Chic Brodie (footballer)

Chic Brodie
Personal information
Full name Charles Thomas George Brodie[1]
Date of birth (1937-02-22)22 February 1937
Place of birth Duntocher, Scotland
Date of death 24 April 2000(2000-04-24) (aged 63)[2]
Place of death Ealing, England[3]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Partick Avondale
0000–1954 Duntocher Hibernian
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1954–1957 Manchester City 0 (0)
1957–1958 Gillingham 18 (0)
1958–1961 Aldershot 95 (0)
1961 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (0)
1961–1963 Northampton Town 87 (0)
1963–1971 Brentford 199 (0)
1971–1973 Margate
1973–1974 Wealdstone
1974–1975 Maidstone United
International career
Scotland Schoolboys
1953–1954 Scotland Juniors 3 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Charles Thomas George Brodie (22 February 1937 – 24 April 2000) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Brodie made 400 appearances in The Football League, most notably for Brentford, Aldershot and Northampton Town. His professional career came to an end in 1970, when he was seriously injured after a dog ran onto the field of play.

Career

Manchester City

Born in Duntocher, Brodie began his career with Junior clubs Duntocher Hibernian and Partick Avondale.[3] He joined Manchester City of the Football League First Division as an amateur in March 1954.[3][4] He spent four years with the club, playing understudy to the popular German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann,[4] but failed to break into the first team and departed in July 1957.[3]

Gillingham

Brodie dropped down the leagues to join Gillingham of the Third Division South in July 1957.[4] He spent one season with the Kent-based club, during which he played 22 times.[5]

Aldershot

Brodie joined Fourth Division club Aldershot in July 1958.[3] At the time he was completing his National Service and was stationed in the town.[4] He remained at the Recreation Ground until February 1961 and departed having made 106 appearances for the club.[6]

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Brodie secured a move back to the top-flight when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers for a then-club record £9,000 in February 1961.[6] He played just one league match for the club,[2] before departing Molineux in September 1961.[6]

Northampton Town

Brodie dropped back down to the Third Division to join Northampton Town in September 1961, for a £4,000 fee.[7] His first appearance for the club meant that he made three consecutive appearances for three clubs.[3] Brodie played regularly for the club for just over two years and won a Third Division championship medal during the 1962–63 season.[1] He departed the County Ground in November 1963, after making 97 appearances for the Cobblers.[6]

Brentford

Brodie moved to London to join Third Division club Brentford in November 1963 in a £10,000 deal.[8] He quickly usurped long-standing regular goalkeeper Gerry Cakebread and was the Bees' regular goalkeeper until losing his place to Gordon Phillips during an injury-affected 1966–67 season.[1] He regained his place in the team during the 1969–70 season, in which he featured as an ever-present in all competitions.[9]

On 27 November 1970, a dog ran onto the field of play during a Fourth Division match away to Colchester United.[1] The dog impacted Brodie's leg after he had picked up the ball and damaged ligaments in his knee.[1] The incident was one of a number which occurred during Brodie's career with the club, which included being struck on the knee by a stone thrown from the crowd and finding a hand grenade in his goalmouth (discovered to be a replica).[10] Though he managed five further appearances during the second half of the 1970–71 season,[9] the injury ended Brodie's professional career.[1] Brodie departed Griffin Park at the end of the 1970–71 season, after making 224 appearances during his eight years with the Bees.[1] He was posthumously inducted into the Brentford Hall of Fame in 2015.[11]

Non-League football

In 1971 Brodie resumed playing, albeit at a semi-professional level, with Southern League Premier Division club Margate.[6] He remained with the Gate for two seasons and was in goal when the team lost 11–0 to Bournemouth in an FA Cup match in November 1971.[1] He later played for Wealdstone and Maidstone United before retiring from football.[4]

International career

Brodie represented Scotland at Schoolboy and Junior level.[1][12]

Personal life

Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Brodie served a five-year apprenticeship in electrical engineering.[13] In his latter years as a professional footballer,[13] Brodie became a London taxi driver and as of September 1995 was living in Southall.[14] He died of cancer in April 2000 at the age of 63.[3][15]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Gillingham 1957–58[5] Third Division South 18 0 4 0 — 22 0
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1960–61[2] First Division 1 0 — — 1 0
Northampton Town 1961–62[16] Third Division 32 0 3 0 — 35 0
1962–63[16] Third Division 46 0 1 0 3 0 50 0
1963–64[16] Second Division 9 0 — 3 0 12 0
Total 87 0 4 0 6 0 97 0
Brentford 1963–64[9] Third Division 25 0 4 0 — 29 0
1964–65[9] Third Division 45 0 4 0 1 0 50 0
1965–66[9] Third Division 35 0 1 0 2 0 38 0
1966–67[9] Fourth Division 8 0 0 0 3 0 11 0
1967–68[9] Fourth Division 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
1968–69[9] Fourth Division 22 0 2 0 1 0 25 0
1969–70[9] Fourth Division 46 0 2 0 3 0 51 0
1970–71[9] Fourth Division 17 0 1 0 1 0 19 0
Total 199 0 14 0 11 0 224 0
Career total 315 0 22 0 17 0 344 0

Honours

Northampton Town

Brentford

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Haynes, Graham; Coumbe, Frank (2006). Timeless Bees: Brentford F.C. Who's Who 1920–2006. Harefield: Yore Publications. p. 27. ISBN 978-0955294914.
  2. ^ a b c Chic Brodie at WorldFootball.net
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Chic Brodie". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e Day, Richard. "On This Day..." www.gillinghamfootballclub.com. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Chic Brodie". Gillingham FC Scrapbook. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Chic Brodie". margatefchistory.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  7. ^ Golesworth, Maurice (1965). Soccer Who's Who. The Sportsmans Book Club.
  8. ^ Croxford, Mark; Lane, David; Waterman, Greville (2011). The Big Brentford Book of the Seventies. Sunbury, Middlesex: Legends Publishing. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-1906796709.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j White, Eric, ed. (1989). 100 Years Of Brentford. Brentford FC. pp. 387–391. ISBN 0951526200.
  10. ^ "Adding insult to injury". ESPN.co.uk. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  11. ^ a b Wickham, Chris. "Kevin O'Connor and Marcus Gayle join others in being added to Brentford FC Hall of Fame". brentfordfc.com. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Scotland Junior Internationals". Scottish Football Historical Archive. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  13. ^ a b Robinson, Peter. "Man Behind The Ball – Chic Brodie (Brentford F.C.)". Football League Review: 21.
  14. ^ Griffin Gazette versus Chesterfield. Quay Design of Poole. 30 September 1995. p. 2.
  15. ^ Croxford et al. 2011, pp. 255–256.
  16. ^ a b c Grande, Frank (1 November 1997). Northampton Town F.C.: The Official Centenary History (1st ed.). Yore Publications. ISBN 978-1-874427-67-4.
  17. ^ Haynes, Graham (1998). A-Z Of Bees: Brentford Encyclopaedia. Yore Publications. p. 82. ISBN 1-874427-57-7.