It was with great sadness that I read the news yesterday that the Birmingham City legend Edwin Brown had died.
He was a Blues legend in the true sense of the word, with 74 goals in 158 games during a 5 year spell with the club during a 16 year career that also took him to Preston North End, Southampton, Coventry, Leyton Orient & Scarborough. Yet, it was at Blues, that he plied he trade during the peak of his career.
Eddy signed for Blues for a fee of just £9,000 after a run of five games without a win, which caused the Coventry manager Jack Fairbrother to resign from the Sky Blues. He became an instant hit with the Blues faithful with 18 goals in 28 Second Division games & included a memorable hat trick against Liverpool during the 9-1 demolition (this is still Blues highest ever victory & is still Liverpool’s biggest ever defeat). Those goals fired Blues back into Division One with a second division league title in hand.
The following year, he then finished with the golden boot with 21 goals… Mainly thanks to his finishing prowess & the skills of Alex Govan & Gordon Astall on the flanks. Blues even got to the final of the FA Cup, only to be beaten by Manchester City in a game that would become infamous for the City ‘keeper Bert Trautmann breaking his neck with 73 minutes on the clock & continued to play.
During the 1956/57 season, Edwin scored 20 goals in all competitions & featured in the FA Cup semi against the Busby Babes. During his career, he even played in Europe when Blues defeated the might of Barcelona 4-3 with two goals (blues were then defeated in a replay).
The final season of his blues career brought another 15 league goals prior to his move to Leyton Orient.
This is of course, just a brief summary of a wonderful career of a wonderful man who also had a career outside of football, teaching during his career at Blues & became a sales rep for the family company once he retired from football.
I’m sure that you will all want to share my condolences to the Brown family at this time, but also show our appreciation for the years of hard work this family man played in shaping the club that is here today.
Rest in Edwin.
TiltonStrugglers 