Tom Black was interested to recently read in the Tele that Dundee players were to be subjected to a rigorous training schedule.
“Two former Dundee players stand out in my memory as fitness fanatics,” said Tom.
“The first was an English goalkeeper Reuben Bennett, who was at Dens from 1944-49.
“He also had a massage parlour on Lochee Road.
“The second was Billy Steel.
“Team-mate Tommy Gallacher once commented that he was amazed to see Steel training on his own after the team session, doing acrobatics and ball juggling.”
Tom continued: “Reading Ian Redford’s biography, he described training at Dens Park as some running around and then going for a pint.
“My recollections of that included seeing Dens players in the Gowrie Snooker Hall in Lindsay Street most weekday afternoons in the 1950s.
“Even by today’s standards, footballers have such an easy time.
“Compare that to Andy Murray playing up to five sets three or four days in a week, each game can take over three hours, a tough match five hours.”
Tom, of Lawside Road, Dundee, has also supplied statistics which suggest the current Dundee FC are not scoring nearly as many goals as Dark Blues sides of the past.
“With the exit of John ‘Bomber’ Brown, mainly due to the lack of goalscorers, it brought to mind my early days of watching Dundee FC at Dens Park,” he stated.
“Ronnie Turnbull scored 39 goals in season 1944-45, while the famous Bert Juliussen netted 42 goals in season 45-46 and 33 the next campaign.
“In 46-47, Ernie Ewen ended up with 33 strikes to his name.
“Others to get decent amounts of goals from 44-47 were Ally Gunn, George ‘Pud’ Hill, Willie Anderson, Kinnaird Auchterlonie, Johnny Pattillo and Peter Rattray.”
Tom offered figures of the total scored by Dundee in that period as: 44-45 101 goals in the North-East Division (36 league matches); 45-46 92 in B Division (26); 46-47 113 in B Division (26).
Tom, a regular contributor to BwB, continued: “When I went to Dens Park as a nine-year-old at the end of the war, I expected to see Dundee FC win and score goals.
“Over the next seven years, I saw lots of goals and Dundee became the first team to win back-to-back League Cup Finals.
They beat Rangers 3-2 in front of the largest crowd ever for a League Cup Final (92,325), then won 2-0 against Kilmarnock.
“In between, they lost 4-0 to Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden in front of the post-war record crowd of 136,990, which has never been beaten.
“Dundee and Aberdeen currently remain as the only teams to beat the Old Firm in League Cup Finals.
“Those were the days.”
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