HQ Magazine is the perfect stocking filler for the Hibee in your life – buy yours now for just £5!
Here’s a taste of what you’ll be reading…
Whenever there is a debate about the greatest-ever Hibs team made up of past and present players there is never an argument about the best right back.
At his peak, John Brownlie could have played for any team in the world. (Ask Sir Alex Ferguson who knows a thing or two about quality players.) In a team full of quality players and internationals – John stood out.
So much so, that every Friday night his teammate Alan Gordon would receive a call from his father, asking if John was playing. If the answer was “no”, he didn’t go to the game, whether his own son was playing or not!
John joined the Hibs groundstaff as a youngster under manager Bob Shankly and was farmed out to Pumpherston to toughen him.
He made his debut in the centre of defence in place of his good pal, John Blackley, at the end of the 1969/70 season – a 2-1 win over Dunfermline at East End Park.
Find out more about HQ edition 4 by clicking here!
The following season Brownlie started on the bench in a League Cup group match against St Johnstone but replaced the injured Chris Shevlane and set up two of Hib’s three goals in a 3-1 victory.
After the final whistle, Willie McFarlane described John as an ‘outstanding prospect’ and from that day the number 2 jersey belonged to him.
Alex Edwards, a team-mate of Brownlie, described John as one of the best players to ever play the game.
“John Brownlie was quite simply the best right back I ever saw. He was around at the same time of high quality fullbacks like Sandy Jardine at Rangers and Danny McGrain at Celtic but in my opinion, he was superior to both of them.”
His performances quickly caught the eye of Scotland international manager Bill Brown and he won his first cap aged 19 against Russia in Moscow, in a Scotland team captained by Pat Stanton.
He went on to pick up another five caps before his injury, playing some of the best football of his career. Brownlie also scored a goal against Rangers in the 1972 League Cup Semi-Final at Hampden Park – and what a goal it was. Picking up the ball in midfield, he strode forward and fired an unstoppable strike into the bottom corner of the net from 35-yards.
That goal secured our place in the final, which ended our 70-year wait for a major trophy. If that wasn’t enough, three weeks later John and his teammates arrived at Tynecastle for the New Years’ Day derby.
He recalled: “My main memory of the day was after the final whistle Pat (Stanton) and Jimmy (O’Rourke) telling the other players ‘you’ve made history today, this will never be forgotten’ – and they were right. I can’t believe it’s been 50 years!
“Pat and Jimmy were locals, so they knew what it meant to the fans. I was from the wee village of Caldercruix so didn’t fully appreciate what it meant as much as the Edinburgh boys did.
CLICK HERE to buy HQ Magazine!
“Eddie (Turnbull) had us training that morning before the game then we had our pre-match meal at the North British Hotel as usual.
“Celtic were top of the league, but we didn’t realise that their game against Rangers had been postponed which meant that we needed to win by six goals to overtake them. So we did, in fact, we went one better. Everything just clicked that day.
“My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time was from West Calder and her bus was late so by the time she arrived a lot of Hearts fans were leaving. She thought the game had been called off but when she heard the score she understood.
“We were leading 5-0 at half time and I remember Eddie saying: “Don’t ease up, just keep going,” and we did just that.”
