Tommy Browell
Encyclopedia
Thomas "Tommy" Browell was an English
footballer
who played as a forward for Hull City
, Everton
, Manchester City
and Blackpool
. He is the seventh-highest Manchester City goalscorer of all time with 139 goals for the club.
Browell was born in Walbottle
, Northumberland
, in 1892. He started his career with Hull City
, who were then in the Football League Second Division
, who also had Browell's two brothers on their books. At Hull he gained the nickname "Boy" following a hat-trick against Stockport County
as an 18-year-old in 1910. A newspaper report of the match carried the headline "£10 men and a boy beat Stockport", and the nickname then followed throughout his career. A year later, after making 48 appearances and scoring 32 goals, he was signed by First Division
Everton
for a fee of £1,650. Despite only playing half the season for the club, Browell finished as Everton's top goalscorer in the 1911-12
season. In two years at Everton he scored 36 goals in 60 appearances, including two FA Cup
hat-tricks.
In October 1913, Manchester City
signed Browell for £1,780. He scored on his City debut against The Wednesday
, though City lost the match 2-1. Two seasons into his time in Manchester, the outbreak of World War I
suspended football for a four-year period. When matches resumed in 1919, Browell formed a prolific goalscoring partnership with Horace Barnes
. In the 1920-21 season
Manchester City finished runners-up in the league, and Browell set a career-best of 31 league goals.
In the 1925-26 season
, Manchester City enjoyed a run to the FA Cup
final in which Browell was an influential figure, scoring seven times, including a hat-trick in the 11-4 defeat of Crystal Palace
, and two goals in the first half-hour of the semi-final against Manchester United
. However, victory eluded the team in the final, which was won 1-0 by Bolton
. To compound the misfortune, City were also relegated to the Second Division on the final day of the season, losing to Newcastle United
despite a Browell goal.
Relegation resulted in changes of personnel, and the following season Browell was transferred for £1,100 to Blackpool
, where he played for four years. In total, he made 247 appearances for Manchester City, scoring 139 goals.
At Blackpool, under the guidance of Major Frank Buckley, Browell scored 14 goals in his first season to become the club's second-highest scorer. Those goals included a hat-trick in a 5-0 home
win over Notts County
on May 7, 1927, in the final game of the season.
For the 1927-28 season
, Browell switched to the right side and teamed up with new arrival, the would-be prolific Jimmy Hampson
. Browell scored another hat-trick that season, on September 24, 1927, in a 6-2 win against Bristol City at Bloomfield Road.
Eventually, age got the better of Browell, and with the emergence of Jack Oxberry, Browell was released at the age of 38. He remained in the Fylde Coast area, joining Lytham as player-coach. He also went on to coach Morecambe
.
Upon retiring from football, Browell became a tram
driver in Blackpool
.
After his death in 1955, at the age of 62, Browell received the honour of having a street named after him in Manchester
. Tommy Browell Close is located to the west of Manchester City's old home, Maine Road
, and is part of an estate built in the 1970s.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
who played as a forward for Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
, Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
, Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
and Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
. He is the seventh-highest Manchester City goalscorer of all time with 139 goals for the club.
Browell was born in Walbottle
Walbottle
Walbottle is a village in Tyne and Wear. It is a western suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. The village name, recorded in 1176 as "Walbotl", is derived from the Old English botl on the Roman Wall...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, in 1892. He started his career with Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
, who were then in the Football League Second Division
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
, who also had Browell's two brothers on their books. At Hull he gained the nickname "Boy" following a hat-trick against Stockport County
Stockport County F.C.
Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly afterwards merging with Heaton Norris F.C., and adopted the current name on 24 May 1890 on the creation of the County Borough of Stockport...
as an 18-year-old in 1910. A newspaper report of the match carried the headline "£10 men and a boy beat Stockport", and the nickname then followed throughout his career. A year later, after making 48 appearances and scoring 32 goals, he was signed by First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
for a fee of £1,650. Despite only playing half the season for the club, Browell finished as Everton's top goalscorer in the 1911-12
1911-12 in English football
The 1911–12 season was the 41st season of competitive football in England.-Overview:Blackburn Rovers won the First Division title for the first time....
season. In two years at Everton he scored 36 goals in 60 appearances, including two FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
hat-tricks.
