to see one of the greatest footballing characters this city has ever produced take centre stage though as Morrissey, now 86 years young, still has a twinkle in his eye. One of the game’s most feared hard men – more of that to come – I hope I’m not embarrassing him to say that he also had a couple of tears too at times as he took out a handkerchief to wipe them away, but then I think many of us present did do as powerful images of former team-mates, some of whom are no longer with us, were projected out to the audience.
As a member of the Press, I’m not in the habit of posing for photographs with current professional footballers but after lining up to be snapped shaking Johnny’s hand, when I congratulated him, the old campaigner who was tough as teak on the pitch admitted that the adulation was all rather overwhelming.
Christopher Beesley congratulates Dixie Dean Memorial Award winner Johnny Morrissey
Christopher Beesley congratulates Dixie Dean Memorial Award winner Johnny Morrissey
View 4 Images
Make sure you never miss the latest Everton news and opinion by makingLiverpool Echo one of your Google preferred sources.
Born during the Second World War, on April 18, 1940, for those younger readers who might not be aware of Morrissey’s backstory, having grown up on Athol Street, off Scotland Road, his football journey actually began across Stanley Park with local rivals Liverpool. He made 37 appearances for the Reds, scoring six goals at a time when they were in the Second Division.
However, after failing to get a game throughout the entire 1961/62 season as the team won promotion to the top flight after a record-breaking eight-year absence, Morrissey was deemed surplus to requirements by Anfield top brass who sold him to neighbours Everton for £10,000 in September 1962 – behind manager Bill Shankly’s back.
The Scot was furious at the decision, tried to get the player to go back on the agreement and threatened to resign if similar actions ever happened again but the wide man was on his way to the Blues and would vindicate the move with the first of his two League Championships at Everton in that debut season with a second to follow in 1969/70.
With competition for places fierce at Goodison at the time, with the club dubbed ‘The Mersey Millionaires’ because of their generous financial backing from Littlewoods tycoon John Moores, Morrissey didn’t always have it his own way and he wasn’t selected as Harry Catterick’s side lifted the FA Cup in 1966 with a 3-2 comeback victory over Sheffield Wednesday. However, rather than his place being taken by a big money signing, it was a fellow Scouser, home-grown hero Derek Temple who was picked instead and scored the winning goal.
Now a fortnight shy of his 88th birthday, Temple – the winner of the Dixie Dean Memorial Award last year – delivered a moving speech via a video message, to congratulate Morrissey (as did Colin Harvey) and magnanimously conceded he’d have been a much better player himself had he possessed a left foot like his. There were also many moments of laughter, both when a tribute clip from David France showed the good doctor remarking that the “barrel-chested” winger “didn’t look like a footballer,” and when the man himself was asked about his playing exploits.
Morrissey revealed that Shankly had in time forgiven him for his defection ‘across the park,’ as after he had hung up his boots, he received a phone call from his former Liverpool manager, asking if he could join him in his regular five-a-side games with his mates from the Scotland Road area at the Vernon Sangster sports centre.
The Everton legend duly obliged but after several matches, word got out around the city about Shanks’ guest appearances – it’s tough to keep a secret, especially a football one, in Liverpool – huge crowds were turning up, swamping the car park and sprawling over the balcony at the venue so the Kop Idol respectfully bowed out and knocked his playing comeback on the head.
Everton legend Johnny Morrissey chats with David Prentice (top), receives the Dixie Dean Memorial Award from Peter Reid (centre) and salutes the audience as he walks away with his trophy (bottom)
Everton legend Johnny Morrissey chats with David Prentice (top), receives the Dixie Dean Memorial Award from Peter Reid (centre) and salutes the audience as he walks away with his trophy (bottom)
View 4 Images
When asked about which of the two title-winning Everton teams he played in was the best, Morrissey said: “We had the three best midfield players in the country and that tipped the edge. Bally, Kendall and Harvey, Alan Ball was absolutely marvellous.”
However, his interviewer David Prentice, who acted as compere, alongside another former ECHO head of sport Ken Rogers, couldn’t resist some questions about the award winner’s numerous on-field battles. He pointed out that Jimmy Greaves was remarked: “Johnny always got his retaliation in first,” but it was ding-dongs against ‘Dirty’ Leeds that dominated the conversation.
Prentice detailed how Jack Charlton had caused a furore in 1970 by declaring: “I cannot mention names but I have a little book with two names in it and if I get the chance to do them I will... I will make them suffer before I pack this game up.”
The England World Cup winner was charged by the FA for bringing the game into disrepute but writing over a quarter of a century later in his 1996 autobiography, stated: “I wouldn’t want to embarrass anyone now. Apart from Johnny Morrissey.”
Wondering what Morrissey had done to upset the centre-half, Prentice cited fan accounts that claimed the Everton man once stood over him after dispensing a challenge that left him writhing in agony on the turf, before asking: “Are you alright big fella?”
The octogenarian did recall the infamous ‘Battle of Goodison Park’ against Don Revie’s side in 1964 when the referee took both sides off the pitch for 11 minutes to calm down. Morrissey was somewhat shy about revealing the name of his marker that day, quipping that he doesn’t want to get sued – Prentice confirmed it was Paul Reaney – but the Everton legend remembers their tussles well.
He said: “I got this awful elbow, bang, the back of my head. I turned around and said: ‘Hey, behave yourself, what do you think you’re doing?’
“He told me: ‘Shut up you Scouse so and so, you’re getting plenty of it.’ So, I said: ‘Am I?’
“Before the game was over, he was asking the referee for protection!”
An angry fan is held back by Everton's Johnny Morrissey as he points at Leeds United's Billy Bremner at Goodison Park on November 7 1964
An angry fan is held back by Everton's Johnny Morrissey as he points at Leeds United's Billy Bremner at Goodison Park on November 7 1964(Image: Ernest Chapman/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
View 4 Images
Morrissey was also asked about another famous moment against the Yorkshire outfit when he netted the winning penalty against them at Old Trafford in the FA Cup semi-final in 1968. Joe Royle had been scheduled to be on Blues spot-kick duties that day but on the eve of the match, the centre-forward, who was still just a teenager at the time, admitted to manager Harry Catterick that he no longer fancied it.
Morrissey said: “I remember jumping up and going: ‘Penalty, penalty,’ and then realising, ‘Jesus, I’ve got to take it.’ I scored didn’t I?”
That remark brought the house down and almost 55 years on from the last time he pulled on the royal blue jersey, there were also chants of: “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Morrissey,” from the crowd. They did not cry: “There’s only one Johnny Morrissey,” because there were two and they were both in the room.
Also present was the Everton legend’s son, who himself turned out twice for the Blues in the 1984/85 season under Howard Kendall before going on to make 585 appearances across the water for Tranmere Rovers. A winger like his father, but mostly on the right rather than left flank, now 61, he divulged that his dad had taken him out in the back garden to teach him how to “go over the top” on opponents – when he was just eight years old!
As well as a brace of Johnny Morrisseys, there were also a pair of dual Everton title winners, as Peter Reid – who back in August picked Johnny senior in his all-time Blues best XI – gave an entertaining speech along with another former winger Ronny Goodlass.
Although Morrissey no longer goes to matches on a regular basis, alongside many former players did attend Everton’s final Goodison Park fixture against Southampton on May 18 last year and he finished his time centre stage with the words: “That’s the first result for me, Everton.”
Jack Grealish (Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
Jack Grealish (Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)