The Thistle Archive

Only 500 were at Cathkin Park on the Monday evening of 23rd April 1906 to see the 4th game of the Glasgow League campaign - the competition was dying. Anderson Tennent scored the only goal of the game late on to give Thistle their first win at Cathkin in 16 attempts. Cup finalists Thirds were pretty much at full strength. It seems manager Samuel Wyllie must have been impressed by Thistle's trialist goalie - Jimmy Brownlie - for he was signed to Third Lanark just 3 weeks later. Remarkably, the opposing 'keeper that evening was Jimmy Raeside. He too had been a rejected Thistle trialist 7 years earlier before moving to Thirds in next to no time. That both 'keepers would go on to play for Scotland is beyond belief, but there it is!

Brownlie was born in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, and was an outstanding personality in Scottish football over many years, as a goalkeeper and manager. Almost his entire professional playing career, lasting from 1906 to 1923, was spent with Third Lanark, having joined them from local Junior team Blantyre Victoria to replace Jimmy Raeside who had moved to English football. Brownlie continued to work in his chosen trade as a bricklayer while playing for Thirds and maintained a humble outlook despite being an important member of what was one of Scotland's leading clubs of the time. That said, their very best spell, in which they won the Scottish Football League in 1904 and the Scottish Cup in 1905, then reached its final again the following year, narrowly preceded his arrival. Jimmy's sole club-honour was a Glasgow Cup in 1908. Brownlie scored a goal at least twice for Third Lanark, the first a rebound from a penalty kick he had taken against Motherwell in 1911 and the other during the 1914–15 season.

At international level, he played for Scotland in 16 of the last 17 internationals before the First World War, was also selected in four unofficial Victory Internationals once the conflict was over, and took part in a Scottish tour of North America in 1921 organised by Third Lanark. He played for the Scottish League XI 14 times. In May 1923, Brownlie was appointed player-manager of Dundee Hibernian, who were renamed Dundee United later that year. He continued to play for a further season, but later made one further appearance in an emergency, at the age of 40 in 1926. His first managerial spell with the club found early success, with the Division Two title in 1925, and again in 1929, but he left the club in April 1931 on the brink of a third promotion.

He returned in 1934 with the club at a low ebb, one away from bottom of Division Two, and helped to effect a partial revival before he left again in October 1936. A third and final spell came in season 1938–39, in a dual role with Sam Irving; both men were also appointed as directors of the club at this time. In May 1939, Brownlie announced that he was giving up both roles due to the pressure of his other business interests. After leaving his position at Dundee United, Brownlie continued to regularly attend the club's matches and saw the side finally return to Scotland's top division in 1960. In January 2019 it was announced that Brownlie was to be inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame at a dinner the following month.

Jimmy is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →