Post by Justin on Dec 7, 2004 7:34:46 GMT 7
football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1367806,00.html
Obituary
BILL BROWN
Spurs and Scotland goalkeeper
Brian Glanville
Tuesday December 7, 2004
The Guardian
The goalkeeper Bill Brown, who has died aged 73, played a major part in Tottenham Hotspur's achievement of the Championship and FA Cup double in 1960-61, the first double of the 20th century. He was also capped 28 times for Scotland.
Born in Arbroath, he had played forward as a schoolboy, but when he joined the Carnoustie Juveniles club he went into goal and stayed there throughout his career.
In 1948, he was signed as a £7 a week part-time professional by Dundee, to the displeasure of his dairyman father, who insisted he learn a trade. Brown complied by training as an electrical engineer. His sporting life could have ended prematurely when he broke his nose and jaw and fractured a cheekbone in a trial for the Scotland youth team, but he recovered.
Six-foot-tall Brown established himself as an outstanding goalkeeper with Dundee, giving the lie to the English belief that Scottish keepers were a joke. He was agile, commanding and courageous, never flamboyant. He did his national service in the RAF, and represented it in goal. On demobilisation he became a full time professional at Dundee, much admired by his manager, former Rangers and Scotland centre-forward Willie Thornton. But competition among Scottish goalkeepers was such that Brown was international goalkeeping reserve 25 times.
With Dundee, he played 215 Scottish League games from 1950 to 1959, winning a League Cup medal in the 1951-52 season. His debut for Scotland could hardly have been more difficult or more impressive. In June 1958, during the World Cup finals in Sweden, he was picked to replace Tommy Younger against France. Scotland lost 2-1, but Brown impressed France's attacking pair, Juste Fontaine and Raymond Kopa. He continued to win caps for Scotland until November 1965.
Dundee, needing money for new floodlights, sold him to Tottenham in 1959 for £16,500. He played 222 League games for Spurs, missing just one in their double-winning season. In 1962, he added another FA cup medal when Spurs beat Burnley in the Wembley final.
Finding abundant time on his hands in London, Brown joined the sales staff of a printing company and later opened a printing firm in Soho with a partner. Things at Tottenham began to go wrong, when, early in 1964, at the age of 32, when a keeper might be expected to be in his prime, he was dropped from the team by the manager, Bill Nicholson (obituary, October 25 2004). He never fully regained his place, facing opposition from the young Northern Irishman Pat Jennings.
"It came as a tremendous shock to us when he was dropped by Spurs," said Ian McColl, then team manager of Scotland. "I regard Brown as the best keeper in Britain." Brown angrily announced that he had no intention of playing in Tottenham's reserves. That his form had suffered was proved when he did leave Spurs in 1966 for humble Northampton Town. And there, too, he lost his place, in March 1967.
The following summer, he flew to Canada to play for the shortlived Toronto Falcons in the "unofficial" soccer League which sprang up that year, unsanctioned by FIFA. Because of that he and another British player were banned when he was on the point of joining non-League Hastings United. For Brown this proved a blessing, for he stayed on in Canada, taking a post with the land development section of the Ontario government, from which he retired in 1995.
In 1988, he had a heart attack which persuaded him to cut out the 40 cigarettes he smoked each day. In 1994 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he survived that, too.
He leaves his wife Elaine, two daughters and a son.
· William (Bill) Dallas Fyfe Brown, footballer, born October 8 1931; died November 30 2004
Obituary
BILL BROWN
Spurs and Scotland goalkeeper
Brian Glanville
Tuesday December 7, 2004
The Guardian
The goalkeeper Bill Brown, who has died aged 73, played a major part in Tottenham Hotspur's achievement of the Championship and FA Cup double in 1960-61, the first double of the 20th century. He was also capped 28 times for Scotland.
Born in Arbroath, he had played forward as a schoolboy, but when he joined the Carnoustie Juveniles club he went into goal and stayed there throughout his career.
In 1948, he was signed as a £7 a week part-time professional by Dundee, to the displeasure of his dairyman father, who insisted he learn a trade. Brown complied by training as an electrical engineer. His sporting life could have ended prematurely when he broke his nose and jaw and fractured a cheekbone in a trial for the Scotland youth team, but he recovered.
Six-foot-tall Brown established himself as an outstanding goalkeeper with Dundee, giving the lie to the English belief that Scottish keepers were a joke. He was agile, commanding and courageous, never flamboyant. He did his national service in the RAF, and represented it in goal. On demobilisation he became a full time professional at Dundee, much admired by his manager, former Rangers and Scotland centre-forward Willie Thornton. But competition among Scottish goalkeepers was such that Brown was international goalkeeping reserve 25 times.
With Dundee, he played 215 Scottish League games from 1950 to 1959, winning a League Cup medal in the 1951-52 season. His debut for Scotland could hardly have been more difficult or more impressive. In June 1958, during the World Cup finals in Sweden, he was picked to replace Tommy Younger against France. Scotland lost 2-1, but Brown impressed France's attacking pair, Juste Fontaine and Raymond Kopa. He continued to win caps for Scotland until November 1965.
Dundee, needing money for new floodlights, sold him to Tottenham in 1959 for £16,500. He played 222 League games for Spurs, missing just one in their double-winning season. In 1962, he added another FA cup medal when Spurs beat Burnley in the Wembley final.
Finding abundant time on his hands in London, Brown joined the sales staff of a printing company and later opened a printing firm in Soho with a partner. Things at Tottenham began to go wrong, when, early in 1964, at the age of 32, when a keeper might be expected to be in his prime, he was dropped from the team by the manager, Bill Nicholson (obituary, October 25 2004). He never fully regained his place, facing opposition from the young Northern Irishman Pat Jennings.
"It came as a tremendous shock to us when he was dropped by Spurs," said Ian McColl, then team manager of Scotland. "I regard Brown as the best keeper in Britain." Brown angrily announced that he had no intention of playing in Tottenham's reserves. That his form had suffered was proved when he did leave Spurs in 1966 for humble Northampton Town. And there, too, he lost his place, in March 1967.
The following summer, he flew to Canada to play for the shortlived Toronto Falcons in the "unofficial" soccer League which sprang up that year, unsanctioned by FIFA. Because of that he and another British player were banned when he was on the point of joining non-League Hastings United. For Brown this proved a blessing, for he stayed on in Canada, taking a post with the land development section of the Ontario government, from which he retired in 1995.
In 1988, he had a heart attack which persuaded him to cut out the 40 cigarettes he smoked each day. In 1994 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he survived that, too.
He leaves his wife Elaine, two daughters and a son.
· William (Bill) Dallas Fyfe Brown, footballer, born October 8 1931; died November 30 2004