On this day in 1949, Ivor Broadis made his debut for Sunderland away to Arsenal. Until his death in 2019, Broadis was the oldest surviving England international footballer, and was also the first manager to transfer himself to another club!
Broadis, who was born in Poplar, London, was posted to Crosby-On-Eden, Cumbria towards the end of World War Two. During the war, he featured for Tottenham Hotspur as an amateur. Tottenham is the reason he's known as Ivor, his legal name is actually Ivan but the club misread his name as Ivor and it became his alias. When Carlisle heard how close he was, they offered him the player-manager role despite Broadis being just 23. Of living so far up north, the forward said: "Until after the war I'd never been so far north in my life, I thought I'd need a dog team to get up here”. A player-manager was a common role, but at 23 Broadis remains the youngest ever person to have the job.
In 1949, he became the first manager to transfer himself to another club when Sunderland paid £18,000 for his services. The Black Cats were known as the “Bank of England Club” at the time due to their huge spending power and influence in the transfer market.
Even after signing for Sunderland, Broadis lived in Carlisle and actually kept training with his former club, under new manager and future Liverpool legend Bill Shankly! Alongside Sunderland stars such as Len Shackleton, Dickie Davis, Willie Watson and Trevor Ford, Broadis scored 27 times in red and white in 84 games.
Broadis’ highest ever league finish came with Sunderland, who finished second in 1950. The forward was disappointed with the season though, claiming: "The sad thing about that Sunderland side was that we should have won the league in 1950. They played me at centre-forward against a relegated Man City with three or four games to go and we lost. We finished third in the end. We should have won the league that year, it would have made such a difference."
In 1951, after impressing on Wearside for several seasons, Broadis joined newly-promoted Manchester City. It was during his time in Manchester where the forward earned his first England cap, as well as writing his first newspaper column as he began the switch to becoming a journalist. He returned to the North East, signing for Newcastle United in 1953.
He earned 14 caps and scored eight goals for England between 1951 and 1954. Broadis enjoyed a goal against Scotland, netting a brace against the Tartan Army in the 1952/53 British Home Championship and scoring another time in the 53/54 edition of the same competition against our northern neighbours. The inside forward twice played in front of crowds in surplus of 130,000 at Hampden Park but the highlight of his international career would probably have to be when he became the first England national team player to score twice in one game at a World Cup, that came in 1954 in a 4-4 draw versus Belgium.
While at St James Park, Broadis won the 1955 FA Cup alongside the likes of Jackie Milburn and Len White, before returning to Carlisle for a second spell soon after. He eventually ended his career in Scotland, playing for Queen of the South until 1960. After retirement, he enjoyed a 45-year career as a sports journalist, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of Carlisle in 2018.
