BRIAN’S EARLY LIFE AND PLAYING CAREER

Born:

21 March 1935

Player record:

Middlesbrough (1955-61): 197 goals in 213 games

Sunderland (1961-64): 54 goals in 61 games

Brian was born in a council house in Middlesbrough, the fifth of eight children. ‘We kicked a ball around for hours. We were still at it late at night when we couldn’t see the ball, the makeshift posts or one another,’ he once said, adding later that: ‘There were always about six pairs of boots hanging behind the coalhouse door.’ His father Joe worked in a sweet factory. ‘We’d get all the misshapen sweets that couldn’t be sold in shops,’ he said. His mother Sarah was an indefatigable housewife, always cooking and cleaning and bringing up her children to ‘behave properly and be considerate to others’.

His playing career effectively ended on Boxing Day, 1962. On a frosty pitch he collided with Bury goalkeeper Chris Harker and damaged his cruciate ligaments. He never properly recovered and made only another three appearances before his premature retirement.