Jim Brogan's obituary

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.