Born this day in 1922 is Dickie Davis – no, not the extravagantly coiffured ITV sports presenter of the 1980s, but the versatile goal-scorer of the forties and fifties.
Born in the shadow of Villa Park, Dickie graduated through local school football and Morris Jacobs FC (the motor company’s works team), winning schoolboy international honours. He signed for Sunderland shortly after his seventeenth birthday in 1939, but at the outbreak of war a few months later he returned home.
His football during World War Two was with Villa as the Football League was suspended and replaced by the War League, but as Sunderland were in the Northern section and Villa the Southern, Dickie never faced the dilemma of facing his “real” club. His Sunderland debut came late in 1946 against Leeds, as Jackie Robinson’s goal earned us a 1-1 draw. Dickie scored four times is thirteen games that season, and was our top scorer with ten the following year - but in the 49-50 campaign managed 25, making him the last Sunderland player to top the Division One scoring chart until Kevin Phillips 50 years later.