Jim Brogan
Born 5 June 1944
Died 24 September 2018
It's sad to report the
death this week of former Coventry City defender Jim Brogan at the
age of 74. Jim spent only one season at Highfield Road (1975-76) but
was fondly remembered by City fans from that era. He died in a
Glasgow nursing home after a lengthy battle against dementia.
Jim is best remembered
however for his 13 years at Celtic where Jim won just about every
honour in the Scottish game including seven successive League
championship medals, four full caps for his country and a runners up
medal from the 1970 European Cup final .
Glaswegian
James Andrew Brogan was one of those players, common in his time but
rare today, who spent long years in an “apprenticeship” with
Celtic, before eventually having his spell in the sun, winning medals
and Scotland
caps.
He
was from a “Celtic-minded” family. Elder brother Frank was
already a first-team player with the club when Jim arrived, like his
elder brother, from the prolific Celtic nursery, St Rochs Juniors, in
1962. Frank left Celtic for Ipswich Town in 1964 but before he left
the Brogan brothers did twice play together in the first team, after
Jim made his debut, against Falkirk in September, 1963.
However,
there was to be no quick breakthrough for Jim, who established
himself as a regular in the reserves over the great early seasons of
the Lisbon Lions. He understudied the great John Clark and got few
chances to shine as success followed success for that great team.
When Clark was
injured in February, 1968 manager Jock Stein promoted Brogan, who
never looked back, slotting in alongside Billy McNeill as effectively
as Clark had done, and, with regular first-team games, the medals and
honours arrived.
He
won a league championship medal at the end of the 1967-68 season, and
the following year, as Celtic won their second domestic treble, he
was a mainstay of Stein's team. In 1969-70, he was a member of the
team which reached Celtic's second European Cup Final, against
Feyenoord, and the following season, by which time he had stepped
back to left-back to replace Tommy Gemmell, such was his form.
Recognised by many as one of Scottish football's hardmen, Celtic fans
called him 'the Brogeyman'.
In
1969 he had made the first of what would be two appearances for the
Scottish League XI, against the English League, then, in April, 1971,
he won his first cap against Portugal, in a Hampden friendly. The
start of a short run of four successive games in the national squad
covering that match and the home internationals.
If
his international career was short, his Celtic one, after his long
wait for recognition, proved longer and more distinguished. He was
one of Stein's most trusted players during the nine-in-a-row
campaign, holding the fort as the Lions departed and helping to ease
the path of such as Davie Hay, Danny McGrain, George Connelly and
Kenny Dalglish from Quality Street Kids to Celtic icons.
Celtic
released Brogan at the end of the 1974-75 season and in his final
appearance, against Rangers in the Glasgow Cup Final, Jock Stein
handed him the captaincy. in his 341st first team appearance, a
farewell, in front of 70,000 fans. Alas, there was to be no
fairy-tale ending as the game finished Celtic 2 Rangers 2, with the
trophy shared. He left Celtic with an impressive haul of seven league
championship medals, four Scottish Cup-winner's ones and three league
cup winner's medals.
In July 1975 City
manager Gordon Milne persuaded the tough-tackling but elegant
defender to try his hand in the English game. Jim and his wife Joyce
bought a house in Kenilworth and he was anxious to prove himself in
the English top-flight. City were in a period of change with
financial pressures forcing the sale of key players such as Colin
Stein, Willie Carr and Brian Alderson. Jim was not expected to be a
first-team regular but to be a squad player and put some pressure on
the first-choice defenders. Regular left-back Chris Cattlin was
suspended from the first three league games and Jim made his debut in
a stunning opening day 4-1 victory at Everton. Hat-trick man David
Cross was City's hero that day but Neville Foulger in the Coventry
Telegraph was impressed by Brogan: 'with performances like this he
will soon be a firm favourite at Highfield Road with his confidence,
enthusiasm, bravery, ability to organise things at the back and
unerring accuracy in his distribution of the ball'.
His former teammate
Dennis Mortimer remembers Jim: 'He came down from Celtic and as you
would imagine he had all the good attributes you would expect from
someone who had grown up with Celtic. He had a first-class attitude
and a great commitment and was just the sort of player the club
needed to help the emerging youngsters.'
Jim already had
successful businesses in Glasgow when he came to Coventry and was
rumoured to be wealthy from off-field interests. Former teammate
David Cross was a close friend of Jim and remembers his first day's
training at Ryton: 'he arrived driving a Rolls Royce and this was in
the days when footballers didn't get massive wages. That certainly
caused a stir amongst the boys'.
Cross was stunned by
the news of his death: 'Jim was a real gentleman and we got on well.
When I lost my place in the team Jim used to give me heart to hearts
and encourage me to work hard and win my place back. He always set a
great example to the younger players, training hard and doing things
professionally'.
That season City
enjoyed their best start ever in Division 1 and were third in the
table after four games with Brogan impressive. His good form
continued and he was an ever present until early February with
Cattlin confined to the reserves. A hamstring injury interrupted
Jim's run of 33 games and Cattlin regained his place. Early the
following season Milne signed a new left-back, Bobby McDonald from
Aston Villa and Jim's days in a sky blue shirt were over.
He
left Coventry in March 1977 and briefly played for Ayr United before
retiring to concentrate on business interests in Scotland.
David
Cross stayed in touch with Jim after they both left Coventry and met
up in Glasgow with Cross's West Brom teammate the ex-Ranger Willie
Johnston. David takes up the story: 'Jim and Willie knew each other
from Old Firm clashes and got on well but we didn't know whether to
go drinking in a Celtic pub or a Rangers pub'.
Jim's
wife Joyce came from County Donegal in Ireland and they spent a lot
of time there in his latter years. It was in Donegal that he stayed
near Sky Blue fan Jim Douglas who has fond memories of time spent
with Jim. One evening Brogan arrived at Jim's house with all his
Celtic medals. Jim began to show signs of dementia several years ago,
but he bravely battled his worsening condition, showing the same
bravery that had seen him dubbed “Crazy Horse” by the Celtic
faithful. He leaves behind Joyce, four children and three
grandchildren.
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