Footballer
Born: November 22, 1946;
Died: July 16, 2015
BRIAN Hall, who has died of leukaemia aged 68, was one of the relatively unsung heroes of Bill Shankly's second great Liverpool team of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He was born in Glasgow, but the family relocated to Preston, where young Brian was educated at Preston Grammar School. His potential as a footballer was soon evident and he was invited to train with Preston North End, who wanted to sign him as an apprentice. However, his physics teacher at school convinced his parents their son, who was sitting his O levels a year early, had the potential to go to university; so, although a fan, and a great admirer of Sir Tom Finney, he never signed for North End.
On leaving school, he went to Liverpool University to study mathematics, a decision partly influenced by his love of the Beatles, and Merseybeat music. He was happy to play football for the university, but one of his friends, Derek Thompson, wrote to Liverpool's Peter Thompson, whom he knew but was not related to. Peter Thompson fixed it for Brian to have a trial for Liverpool, after which he signed as an amateur, playing as such for the three years it took him to gain his degree.
He came to Bill Shankly's notice one morning when, turning up to training, wearing his uniform as a Ribble Buses conductor – a part-time job he had. Shankly asked him a bit about himself, thereby sparking off a typical Shankly one-liner: "Do you need a degree to be a bus conductor these days son"?
However, when Shankly discovered Hall was from Preston, where he had played, and their mutual appreciation of Finney, Hall was on his way, signing his professional contract on completing his degree in 1968.
He made the first of his 224 Liverpool appearances as a substitute for Roger Hunt against Stoke City in April 1969, but it took him some time to establish himself in the team.
The first of his 21 goals for the club has gone down in Merseyside folklore - it proved to be the winner in a Merseyside Derby, FA Cup semi-final, in 1971. He sat out the final, when Arsenal completed the first League and Cup Double of the 20th century, but he did win an FA Cup Winner's medal in 1974 when his outrageous dummy set-up Kevin Keegan for the opener in the Reds' 3-0 demolition of Newcastle United, in what proved to be Shankly's final match as Liverpool manager.
He won League Championship medals in 1973, under Shankly, and 1976, under Bob Paisley. He also played in the 1973 UEFA Cup final against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Hall played in the first leg of what was then a two-legged final, but the game was abandoned after half an hour and when it was replayed, Shankly left him out, putting John Toshack on to exploit what he saw as a weakness in the air in Borussia's captain, the great Gunter Netzer.
Hall always admitted he was not best pleased by Shankly's decision, but he soon realised the ends justified the means. He received a medal, however, as he did again in 1976, when he was an unused substitute in the win over Club Brugge.
Hall was known in the dressing room as Little Bamber (his fellow university graduate, Steve Heighway, was Big Bamber) – the other players reckoning the two graduates had to be super-intelligent, hence the reference to the then host of University Challenge, Bamber Gascoigne.
A hard-running box-to-box midfielder, he was one of the generators of the Shankly attacking style. The Koppites loved his never-say-die spirit and his team-mates appreciated his often unnoticed part in the Liverpool success story. He was touted for Scotland honours, but, such was the competition at that time, the call never came.
He left Liverpool at the end of the 1975-76 season to join Plymouth Argyle, before retiring after a spell back in Lancashire with Burnley.
Hall then taught mathematics for a time, before joining Preston Burgh Council, where he was head of leisure, in which role he greatly enjoyed ensuring public access to the artificial pitch at Preston North End's Deepdale ground.
In 1991, he returned to Liverpool, as head of the club's community branch, which also included being the liaison officer with the many Liverpool supporters club around the world. He was very popular in this role, but, in 2011, he was forced to take early retirement after his leukaemia was diagnosed.
Hall died peacefully at his home in Preston and is survived by wife Mary, daughters Jane and Elizabeth, son Andrew and grand-children Thomas, Finlay, Katie, Jack, Reece, Olivia and Grace.
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