#sporting hero

On November 1st 1947 Gordon Brown was born.

Naw no him!! The ither yin Gordon Broon frae Troon the Scottish Rugby legend also known as the baby-faced assassin.

Brown was born in 1947 in Troon, the son of former Clyde and Scotland goalkeeper Jock Brown, he had also been a golfer playing off a scratch handicap, he had appeared in the Scottish Open at Royal Troon alongside golfing greats such as Arnold Palmer. Gordon's big brother Peter also played for and Captained Scotland to 3 victories over England scoring 67 international points making him our all time highest scoring rugby forward.

Despite his fearsome build, 6ft 5ins and 16 stone, Brown was a genial and gentle giant, liked by team-mates and opponents in equal measure.

After a career which spanned 30 international caps and three tours with the Lions in the 1970s, Brown holds the world record of eight tries scored by a forward on an international tour.

I love reading the anecdotes from people like Gordon Broon, and it would have been great to attend one of his after dinner speeches.

A gentleman away from the pitch, he was never afraid of a ruck on it, here is an account of a lions tour to South Africa. One of those with whom Gordon Brown fought on the pitch in South Africa was Johan De Bruyn, a fearsome forward from Northern Transvaal with a glass eye which, with the encouragement of the's" fist, flew from its socket and sank in the mud during a third Test melee. "So there we are," recalled Gordon, "30 players plus the ref on our hands and knees scrabbling about in the mire looking for this glass eye. Eventually, someone yells `Eureka!' whereupon De Bruyn grabs it and plonks it straight back in the gaping hole in his face. And when he stands up I can't believe what I'm looking at. . . there's a huge dod of grass sticking out of his eyeball."

Gordon died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma aged 53 in 2001, he fought a long fight against the cancer but reading through the stories, he never gave up and never lost his sense of humour.

As proud a Scot you it is hard to find, one of his last requests, which was obeyed to a man at his funeral was not to wear black but kilts or the red and yellow ties of West of Scotland rugby club. He had planned to record his own eulogy, but died before the recording was made.

Instead, mourners were asked to stand and give the player "one last standing ovation" which lasted several minutes.

His white coffin, decked out in red and yellow flowers mingled with thistles was led out of the church to the sound of a bagpiper playing Flower of Scotland, accompanied by the voices of the congregation.