When I put in "red hair footballer" the first name I got was Billy Bremner, who seems to have been immortalised in all manner of football chants because of it !
And we have had the second name that popped up, Alan Ball, before, as our Card of the Day for the 27th of August, 2022
Billy Bremner was born on the 9th of December, 1942, in Raploch, Stirling, Scotland. It is said that he left school in 1959, in order to sign for Leeds United, starting with the juniors and making his first senior team appearance on the 20th of January 1960. However he had been playing football for some time then, with Gowanhill. And in 1957 he had been given a trial for the Stirling Schoolboys County team, which led to his actual international debut, aged just fifteen, against Northern Ireland Schoolboys, in March 1958.
He was not tall, only 5` 5", but everyone knew his hair, and they also knew it marked him out as a fierce competitor. Eventually he would rise to become the captain of both Leeds United and Scotland, and with him on board Leeds United not only got to the First Division, but to the F.A. Cup Final in 1972.
He stayed at Leeds United right until 1976, during which time he got married (in 1962) - sixteen years and five hundred and eighty-seven appearances. Then, suddenly, he signed for Hull City, where he remained for just two years. Then there was a gap in his playing, whilst he managed Doncaster Rovers, starting in 1978. He stayed there until 1985, and played for them too, for two years, starting in 1980. He then left, to manage Leeds United, something he could not turn down, but only stayed until 1988, before returning to Doncaster Rovers again in 1989. Then in 1991 he announced his retirement.
He had always been a keen writer, and much enjoyed the activity. In fact it had all begun in the 1970s, when he had been offered a job on "Shoot" magazine, under a pseudonym. He thought it would be a one off, but it proved to be a very popular column. And when he retired he went on the speaking circuit for a while. However, in 1997, he was hospitalised with pneumonia, and on his return he died, two days before his birthday, from complications arising from a sudden heart attack. He was only fifty four years old.
This set looks typically American, but there is a lot of variation on the card style. Cards 1 to 63, (with the exception of card 32 - a checklist, of cards 1-131) have a rounded corner picture and the outside backgrounds are in an assortment of two colours, some being much more distinct than others. Cards 64 to 68, however, are called "Double Centurions", this being in a banner at the top. Those players are Ron Davies of Manchester United, Ken Wagstaff of Hull City, Kevin Hector of Derby County, Francis Lee of Derby County, and Geoff Hurst of Stoke City. Card 69 returns to the original style with the bi-coloured border, and you might be expecting that they go on until card 131, as the checklist suggests, but they actually continue until card 190, which is the first card like ours, headed "Great Britain Select Eleven". Those cards are of Mike Channon (better known as "Mick") of England, Malcolm MacDonald, of England, Leighton James of Wales, Colin Todd of England, David Nish of England, Emlyn Hughes of England (?), Phil Thompson of England, Billy Bremner of Scotland, Colin Bell of England, Alan Hudson of England, Peter Shilton of England, and Paul Madeley of England. Then from card 202 you are just starting to think it is back to square one all over again, with the bi-coloured borders, when along comes card 204, the checklist for cards 133 to 220. But its just a blip, the bi-coloured borders continue all over again for the last sixteen cards.
In fact Billy Bremner appears twice in this set, another reason for picking it - as card 1, for Leeds, and as card 197, our card.
Now on the wrappers for this set it not only, thrillingly, says "Picture Cards & Bubble Gum" but it promises "Larger cards! More Players". This is a bit misleading, as they were not referring to a set of their own, but to the fact that in 1975 A. & B.C. Gum had gone out of business and left Topps with the idea to sell their own cards, not license them A. & B.C. And, if you are a Topps fan, you will see that this design is very similar to the set of baseball cards from the same year. They also took something else from A. & B.C. and that was splitting the set into two, one English (our set of 220 cards) and one Scottish (with just 88 cards).
There is also an address, "Topps Bazooka Limited, Billericay, Essex"