Bill Brown (footballer, born 1931)

William Dallas Fyfe Brown (8 October 1931 – 30 November 2004) was a Scottish football goalkeeper.

Bill Brown
Personal information
Full name William Dallas Fyfe Brown[1]
Date of birth (1931-10-08)8 October 1931
Place of birth Arbroath, Angus, Scotland
Date of death 30 November 2004(2004-11-30) (aged 73)
Place of death Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Carnoustie Panmure
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1949–1959 Dundee 215 (0)
1959–1966 Tottenham Hotspur 222 (0)
1966–1967 Northampton Town 17 (0)
1967 Toronto Falcons 16 (0)
Total 470 (0)
International career
1956 Scotland B 1 (0)
1956–1958 Scottish League XI 8 (0)
1958[3] SFL trial v SFA 1 (0)
1958–1965 Scotland 28 (0)
1959[4] SFA trial v SFL 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
Tottenham Hotspur in 1960 with Bill Brown, John Hollowbread and Danny Blanchflower in the team with Bill Nicholson as manager.

Brown played for Dundee between 1949 and 1959, and for Tottenham Hotspur between 1959 and 1966. He was part of the Spurs team that won the Double of Football League and FA Cup in 1961 - the first club to achieve the feat in the 20th century. He was also capped 28 times for the Scotland national team.

Career

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Dundee

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Brown played as a youth for Carnoustie Panmure. He started his senior career with Dundee as a teenager and made over 200 appearances in the Scottish Football League.

Tottenham Hotspur

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Brown was signed in 1959 for £16,500 to Tottenham Hotspur in June 1959.[5][6] He was at White Hart Lane for seven years, winning the Double in 1961 missing only one game the entire season. He also helped the team win the FA Cup again in 1962,and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. He produced one of his best performances in the match against Bratislava in quarter-final of 1962–63 European Cup Winners' Cup.[6]

He suffered injuries in the mid-1960s, and with the arrival of Pat Jennings to the team, he began to lose his place in the starting lineup. He played his last game for the club in a friendly in October 1966, and transferred to Northampton Town the same month.[6]

Northampton and Toronto Falcons

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He next had a spell at Northampton Town. Brown then moved to Canada to end his playing days with the Toronto Falcons during the 1967 National Professional Soccer League season.[7]

International

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Brown was capped 28 times for Scotland and played in the 1958 World Cup.[8] He also played for his country at 'B' team,[9] youth and schoolboy level. Brown also represented the Scottish League XI while he was with Dundee.[10]

After playing

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After he finished playing, he stayed in Canada and worked as a property developer and for the government. He died in 2004, aged 73.[11][5] The news broke just before Tottenham played a League Cup tie against Liverpool and, as a tribute, they wore black armbands for the occasion.

Honours

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Dundee

Tottenham Hotspur

References

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  1. ^ "Bill Brown". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Club saddened to hear of passing of Bill Brown". Tottenham Hotspur. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  3. ^ Scottish trial match at Easter Road Archived 9 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Glasgow Herald, 4 February 1958
  4. ^ The selectors still have problems Archived 14 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Bulletin, 17 March 1959
  5. ^ a b "Goalkeeping great Bill Brown dies". BBC Sport. BBC. 1 December 2004. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  6. ^ a b c Goodwin, Bob (29 August 1988). Spurs: A Complete Record 1882-1988. Breedon Books. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-907969-42-6.
  7. ^ "Scottish goalie comes to Canada". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 5 May 1967. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
  8. ^ Bill Brown, Scottish Football Association
  9. ^ Scotland B player Brown, Bill, FitbaStats
  10. ^ "SFL player William Dallas Fyfe Brown". London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  11. ^ Glanville, Brian (7 December 2004). "Bill Brown". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  12. ^ a b Vernon, Leslie; Rollin, Jack (1977). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1977–78. London: Brickfield Publications Ltd. p. 490. ISBN 0354 09018 6.