The only Scotsman to score in a World Cup semi-final

Jim Brown desserted his family in 1920. A feckless drunk, he left his son behind in Troon to make his way across the pond to New Jersey.

In 1927, his son, also named Jim, travelled to the USA in search of his father. They never reconciled, but Jim forged a career in football. Having never played organised football in Scotland, he found his place in America, playing for Plainfield Soccer Club, the Newark Skeeters and the New York Giants, among others.

Jim, a union man in his trade as a riveter in Scotland, represented the USA internationally. His side reached the 1930 World Cup semi-final, where they were heavily defeated by Argentina. Jim, however, scored the USA's only goal in a 6-1 defeat as his team were knocked out of the first-ever World Cup.

1930 #FOTD The first ever World Cup Semi Final match takes place and it's a goal fest. Argentina defeat the USA 6-1 and head to the Final pic.twitter.com/zgS90ovdSS

— Football:On This Day (@footyonthisday) 26 July 2017

‘He was an interesting fella. Fairly uneducated, perhaps to what would be called fifth or sixth grade now, but he was very intelligent and that could get him into a lot of trouble', recalled his son George, who also followed in his father's footsteps in playing for the USA. 

Father and son returned from the USA in 1932, with Jim signing for Manchester United, followed by spells at Tottenham and Clyde. When the war broke, he took up his trade in a Troon shipyard, where he led a strike over the inequality of wages, before returning to the USA after the war.

‘When he was on the field, he was so smooth. He was languid in his style, he kind of loped. He was head and shoulders above everyone else on the field even then', George described his father as a player, 87 years after he scored that historic goal at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Jim Brown's son admired the man who endured two world wars and left his hometown for the first time at the age of 11. ‘He had to essentially start from scratch', George said. He remains, to this day, the only Scotsman to have scored in a World Cup semi-final.