ONE LOVE

Dixie was such a legend at Celtic that even musical icon Bob Marley wanted to get a picture with one of Scottish football's greatest ever goalscorers

- GORDON PARKS

ONE LOVE. And one story about John 'Dixie' Deans meeting Bob Marley is Tam Callaghan's fitting obituary for the passing of a Celtic great.

The son of former Hoops hero Tommy senior recalls a striker like no other with a sense of humour summed up in a chance meeting with the music icon and Celtic fan.

Callaghan's sadness at the loss of a close family friend begins with an unlikely tale from Dixie's time in Australia.

He said: "Dixie was a brilliant man, I loved him. He was my dad's best pal along with George McCluskey. I saw loads of him through my life and I'm just off the phone to my son Thomas who lives in Adelaide. Dixie played in Adelaide for a year and Thomas would meet Dixie for a coffee.

"He was a funny, funny man and his patter was brilliant.

"Dixie used to tell a story about when he was in Adelaide and Bob Marley was in the city at the same time. Dixie kept a picture of the two of them together in his wallet for the rest of his life. But, in true Dixie style, he always claimed it was Bob who wanted a picture with him, not the other way round!" The loss of Deans - who also starred for Motherwell - at the age of 79 is another sore blow for a generation of Celtic fans who have seen so many of their heroes from the 1960s and 1970s pass away.

And Callaghan's poignant tribute underlines how much of a character Deans was as a player and person.