Scottish football mourns the man who led Wembley Wizards to ’67 triumph
Tributes paid to Ibrox legend who led Scots to victory over Sir Alf’s World Cup winners
TRIBUTES were last night paid to a true giant of Scottish football, after former national team boss and Rangers goalkeeper Bobby Brown died at the age of 96.
The first full-time manager appointed by Scotland was at the helm for one of the most famous days in their history, as they humiliated newly-crowned World Cup winners England at Wembley in 1967.
His lasting association with that 3-2 victory over the all-conquering English in their own backyard — in his first game in charge, no less — yielded a lasting affection among the footballing community for Brown.
But nowhere was the former Rangers goalkeeper — a Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee just five years ago and a Rangers Hall of Fame member since 2002 — more loved than at Ibrox.
As custodian behind the famous Iron Curtain defence that included such giants as George Young, Jock Shaw, Ian McColl, Willie Woodburn and Sammy Cox, Brown was part of the Rangers team who became the first Scottish side to win a domestic Treble in season 1948-49.
His overall medal haul from almost six years of service, famously never missing a league game and putting together an astonishing run of 179 consecutive matches, amounted to three League Championships, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups.
Current Rangers chairman Dave King led the tributes last night, saying: ‘All of us connected with Rangers are deeply saddened to hear that Mr Brown, a genuine Rangers and Scotland legend, has passed away. Our thoughts are with Mr Brown’s family at this time.
‘He was a wonderful servant of our club and we will remember him with great fondness. He was a gentleman of the game and set standards which typify what Rangers is about.’
Brown, signed by the great Bill Struth after earning Scotland recognition while still an amateur at Queen’s Park, remained part-time throughout his playing career — combining football with his job as a schoolmaster.
He was a volunteer with Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy in the Second World War, regularly turning out for the Combined Services team and making guest appearances for a number of English sides while posted down south.
After leaving Rangers in 1956, he played one season for Falkirk before hanging up his gloves.
Brown’s success in guiding St Johnstone into the top flight twice in nine years as manager brought him to the attention of the SFA — who made him their first all-powerful ‘gaffer’ early in 1967.
Up until that point, a selection committee had picked the squad, with a ‘trainer’ expected to do little more than take responsibility for getting the players ready for kick-off.
Brown’s first match up? Sir Alf Ramsey’s men at Wembley in April. He handed a debut to veteran Celtic goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson — his former Queen’s Park understudy — and also threw in teenager Jim McCalliog for his first cap. His reward was seeing the Sheffield Wednesday youngster net the winner.
Jim Baxter, whose career was on the slump after leaving Rangers, wound back the clock with an imperious display capped off by his brazen ball-juggling act.
‘We should have had five or six,’ said Brown in a book about his career, released in 2017. ‘Without doubt, it was the best managerial debut I could have been given.’
Brown also recalled, with good humour, stepping out of the team’s London hotel for a breath of fresh air on the night of that victory — and being waylaid by an inebriated Tartan Army foot soldier who had no idea, none at all, that he was talking to the man who had masterminded a triumph for the ages.
Born in the small Stirlingshire village of Dunipace in March 1923, his early prowess as a goalkeeper was nurtured by PE teacher Hugh Brown — father of future Scotland manager Craig.
He made his Queen’s Park debut aged 17, against Celtic at Parkhead, in circumstances that could have been lifted straight from the pages of the Boy’s Own.
Having helped his school team, Falkirk High, to a 3-1 win over St Aloysius’, he was approached by two strangers racing on to the pitch at full-time, babbling something about being needed to play on a slightly bigger stage. That very afternoon.
The pair were scouts for Queen’s Park and so, just hours after that schoolboy match, he made his senior debut in a 4-4 draw against the Hoops.
Queen’s Park and St Johnstone also paid tribute last night to a man who would resign from the Scotland job in 1971, repeated player call-offs leaving him frustrated with the job.
He briefly managed Hull and scouted for Plymouth before spending his later years in Helensburgh with wife Ruth, running a restaurant and a number of gift shops.
Brown was a regular at Rangers games in recent years and his passing will be marked by a minute’s silence prior to tomorrow night’s Scottish Cup tie with Stranraer at Ibrox.
SFA president Rod Petrie said last night: ‘Bobby holds a special place in the hearts of all Scotland supporters.
‘A true legend of the Scottish game, it was only fitting that he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2015.’