Footballer and manager who led Scotland to victory over England
BOBBY BROWN, who has died aged 96, was a footballer and manager who is best remembered for leading Scotland to a famous victory at Wembley in 1967; England, who had won the World Cup the previous summer, were beaten 3-2 by a rampant Scots side, whose fans declared that they were now champions of the world.
Undefeated for 19 games, England contained 10 World Cup-winners, with Jimmy Greaves playing instead of Roger Hunt. But Scotland had four Celtic players who won the European Cup a month later and three Rangers players who lost the European Cup-winners’ Cup final – plus three all-time greats of Scottish football, Denis Law, Billy Bremner and Jim Baxter.
In a frenetic game it was Law who opened the scoring, with a classic poacher’s goal, and Bobby Lennox put the visitors 2-0 up with 12 minutes to go.
A broken toe had reduced Jack Charlton to a hobble, but he stabbed in England’s first with five minutes left, then Jim Mccalliog, winning his first Scotland cap, put the game beyond England’s reach, although Geoff Hurst did pull one back in the dying seconds.
On the final whistle there was a mass pitch invasion by delirious Scots fans, many of whom dug up sods of turf as souvenirs.
“Bobby was one of the loveliest men you could ever meet,” Mccalliog recalled. “He wasn’t big on tactics but he put us in the shape he wanted and spoke to us all individually about what he wanted us to do.”
Robert Brown was born at Dunipace, a village in Stirlingshire, on March 19 1923. He made his debut for Queen’s Park, Scotland’s oldest club, in 1939, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served in the Fleet Air Arm. He also appeared as a guest player in wartime matches for Portsmouth, Chester, Chelsea and Plymouth.
In his last season at Queens Park he shared the keeper’s jersey with Ronnie Simpson – to whom he gave his first cap in the 1967 Wembley match. Brown made his own Scotland debut in January 1946, and remains the last amateur, and the last Queens Park player, to win a full cap, though he played only four more times for his country. He had played in several wartime internationals, and his captain, Matt Busby, later tried to sign him for Manchester United.
He joined Rangers in 1946, and between then and April 1952 he played 179 consecutive games, combining football with a career as a schoolmaster. As part of a formidable Rangers defence known as the “Iron Curtain” he won three League titles, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups, including the then unprecedented treble in 1949, when he was everpresent.
In 1956 he moved to Falkirk – he had played 296 games for Rangers, keeping 109 clean sheets – but played only 23 games for them before retiring.
In 1958 he became manager of St Johnstone, taking them up into the First Divison two years later. The official history of St Johnstone notes: “A charming man, he could be politically ruthless when it came to dealing with his charges. This is not a criticism, rather it is a compliment. Most great managers have some similar streak in their nature and Bobby was a great manager.”
In 1967 he left to take up the reins of the national side – his first match was the great victory over England. He lost only two of his first 12 games, a run which included draws with West Germany and Holland, but Scotland failed to qualify for the 1970 World Cup, and following a run of six defeats in 1971 he resigned.
He moved with his wife Ruth to Helensburgh, where they ran a gift and coffee shop; he also scouted for Plymouth Argyle. Ruth died aged 59, and Bobby Brown is survived by their three daughters.