Craig Brown - The Game of My Life. Craig Brown
as well, and after studying my knee for some time he told me quite simply that there was only one way it was going to get any better – and that was through surgery.
I was sent to see a world-renowned knee specialist, Mr Smillie, who had written a number of books on the subject. After examination, he confirmed what Lawrie Smith had said, adding that surgery was not simply an option – it was essential. I was packed off to a local nursing home for the first of what turned out to be five operations on my left knee.
Nowadays, I know, there are wonderful ways of performing operations with the minimum of fuss and disruption to everyday life. Keyhole surgery has taken away those big incisions and the necessity to be confined to bed, sometimes for weeks. It was not the same when I had my operations – it was necessary then to have several weeks of recuperation before there was any possibility of getting back to any serious work, and in my case that meant getting back to being considered for first-team football.
Dundee were very good to me and extremely patient. Rangers also kept a sharp eye on my progress and were very encouraging. Fortunately, I did recover before the end of the season and I played in the reserves at Dens Park to prove my match fitness. Whether or not I had done enough to secure a place in first-team football with Dundee remained to be seen.
Even though I was a Rangers player and knew that I would be returning to Ibrox once the loan period was over, I felt really at home at Dens Park. I was still finding it quite difficult to understand why the Ibrox club were so unwilling to sell me, and even began to think that it was possibly because I was so useful in the Rangers golf team. We had been very successful in various competitions. In fact, in the month before I joined Dundee on loan, Harold Davis, Bobby Shearer and I had won the Daily Record Footballers’ Golf Team Trophy for Rangers with an eight-stroke win over second-placed Hibernian. Just for the record, Dundee had finished third in the competition.
I had never had any trouble in being accepted at Rangers – and I am sure that my golfing ability went a long way towards that acceptance. A lot of Rangers players were keen on the game. When the team went out on golf outings, I usually managed to play in the top four – which was pretty good really because a lot of the team were class players, and the manager, Scot Symon, was very good indeed, besides being very enthusiastic. Bobby Shearer had a very low handicap, as did Harold Davis. Max Murray was a scratch player and there were several others who were a force to be reckoned with on the golf course. I always seemed to do well and, even if my soccer skills didn’t earn many plaudits, my golf had certainly raised my esteem among my Rangers colleagues.
We had a few interesting golf outings while I was at Ibrox, many of which I can recall. I shall never forget one in particular. Let’s be absolutely frank – the etiquette of golf had been quite lost on many of the players, who would do things that would have golf officials holding their heads in despair and disbelief. Players would share clubs and a caddy car, some wouldn’t have golf shoes and would wear trainers with tracksuit bottoms tucked into their socks. Normally you wouldn’t get on too many courses dressed like that – maybe it was because it was Rangers that many a blind eye would be turned?
On this particular occasion we were playing at Erskine Golf Club and the lads had been out on the course. The last four to go out were Ralph Brand and Jimmy Miller against Willie Henderson and Davie Provan. They were sharing one set of clubs and you could hear them shouting during the round – which means that they were shouting pretty loudly. So they were coming up the fairway to the last hole, long after everyone else. Their earlier shouting had mostly been about the score.
‘Is that eleven?’
‘No, it’s twelve!’
‘It never is.’
‘Aye, it is!’
So it went on. I think it was Ralph who was pulling the caddy car and, as they went up to the last green, he was giving out the clubs. He took the caddy car right on to the green and up to the flag. It was a wet day and the scars from the wheels of the caddy car could clearly be seen on the green. Apparently they had been doing this all over the course but, since they were the last to go, nobody had noticed. When Scot Symon found out he was none too pleased – in fact he was furious. The club officials shared his views and, needless to say, we were not invited back to that particular golf club.
In the dressing room of a football club there is invariably plenty of what we call ‘patter’. Ibrox was no exception. Friday morning was always full of anticipation because, in blue typewritten letters, the team names were pinned to the noticeboard.
On this particular Friday, the newspaper heading on the back page was ‘Henderson To Get Contact Lenses’. It was well known that the outside left, deputising for the injured Davy Wilson, was Bobby Hume – one of the first professional players to use contact lenses. Our groundsman, Davie McLeod, on studying the Scot Symon selection and bearing in mind his reading of the Daily Record, was loud in his condemnation. He read the forward line and made his customary remark: ‘I see it and I don’t believe it. Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Hume. Two blind wingers! I don’t know whether to line the park tomorrow or just put kerbstones along the sides!’
Anyway, back at Dundee, I was determined to make the best of my loan spell and, when I was back in full action in the reserve team, I set out to prove myself. I felt that by doing so I would be able to reciprocate for the interest that they had shown in me. I did not really expect to be given a first-team chance at this stage, although of course there was always the hope that in the latter games of the season there would be an opportunity.
The first team had not experienced the best of seasons. Their Scottish League Cup hopes had been dashed before I had arrived at the club. Rangers had been the team to put paid to their hopes over two legs of the quarterfinals in September 1960. In fairness, Dundee had succeeded in giving Rangers quite a scare. The first leg, played at Ibrox, had ended 1–0, but the return at Dens Park finished in a 3–3 draw as Dundee refused to capitulate. Rangers had learned a valuable lesson from that experience, however, and when the two teams met again at Dens Park – in the Scottish Cup second round – the Ibrox men were easy 5–1 winners. The League campaign was also a disappointing one for Dundee, even though they had put in some very good performances. Despite this, they still only managed to finish in the middle of the table, in tenth place out of eighteen clubs. Rangers had won the championship but perhaps the worst blow of all as far as Dundee was concerned was that our great rivals, Dundee United, finished one place above us – in ninth position with just one point more!
Despite my injuries I was continuing with my course at Jordanhill and I certainly enjoyed a wide range of sports there. The course meant that you had to be fairly proficient in just about every sport that it is possible for a human to play. I played football and golf, of course, but I also found myself taking part in swimming, rugby, rowing, cricket, hockey, basketball, skiing and mountaineering. I once had to set off after a Dundee evening match to go to Aviemore as part of my skiing and mountaineering education. You can just imagine how amusing many of my soccer colleagues found it. I came in for huge amounts of stick from these so-called pals, who even suggested that I might be a better footballer if I wore my ski boots on the pitch instead of the regulation ones!
I did enjoy keeping fit and having a go at all these different sports. My father had instilled in all of us the benefits of regular exercise and a healthy diet. It was rare for me to eat anything but fruit at lunch-time. I’m sure that it helped me, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to give his body a fighting chance of enduring the rigours of life.
Another big interest of mine, of which not too many people were aware, was country dancing – in fact, I became quite good at it. I even reached the stage of being a member of a ‘Jig-time’ dance team which appeared regularly on Scottish Television. I still do like country dancing, but these days it is mostly for the music, as I don’t have the knees for ‘pas de bas’. When I’m at a wedding, or some similar social event, I’ll still have a go, however – after all, those are the times when it’s almost obligatory for you to make a fool of yourself, aren’t they?
Anyway, we finally came to the end of the season, and I had really enjoyed my time at Dundee. I was impressed with the