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Billy Bremner (born Stirling, Scotland, 9 December
1942; died Doncaster, England, 7 December 1997)
was the inspirational captain of the legendary
Leeds United F.C.|Leeds United football
(soccer)|football team of the 1960s and 1970s.

Bremner, a diminuitive but hard midfield player,
was scouted by Leeds while playing schoolboy
football in Scotland and signed for the Elland
Road club in 1959, the day after his 17th
birthday. He had previously been rejected by
Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal and Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea for
being too small.

He made his first-team debut in 1960 and was a
permanent fixture on manager Don Revie's teamsheet
for more than 15 years thereafter unless injured
or suspended. Bremner quickly established himself
as an uncompromising player, tough in the tackle
and often going beyond the rules to get the better
of a skilled opponent. But he could play too - he
had a stamina to work from one end of the pitch to
the other and could pass with precision and
timing. He also weighed in with his share of
goals.

As Leeds United began their revival in the early
1960s, Bremner was at the heart of it. In 1964
they won the
Football_League_Second_Division|Second Division
title and then the following year came
tantalisingly close to a "double" of
FA_Premier_League|League championship and FA Cup.
They missed out on both.

Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United won the
League on goal difference and so Leeds needed to
win at Wembley Stadium|Wembley to earn a trophy
for the season. The match against Liverpool
F.C.|Liverpool was exciting and action-packed but
also goalless, with extra-time being necessary.
Liverpool eventually won 2-1 but Bremner got his
moment, scoring the equaliser with a crisp half
volley which left opposing goalkeeper Tommy
Lawrence stranded.

In 1966, Leeds skipper Bobby Collins was injured
in a UEFA Cup|Fairs Cup game against Torino
Calcio|Torino and Revie gave the captaincy to
Bremner. Collins never got it back. With their
fiery No.4 acting as leader and mentor on the
pitch, Leeds entered their halcyon period at the
end of the 1960s, winning the League Cup and Fairs
Cup in 1968 and the League championship in 1969.

In 1970, Leeds chased the historic "treble" of
League championship, FA Cup and European Cup,
which had not been achieved before in the English
game - indeed, this was the first season when any
team had come close. However it turned into a
tragic season for Bremner and his team-mates when
Leeds ended up with nothing - losing the League
title to Everton F.C.|Everton, the FA Cup final
after a particularly violence|violent replay
against Chelsea, and the European Cup semi-final
to Celtic F.C.|Celtic.

Beyond their achievement and brilliance, two
further things stand out when analysing the Leeds
side of the late 1960s and early 1970s under
Revie. Firstly, they were as dirty as they were
skilful, with Bremner at the forefront alongside
equally uncompromising players such as Norman
Hunter. The 1970 FA Cup final replay against
Chelsea was a case in point - after an enjoyable
2-2 draw in the initial game at Wembley, the
replay at Old Trafford (football)|Old Trafford was
an exercise in tolerance and bravery as it was in
footballing excellence. Late tackles and
off-the-ball incidents were at their most
prevalent, with Bremner himself launching into a
late tackle on fellow Scotsman Charlie Cooke which
prompted an infamous retaliation with upper body
and knee from Chelsea striker Ian Hutchinson which
left Bremner flat on the turf.

As if to emphasise the style of play for which
Bremner was known, one of football's most famous
photographs shows a young Bremner pleading his
innocence with a petrified look on his face after
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur's bulky
midfield player Dave Mackay grabbed him by the
shirt and hauled him up following a late tackle by
Bremner. Mackay was just back from a second broken
leg. The snap was taken in 1965.

Secondly, for all their honours, comparatively
Leeds were huge underachievers. They won two
League titles - in 1969 and 1974 - but missed out
on further championships in dramatic last-game
climaxes in at least three other years. Bremner
played in four FA Cup finals, but only won one.
They reached a Cup_Winners_Cup|European Cup
Winners Cup final and, as a last hurrah, before
the team aged and broke up, a European Cup final
but lost both. 

The 1970s were a decade which saw Leeds dominate
but lose as much as they won. In 1971, Bremner
lifted the Fairs Cup but Leeds were the victims of
one of the FA Cup's biggest shocks when they lost
a fifth round tie at lowly Colchester United
F.C.|Colchester United. They then watched
helplessly as Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal swiped the
League championship from them with a 1-0 win over
Tottenham Hotspur (prior to winning the FA Cup to
complete the second "double" of the 20th century).
Had the game ended in a score draw or an Arsenal
defeat, the League would have gone to Leeds.

