St Modans

Scotland’s skipper returns to school

Bremner visiting St Modans school in 1973

In 1973 Bremner celebrated his testimonial year for Leeds United by arranging a fixture against his hometown club Stirling Albion. While in Stirling Bremner visited his old school St Modans which is famously captured in the photograph above. One of the teenage boys in the photo, barely visible and lurking in the far right hand corner of the image was comedy writer and producer Philip Differ who attended St Modans in the late-1960s, and managed a fleeting meeting with his football hero Billy Bremner on the day he returned to his alma mater.

Philip went on to a successful career in television and in 2018 created a new stage show “Billy Bremner and Me” all about his time at St Modans and this remarkable visit by the Leeds and Scotland captain. We arranged for Philip to be interviewed by three current pupils at the school to understand what that moment was like when he met his hero, but also how it inspired him to follow his own passion to be a writer.

Phil Differ Interview at St Modens by Stirling University Production on Vimeo.

Bremner attended St Modans Roman Catholic High School from 1955 to 1958. Then based in the St. Ninians area a mile to the south of the city centre, the school had already built a strong sporting tradition by the time Bremner arrived. The photograph below shows Bremner wearing his Scotland Schoolboy cap with trophies presented in front of the team. We have been able to identify some of the other players in the team: Danny Smith (Goalkeeper) went on to a professional career as a centre forward with Dunfermline and Alloa. Others pictured are Andy McMahon, Jim McGuire, Jake O’Donnell, Terry McMeel, Edward Bradley and Gerry Coletti.

St Modans RC High School Team 1957-58, Bremner centre with Scotland Schoolboy cap (John Digney)

On the St Modans Facebook page it is mentioned that St Modans played Musselburgh in a Scottish Schools final at Annfield. The Scottish Schools Football Association website notes Musselburgh won the U16s Shield in 1955/56, so we may assume this relates to the final played at Stirling Albion’s ground. We don’t know if Bremner played, he would only have been thirteen at the time.

Traces of Bremner in St Modans School Archives

Current pupils at St Modans researched the surviving school archives to look for traces of Bremner at the school. They found some fascinating material from a school grade report, sports day records and a teachers report of the school football teams for 1957 in the St Modans High School Magazine.

William Bremner’s Grade Report

Bremner’s grade report reveals his IQ at age 13 and two sets of grades for the year for English, History, Geography and Maths. There seemed to be marked improvement in the two former subjects and little or no progression in the latter two. However, his grades look respectable among his peers.

Relay racer

This yearbook lists Bremner in the D Boys Relay Race. There are four teams and Bremner’s included fellow football team member Andy McMahon.

Sack Race

School sports days wouldn’t be the same without a sack race. Bremner was in the D Boys race up against another football team member Gerry Coletti.

Gymnastic badge

Rather than being listed among the football medals in class IF Bremner was awarded a gymnastic medal.

County football honours

In the most interesting entry in the St Modans High School Magazine in 1957 is this report on the schools Intermediate football team in which Bremner clearly starred. After a 7-1 defeat at start of the season the report notes the team won every game with “skill and spirit”. The report looks ahead to the 4th Round tie in the Scottish Intermediate Shield versus St. Patrick’s High School from Coatbridge. It also mentions Bremner’s selection for Stirlingshire Schools. The description of Bremner as “our skilful, ball-playing, yet hard-hitting captain at inside right” is a prophetic portent of the senior player Bremner would later become.

St Modans classmates and contemporaries

Mike Ryan visiting Bremner’s statue at Elland Road in 2019 (Daily Record)

Olympic athlete Mike Ryan from Bannockburn attended St Mary’s and was in Bremner’s class at St Modans. He was coached by Jimmy Kielty at St Modans athletic club and competed in several Scottish youth championships against rival and future Scottish champion Lachie Stewart before emigrating to New Zealand in 1963. In an interview for The Daily Record (19^th July 2019) Ryan commented:

I was in the same class as Billy at St Modans. I can’t remember what class it was but there would have been many below us. He was a foe on the field who didn’t like my slide tackles but that was because I was fast and it was the only way to stop him. I recall that the only time I made the school team was when five of the regulars, including Billy were picked for schoolboy internationals
Mike Ryan

Ryan won a bronze medal in the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, behind Scotland’s Jim Alder, and won a further bronze at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. He was inducted into the NZ Hall of Fame in 2008. Ryan followed in the footsteps of another St Modans long-distanced runner Joe McGhee who won gold in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games marathon in Vancouver. It is remarkable two internationally elite sports people came from the same class at St Modans.

St Modans Class 1F 1955-56. Bremner seated in front row, seven from the right (Stirling Observer)

Another of Bremner’s classmates, Ian Pow (sat next to Bremner six from the right on the front row in the above photograph of Class 1F 1955-56), played with him from first to third year in the St Modan’s team. Ian recalled that in their third year they lost 4-0 in a schools cup final. However, they won the league with ‘Brock’ in majestic form. He recalled that Bremner missed a few games because of County and Scotland games. Ian left school three months before Bremner, and he remembered meeting him on his way home from work when ‘Brock’ told him he was going to Leeds and asked Ian to go with him. But Ian had just started a new job and reluctantly had to turn him down. Ian said ‘Brock’ was “pure magic” and he could put a pass right to your feet, even from distance and at an early age.

St Modans Football Team 1956-57 (Joe Meldrum)

Pat Conroy was a couple of years above Bremner at St Modans but recalls his confidence when it came to football:

I was in school with Billy but we were two years older and we were there and played football for the school team. Billy was always well quoted for football at school because he was the most confident wee bloke Ive ever seen and everybody says the same thing. When he was young he always wanted to play with the big boys and he had helped the man who run the big boys team. He did everything so he could get to play with the big boys. It was also being red haired, he was quite fiery.
Pat Conroy

Another football connection to Bremner’s time at St Modan’s is Fergus McCann, businessman and former majority shareholder of Celtic FC in the 1990s, who was in the year above Bremner at the school. McCann helped stablise Celtic’s finances and expanded Celtic Park to its current 60,000 capacity. While the two probably never played football together they both shared a love of Celtic in their teenage years.