By most personal accounts offered by those familiar with the late Anthony “Toe” Dill, lovingly laid to rest on October 8 after a courageous battle against cancer, he was one of the premier athletic talents of his era.

All remember the flamboyantly dynamic Dill, who starred in athletics and as a fleet-footed member of the vaunted Young Men’s Social Club Bluebirds football team during the sport’s golden era of the 1960s and 1970s, and possessed a personality as demure off the field as it was expressive once the whistle blew or the starter’s gun exploded.

The fastest of the Social Club forward triumvirate, which also included brothers Fred “Pinks” Lewis and Mel Lewis, Dill was also known for his inventiveness and willingness to try moves during matches that many would not think to attempt beyond “backyard kicks”.

While his moves sometimes amazed in their effectiveness, not always did such experiments yield the desired result, as illuminated by cousin and occasional opponent Shervin Dill.

“Toe Dill was a complete athlete and his contribution to football was outstanding,” said Dill, a former North Village player and now club president. “He was also a sprinter up at the Technical Institute and was the fastest runner in the country, which aided and abetted his ability to play football.

“Toe always played outside of the norm and would do some crazy things during the course of a game.

“He was the first one I saw do a scissor kick to cross the ball, and one time he did a scissor kick to take a penalty and the ball went outside for a throw-in — but that was the type of player he was. He was extraordinary; you never knew what he was going to do.”

Wendell Furbert, who played full back for Devonshire Colts, has a more intimate recollection of Dill, given that it was generally his duty to keep the left winger quiet.

“Toe was very difficult to play against because he had a huge heart for the game and always wanted to play at a very high level,” Furbert explained. “He understood what his role was as a winger, which was to get by me and score a goal or set one up.

“I always had to bring my track shoes — not football boots — when we played because I had to keep up with Toe.

“But he was a very humble guy as well. Not boisterous or anything; his love for the game showed through.”

As mentioned, Dill is greatly remembered for his partnership with the Lewis brothers, with Fred telling how the trio had grown up together, swiftly progressing through the ranks at Social Club and eventually starring on the international level for Bermuda.

The highlight was winning the bronze medal at the 1974 Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic.

Lewis eventually made his way into the professional ranks with the Philadelphia Atoms of the North American Soccer League, but locally he is probably most remembered for his linkage with Dill and brother Mal.

“We were around Social Club from primary-school days and came up through the junior team, the senior team and the national programme,” Lewis recalled. “Our partnership in the senior team started in the mid to late Sixties into the Seventies.

“My brother started playing a year or two before me, while Toe played junior football in the B Division.

“As youngsters we could only play one game with the senior team. If we played two games or more, we couldn’t play junior football.

“We both played with the national team and went on tours to the USA and played with PHC when they went on a tour to England after they won the league.

“We also toured Mexico along with Cal Dill as youngsters, along with Randy Horton, Jerry Wells, David Furbert in 1976, before the Olympics.”

To emphasise Toe Dill’s speed, Lewis told how the Bermudian once defeated New York Giants running back Rocky Thompson in a race set up while the American football player was in Bermuda preparing for an NFL Fastest Man competition.

“They would have a race between the running backs and the wide receivers, and Rocky was here preparing for the race,” Lewis said. “Toe beat him in a race up at the old National Stadium before Rocky went back away and won the competition.

“Toe was a really quiet guy who didn’t say a whole lot and let his play do the talking. He would try a lot of tricks and came up with a lot of things that guys never really thought about. And he would never show or tell you about these moves before he did them.

“Most of the guys that play up front, when they went for a cross they would head the ball on, but he came up with a thing where if a cross came head-high, he developed a technique to control it, just like guys would do with their feet.”

In terms of his professional career, Dill started working at age 18 at the Department of Public Works as an apprentice draughtsman before moving on to Burland, Conyers and Marirea as a bobcat operator. He then settled at Belco, where he spent the majority of his working life as a mechanical fitter in the powerhouse engine room.

Dill learnt much of his trade while a student at the Bermuda Technical Institute, where he struck up a keen friendship with Randy Richardson, a refrigeration and air-conditioning technician, who was also a highly skilled footballer.

Richardson, who grew up in St George’s and was a standout for St George’s Colts before being recruited to Social Club. A stylish centre back who took well to the libero style made famous by German great Franz Beckenbauer, Richardson became a pillar of the Bluebirds defence, as well as for Bermuda.

“Toe and I met at Tech, where he was a year ahead of me,” began Richardson. “Shervin Dill was in my class and Toe, Wendell Dill, Donnie Simmons, those guys were a year ahead of us.

“But all of us, along with OJ Pitcher’s daddy, Oliver, Lovell Butterfield, we were at Tech, which had A, B and C teams that played against all of the other schools.

“We played on Thursday afternoons at Frog Lane, and those games were like First Division games because of the amount of quality players that were involved.

“Tony and Donnie played in the B team, while myself and Shervin, we were in the C team. Tony was fast, but he was not just about speed; he was good.

“I would rate Toe Dill among the top ten of all the players I’ve ever seen in Bermuda. Maybe even the top five; that’s how good he was.

“Even after he was set back by a couple of injuries, he was able to come back and rate among Bermuda’s best.”

Richardson told how the installation of floodlights at the site of the old Robert Crawford School allowed for he, Dill and others to train deep into the night, honing the skills that helped to establish Bermuda as a power in the Concacaf region at a time when the country regularly got the better of the United States, while giving the likes of Canada, Mexico and Central American nations all they could handle.

Dill left a significant legacy in the local game, which is carried on today by youngest son Antwan Russell, the player-coach at Paget Lions and grandson Enrique Russell, a forward with league champions PHC.

His latter years saw Dill take a liking to golf, and he spent a lot of time playing at Belmont Hills Golf Course, which is owned by Newstead, where he worked post-retirement from Belco.

Recently, a golf tournament was held at Belmont in aid of Dill’s medical expenses.

Furbert may have offered the greatest respect in reflecting on the overall heritage of Dill, the husband and longtime partner of Delores Cholmondeley-Dill.

“My understanding tells me that it’s not something I should feel sad about,” he said. “He made a very positive contribution in the life that he lived.

“He left a good mark as a human being.”