In October 1913, Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
signed Browell for £1,780. He scored on his City debut against The Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...
, though City lost the match 2-1. Two seasons into his time in Manchester, the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
suspended football for a four-year period. When matches resumed in 1919, Browell formed a prolific goalscoring partnership with Horace Barnes
Horace Barnes
Horace Barnes was an English Football Inside Forward who played for Derby County, Manchester City, Preston North End andOldham Athletic.-Early life:...
. In the 1920-21 season
1920-21 in English football
The 1920–21 season was the 46th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:The Football League Third Division is introduced, expanding the League's operational radius south of Birmingham...
Manchester City finished runners-up in the league, and Browell set a career-best of 31 league goals.
In the 1925-26 season
1925-26 in English football
The 1925–26 season was the 51st season of competitive football in England. This marked the year that Huddersfield Town won the League three years running, making them the first team in Football League history to do so.-Honours:-First Division:...
, Manchester City enjoyed a run to the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
final in which Browell was an influential figure, scoring seven times, including a hat-trick in the 11-4 defeat of Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...
, and two goals in the first half-hour of the semi-final against Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
. However, victory eluded the team in the final, which was won 1-0 by Bolton
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
. To compound the misfortune, City were also relegated to the Second Division on the final day of the season, losing to Newcastle United
Newcastle United F.C.
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...
despite a Browell goal.
Relegation resulted in changes of personnel, and the following season Browell was transferred for £1,100 to Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
, where he played for four years. In total, he made 247 appearances for Manchester City, scoring 139 goals.
At Blackpool, under the guidance of Major Frank Buckley, Browell scored 14 goals in his first season to become the club's second-highest scorer. Those goals included a hat-trick in a 5-0 home
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...
win over Notts County
Notts County F.C.
Notts County Football Club are an English professional football club based in Nottingham. They are the oldest of all the clubs in the world that are now professional, having been formed in 1862. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier of the English football system...
on May 7, 1927, in the final game of the season.
For the 1927-28 season
1927-28 in English football
The 1927–28 season was the 53rd season of competitive football in England.-Events:This was the season in which Dixie Dean scored an astounding 60 goals in 39 league appearances for Everton – 58.8% of their seasons total .-Honours:...
, Browell switched to the right side and teamed up with new arrival, the would-be prolific Jimmy Hampson
Jimmy Hampson
James "Jimmy" Hampson was an English professional footballer. He spent eleven seasons at Blackpool, where he remains record goalscorer with 252 goals in 373 games, and is still regarded as one of the best centre forwards to play for the club.-Club career:Born in Little Hulton, Lancashire, Hampson...
. Browell scored another hat-trick that season, on September 24, 1927, in a 6-2 win against Bristol City at Bloomfield Road.
Eventually, age got the better of Browell, and with the emergence of Jack Oxberry, Browell was released at the age of 38. He remained in the Fylde Coast area, joining Lytham as player-coach. He also went on to coach Morecambe
Morecambe F.C.
Morecambe Football Club is an English football club based in Morecambe, Lancashire. It plays its football in League Two, the fourth division of English football, having been promoted in 2007 for the first time in their history to the Football League. They played their home matches at Christie Park...
.
Upon retiring from football, Browell became a tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
driver in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
.
After his death in 1955, at the age of 62, Browell received the honour of having a street named after him in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Tommy Browell Close is located to the west of Manchester City's old home, Maine Road
Maine Road
Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England that was home to Manchester City F.C. from its construction in 1923 until 2003...
, and is part of an estate built in the 1970s.
Honours
Blackpool- Second DivisionFootball League Second DivisionFrom 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
championship: 1929-30Blackpool F.C. season 1929-30The 1929–30 season was Blackpool F.C.s 29th season in the Football League. They competed in the 22-team Division Two, then the second tier of English football, finishing first, winning their only League championship to date....