Eightieth Birthday for CCFPA stalwart Ken Brown

Thanks to CCFPA committee member Frank Pritchard who has recently sent us photographs of a significant event for the Association which he attended last month.

Former Bantams player and Ricoh Legends Lounge regular Ken Brown passed his 80th birthday on the 18th October and fellow ex CCFC players and CCFPA committee members were pleased to help him celebrate at his party at a Coventry venue. One of our oldest members, Ken never made it to the Coventry City first team but played in the Bantams reserve outfit in the mid nineteen fifties and was at the Club with a number of much missed CCFPA members who have since passed on like Charlie Timmins, Barry Hawkings and Iain Jamieson as well as others who are, thankfully very much still with us. These contemporaries include  Colin Collindridge (our oldest surviving player), Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone, fellow ‘frequent flyers’ at Ricoh home games in the recent past Peter Wyer and Lol Harvey, former player and trainer Peter Hill, and even a young George Curtis!

Ken is a regular attender at CCFC Diamond Club and CCFPA events including Legends Days and Golf Days and is a popular member of the Association ‘family’ and is pictured (above- third from right) at a recent Diamond club outing with (left to right) Bill Tedds, Ron Farmer, Ken Satchwell, Brian Roberts, Brian Nicholas, Ken, Lol Harvey and CCFPA chair Jim Brown. Ken left the Club for Corby Town in 1956 and after spells with Rugby Town (on loan) and Nottingham Forest reserves he moved to the south coast making six League appearances for Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic scoring one goal in 1957-58 and turned out a further nine times (one goal) with Torquay United the following season before returning to the Midlands with Hinckley United in 1958.

Though, unfortunately, the celebration could not be shared with Ken’s beloved wife Jean who passed away early this year he was joined by plenty of family members (including his grand-daughter) and many friends and guests including a significant number of former players from the 1950s and 1960s and a few from later eras like Andy Blair.

We know that Ken had a great time and CCFPA vice chairman Billy Bell kept the participants fully entertained as m/c and is pictured (left) as he helped Ken remember some of the things he wanted to (and some he did not) by conducting a ‘This is Your Life’ session with Ken.  A belated ‘Happy Birthday’ Ken!