WHENEVER a celebrity who has affected your life in a positive way passes away, whether it’d be a sports personality, an actor or a musician, there is naturally an outpouring of grief from fans about how those personalities influenced their life.

The reaction to Craig Brown’s death has hit people in a different way than just someone they saw on TV or from afar in the stands as he led Scotland to two consecutive major finals, making him one of just two managers to do so. The many tributes online speak about the personal touch, about how Craig gave his time to help them for an interview, at a charity event or even just saying hello. He was willing to give time to almost anybody who asked him and speak about his long and successful career as a player, coach and manager.

Personally, Craig played a positive role in my life that stretches beyond his time as Scotland manager, and even beyond someone willing to give me an interview for an article, podcast or a book. He became a friend to me.

My first encounter with Craig was back in 2013 when I interviewed him for Famous Tartan Army Magazine. I was doing an article looking back at the ’99 game at Wembley as part of a preview of the upcoming match setup as part of the English FA’s 150th anniversary, and Craig spent most of his car journey waxing lyrical about Scotland’s performance that night in a game we deserved more than the 1-0 win that wasn’t enough to overturn a two-goal deficit. Craig admitted himself he’d rather we got a lucky win to take us to Euro 2000 than take the plaudits from another glorious failure chapter.

I then got in touch with him again in 2020 during lockdown to get his memories of both Euro ’92, where he was Andy Roxburgh’s assistant, and Euro ’96 for the magazine again. As with all my subjects for written pieces, I sent a copy to him beforehand, and he sent me a text and phoned me to tell me that the article was a superb analysis of the two Euros. That meant the World to me for someone like Craig to give such a glowing review of my work. He also text me out of the blue to say I wrote a great piece about the 3-2 win over Israel for this website in 2021, though he also pointed out a grammatical error by putting your not you’d. This was typical of Craig, attention to detail!

Back to 2020, and I got to speak to him again for SFF Podcast as I recorded a pre-Serbia special that also contained BBC commentator Paul Mitchell and Hampden Roar podcast contributor Gordon Sheach. Paul and Gordon I’m sure will agree that Craig was the crown jewel of that feature, and as always was in great form, despite the fact he’d just recovered from having an aneurism, and shared a great story about his Serbian friend Nico joking that Serbia could even beat Scotland at caber-tossing. When Scotland beat Serbia that night, Craig was as pleased as anyone that we finally qualified for a tournament for the first time since his class of ’98.

Craig was obviously a great help to my debut book Scotland’s Swedish Adventure, even contributing a foreword that he didn’t want anything in return. His support stretched to him attending the book launch with his brother Jock, ex-international Dave McPherson and journalist, and host for the day, Hugh MacDonald. He was very complimentary about my son Callum making a speech about the Ukraine war and, as ever, gave his time to anyone who wanted to speak to him or get a photograph with him.

My favourite memory of Craig Brown though doesn’t involve interviews for magazines, podcasts or book launches. It was January 2022 when I met up with him on two occasions in Aberdeen. Firstly, I met up with him and my friend Grant Campbell, whom he spoke to for three hours for Campbell’s Footballs podcast, and I attempted to give him a bottle of wine to say thank you for his assistance with the book. He initially refused to take it before agreeing on the condition he paid for lunch! Later on that day, I bumped into him again at Ardoe Hotel, Aberdeen ahead of an Eoin Jess event hosted by Ally Begg. When the organiser asked Craig to come backstage to see Eoin and Ally, to which Craig replied “can I bring my two pals with me” in reference to me and my mate Antony. Getting to hang out with the three of them was amazing, and you can only imagine the stories that we got to hear, which will remain between us! Again, this was typical of Craig’s generosity and making you feel welcome. For these reasons, I consider him a friend, and there are so many who will do so too for similar reasons.

Of course, it was his impact as the Scotland National Team manager from 1993 until 2001 that makes Craig Brown a sought after character. Taking us to Euro ’96 and France ’98 was incredible and those are the two main tournaments that standout, particularly the opening game of the World Cup against Brazil at the Stade de France. As 23 long years passed without qualification, his tenure became more appreciated than perhaps it did then, and he was always proud of his record as he rhymed off the stats that supported his view. A win percentage of 45% from 71 matches, taking his country to two consecutive major finals and running us close to another two with an ageing squad, with a win at Wembley thrown in, he certainly has reason to be proud.

That record and his mannerisms are what makes Craig such a popular figure in the game, and why he is going to be sadly missed. He can rest now knowing that he’s not the last manager to take Scotland to a major finals and that we have a talented squad of players and manager to take us, potentially, to more in the coming years. Victory over the Auld Enemy in the Men’s National Team’s next home match at Hampden would also be a nice tribute to, arguably, the greatest Scotland Manager of all time.