In 1972, Leeds again chased the League and FA Cup
but again were left both elated and disappointed.
A 1-0 victory over holders Arsenal in the FA Cup
final earned Leeds their first and only success in
the competition (and completed Bremner's domestic
medal set) but three days later, with a victory
required to seal the "double", Leeds lost their
last League game to Wolverhampton Wanderers
F.C.|Wolves and the title went to Derby County
F.C.|Derby County. In 1973 Leeds were only chasing
the FA Cup and success in Europe - Liverpool were
too strong in the League - but were beaten by AC
Milan in the Cup Winners Cup final in Salonika,
Greece (though they rightly complained bitterly
about some appalingly one-sided refereeing
decisions which led to the Greek referee receiving
a lifetime ban) and then lost the FA Cup final to
second division Sunderland A.F.C.|Sunderland.
Bremner picked up more runners-up medals.

Bremner played magnificently as Leeds finally put
the near-misses aside over the previous six
seasons and won the 1974 League championship at a
canter, setting a record of 29 unbeaten games to
start the season which was only beaten by Arsenal
in 2004. As champions, Leeds contested the 1974
Charity Shield curtain raiser game against FA Cup
winners Liverpool at Wembley - and Bremner was
sent off for a clash with Kevin Keegan, which also
saw the Liverpool striker dismissed. Both players
removed their shirts on departure to express their
shame.

The following year, Leeds were not in contention
for domestic honours but reached the European Cup
final, which they lost in more controversial
circumstances to Bayern Munich. Leeds were denied
a certain penalty, had a goal disallowed (after
the referee decided that Bremner was offside) and
Bremner suffered his own personal nightmare when
he missed an open goal from just six yards.

Revie had quit Leeds a year earlier to take over
the England_national_football_team|England job
from Alf Ramsey and the team started to break up
over the next few years. Bremner finally left
Leeds United in the summer of 1976 to join Hull
City F.C.|Hull City. He had played 772 games for
Leeds, putting him second behind Jack Charlton in
the club's all-time list.

Though winding down his career, Bremner was a
success at Hull for two years before he joined
Doncaster Rovers F.C.|Doncaster Rovers, managing
an admirable four seasons there before retiring at
the age of 39.

As an international, Bremner was at the forefront
of Scottish football's rise in the 1970s after
years in the wilderness and the shadow of England.
He made his
Scotland_national_football_team|Scotland debut in
1965 against Spain_national_football_team|Spain,
played in the famous 3-2 victory against world
champions England at Wembley in 1967 and captained
his country at the Football World Cup|World Cup in
Germany|West Germany in 1974. His last cap came
against Denmark_national_football_team|Denmark in
1975 - an incident in Copenhagen after the game
led to a lifetime ban from international football.
He won 54 caps in total, scoring three goals, and
is in the Scotland
Scotland_football_hall_of_fame|hall of fame.

Bremner's life after playing was mainly notable
for his topsy-turvy spell as manager of Leeds,
following in the footsteps of old team-mates Allan
Clarke and Eddie Gray to try to restore happier
days to the club after their relegation in 1982.
They never regained promotion under Bremner but
came close, losing a play-off final to Charlton
Athletic F.C.|Charlton Athletic in 1987 and
reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in the same
season, losing to eventual winners Coventry City
F.C.|Coventry City.

Bremner was sacked in September 1988 to make way
for Howard Wilkinson who would within four years
not just achieve promotion but also the League
championship again. Bremner then went back to
Doncaster as manager, but was fired after two
years.

Bremner settled into the columnist and
after-dinner circuit adorned by many high-profile
ex-footballers in the last years of his life. At
the beginning of December 1997, he suffered a
heart attack at his Doncaster home and was rushed
to hospital, but died two days before his 55th
birthday. Just about every major figure from
Scottish football, past and present, attended his
funeral and there was citywide mourning in Leeds.

A statue of Bremner in celebratory pose was
erected outside Elland Road as a tribute to the
club's greatest captain and, according to an
official poll of supporters via the club website,
the club's greatest ever player.

The Leeds United club song, Glory Glory Leeds
United, contained the following verse which summed
up Bremner's role at the club:

Little Billy Bremner is the captain of
the crew
For the sake of Leeds United he would
break himself in two
His hair is red and fuzzy and his
body's black and blue
As Leeds go marching on.

start box
succession box|title=FWA Footballer of the
Year|Football Writers' Association Footballer of
the Year|before=Tony Book and Dave Mackay
|after=Frank McLintock|years=1970
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