SRtRC: Scotland are saddened to hear of the death of Patron Craig Brown

Former Scotland manager and long time supporter of the campaign, Craig Brown, has passed away after a short illness. Brown was Scotland’s longest serving manager racking up an impressive 70 matches after taking the helm in 1993, although he had been involved in the Scotland set-up since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico after being drafted in by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Prior to his time managing Scotland, Brown had a successful playing career representing Rangers, Dundee and Falkirk before a knee injury forced him into retirement. He went into management part-time, juggling coaching at Clyde FC with his work as a teacher and lecturer for 10 years until joining the Scotland set up.

During his time at the helm of the Scottish Men’s squad, he took the team to both Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup, eventually standing down in 2001 to return to club management. In the following 12 years until his retirement in 2013, he had stints with Preston North End, Derby County, Motherwell and Aberdeen.

Throughout his career Craig sought to do good and regularly worked with Show Racism the Red Card in Scotland and across the UK. Former Show Racism the Red Card Scotland Campaign Manager, Nicola Hay, said:

“Craig was a wonderful and kind person. I am terribly saddened to hear of his passing. He never missed a call to stand against racism and always did everything he could to do good.”

Tony Higgins, patron of SRtRC and President of the Scottish PFA was equally as glowing in his recollections of Craig, saying:

“I first met Craig 40 years ago and my first impression of him was how his bright and friendly personality made him instantly likeable. He never changed in those 40 years since. I remember during my work with FIFPRO that a number of people from different countries would comment positively on Craig when they knew I came from Scotland. I don’t think I ever met anyone with a bad word to say about him. Friendly, courteous and accommodating nothing was ever too much trouble for Craig.”

SRtRC CEO Ged Grebby shared an anecdote about Craig at one of our earliest events 17 years ago.

“Craig was involved in the campaign for years and in 1997, he came to one of our first events. It was at Hampden and I’ll always remember Craig walking in wearing his Scotland tracksuit. He was part of a panel discussion and a young lad in the front row, who was about 6 years old, asked Craig if he was the Scotland janitor.”  Craig handled it absolutely perfectly and said, “‘I’m not the Scotland janitor but I used to be a headteacher and I can tell you now, janitors are the most important people in any school because they run the school.’ It summed him up really, he empowered the young person and showed that being the manager isn’t the be all and end all, being a collective is important above all. From that day forward he was a fantastic patron of our campaign, always available to support us.”