Archives: Our 2004 chat with a Rangers and Scotland legend

Here's the highlights from our chat with Bobby, as reported in the Advertiser on May 13, 2004...

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HE was the golden haired, slim-built, athletic young goalkeeper who set pulses racing among both teenage girls and hardened football fans.

The mention of his name might even still set the hearts of many now middle-aged women fluttering.

And it reminds older football fans of the man behind the steady hands who once played 179 games on the trot for Rangers and had 109 shutouts in 296 games as part of their ‘Iron Curtain’ defence of the 40s and 50s, as well as winning 11 Scotland caps.

Bobby Brown was the nearest thing to a David Beckham that Scotland had in the fledgling years of professional football.

With a tendency for many sport stars of yesteryear to be swept under the carpet and resigned to ancient history, 81-year-old Brown has been given proof that his career as a professional footballer and manager has not been forgotten.

Speaking to the Advertiser from his pleasantly secluded Helensburgh home, Dunipace-born Bobby said that no-one was more shocked than him to receive a lifetime achievement award at last month’s Scottish Professional Footballers Association Player of the Year ceremony.

“I was asked make a speech and it gave me the chance to pay tribute to the late Celtic goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson who, believe it or not, was my ball boy in 1939,” he said.

“Afterwards I was very surprised to become the recipient of a beautiful Rennie Mackintosh decanter, six glasses, and a 15-year-old bottle of whisky.

“I was delighted because like most who played at that level you collect all sorts of memorabilia that you can associate with games that you have played, so it really was the icing on the cake."