Ivor Broadis: Stylish England footballer, player-manager and journalist

Ivor Broadis was an extraordinary football man. Described by no less canny a judge than Bill Shankly, the Liverpool messiah, as one of the strongest and most dangerous inside-forwards who ever played, England international Broadis served five clubs in the decade and a half after the Second World War, performed professionally into his 39th year, remains the youngest player-manager in Football League history and spent 45 years as a notably shrewd journalist, reporting on the game he had once graced so masterfully.

In an unorthodox career Broadis plied his extravagant talent with Carlisle United, Sunderland, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Queen of the South, never settling for long but invariably earning lavish plaudits from household names wherever he went.

For his country, often he combined exquisitely with the illustrious likes of Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse, but he never nailed down a regular berth, the last of his 14 caps coinciding with England’s exit from the 1954 World Cup finals at the hands of the holders, Uruguay.

As a character, he was articulate, humorous and mild-mannered, adept at keeping stressful situations calm, but emphatically his own man, never one to be dominated by forceful personalities around him.

An east Londoner, aged 16 when war was declared, Broadis joined the RAF and completed 500 flying hours as a navigator on Wellingtons and Lancasters, although he never went on a bombing mission. There was still time for football, and having shone at schoolboy level, and with amateur sides Finchley and Northfleet United, he guested during the conflict with Manchester United, Bradford Park Avenue, Blackpool, Millwall, Carlisle and, most successfully, Tottenham Hotspur.

In 1946 he was posted to Crosby-on-Eden in Cumberland and, though still only 23, accepted the role of player-boss with nearby Carlisle United. It was a distinctly unusual arrangement because although Broadis had never made a League appearance, he was recognised as one of the most vibrant young prospects in the land, while the Brunton Park club was in the Third Division (North) and exceedingly short of cash.

However, he saw it as a challenge, one to which he rose magnificently. On the field, it became rapidly apparent that the rookie boss was playing below his class. Both a voracious predator in front of goal and a cultured creator of scoring opportunities for his teammates, Broadis was blessed with assured ball control, the knack of finding and exploiting space, a stinging shot and a quick brain.

Off the field he vastly improved the training and scouting arrangements, so that when he left to join Sunderland for £18,000 in February 1949 – he did not sell himself, as was popularly imagined, the fee being negotiated by the directors – it was in a far healthier state than when he arrived, on a firmer financial footing and stabilised in mid-table.

Broadis’s decision to depart was not taken lightly. He had come to love Carlisle, where he continued to live and train even after his Wearside switch, and where he was befriended by his successor, Shankly. The passionately committed Scot pushed the younger man to stretch himself, both of them so enthusiastic that they would work together in the afternoons, ferociously contesting one-a-side matches in the club car park with chimney pots for goalposts.

At the time, Roker Park was a glamorous destination with Sunderland, dubbed “the Bank of England club”, in the process of accumulating expensive stars such as brilliant but outrageously eccentric inside-forward Len Shackleton and dashing winger Billy Bingham.

In 1949-50, with Broadis outstanding, they finished third in the top flight, only a point behind champions Portsmouth, which remains their best League performance since the war. In truth, however, they squandered the title with a run of three late defeats and would never go as close again, despite the addition of rumbustious Welsh international centre-forward Trevor Ford for the following campaign.

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On paper an inside trio of Broadis, Ford and Shackleton looked awesome, but they never hit it off, the team slumped to mid-table and in October 1951 newly promoted Manchester City broke their transfer record to sign the former Carlisle manager for £25,000.

Alongside deep-lying centre-forward Don Revie, the newcomer looked classy and he bloomed into an England player, being called up that November for a 2-2 draw with Austria which signalled the start of an eventful but ultimately frustrating international tenure.

At times he shone for his country, and he contributed eight goals, but he was part of the side humbled 7-1 by Hungary in Budapest in May 1954, then finished by bowing out of the World Cup rather unluckily to Uruguay that summer after perky displays earlier in the tournament.

By then he had left City, where he had played well in a disappointing side, to join Newcastle United for £17,500 in October 1953. After scoring twice on his Magpies debut, a 4-0 home win over Cardiff City, Broadis never really fitted in at St James’s Park and was controversially omitted from the 1955 FA Cup final following a disagreement with trainer Norman Smith.

A principled individual, he was also at loggerheads with the board and it was no surprise a few weeks later when the 32-year-old returned to third-tier Carlisle as player-coach. Delighted to be back at Brunton Park, no longer as pacey as in his prime but still clever and probingly effective, Broadis gave sterling service for four seasons before startling the football fraternity by switching to Queen of the South of the Scottish Second Division in the summer of 1959.

Any notion that he was opting for a soft pre-retirement option was quickly disabused as the veteran lit up Palmerston Park with a string of high-quality displays, which included a four-goal contribution to the 7-1 thrashing of Queen’s Park on his first Boxing Day in Dumfries, when the visitors’ lone marksman was Alex Ferguson.

Many years later, during his reign as Manchester United manager, Ferguson waxed lyrical about Broadis, declaring him inspirational, as indeed he was for two terms as a Doonhamer, impressing so mightily that he was offered a contract by top-flight Hearts. He declined with thanks, opting to remain with Queen of the South until laying aside his boots in 1961 after making more than 500 senior League appearance and scoring 155 goals.

Broadis – his given name was Ivan, but he was mistakenly dubbed Ivor while a wartime guest with Spurs, and it stuck – was not lost to the game, embarking on a marathon career as a football writer, first with The Journal on Tyneside, then with the Cumberland News and the Evening News and Star in his beloved Carlisle.

Ivan Broadis, footballer and journalist, born 18 December 1922, died 12 April 2019