Hall of Fame Inductees
We spent a wonderful evening at Gayfield this evening in a packed Marquee to induct another 3 Arbroath Hall of Famers and to celebrate our Championship win.
Sheriff Lindsay Wood was our Compère for the evening and he took to the stage to kick off the evening. A delicious 3 course meal was served before special guest Peter Brown took to the stage and had the crowd in stitches.
We then came to the main event and inducted three more Lichtie Legends into the Hall of Fame.
John Petrie – On 12th September 1885, shoe maker, John Petrie scored 13 goals as Arbroath thrashed Aberdeen’s Bon Accord 36-0 in a Scottish Cup Tie. Petrie’s tally was an individual world goal scoring record for one game while Arbroath’s win was all the biggest recorded in a senior Football match.
Apart from one season, 1891 / 1892 when he played for Distillery in Lisburn, Petrie was involved with Arbroath FC as a player, trainer and kit man for 35 years from 1885 until retiring in 1920 when a benefit match was held on his behalf against Forfar.
Eric Sellars – Eric joined Arbroath from Carnoustie Panmure in 1965 and remained with the Lichties until 1976 when he moved to St Johnstone before ending his career at Brechin City. He played under just one manager, the legendary Bert Henderson. Sellars made 350 appearances for Arbroath scoring 95 goals.
He was also a member of the team which famously defeated Rangers 3-2 at Ibrox in the season 1973 / 1974. During the time with the LIchties he was a key member of two promotion-winning sides in 1967/68 and 1972/1973. Eric’s son, Barry made 185 appearances scoring 42 goals for the Lichties during two spells between 1997 and 2010.
Although Eric couldn’t be there tonight, there was a brilliant interview shot recently at Gayfield which was played out tonight and will hopefully be online soon.
Stevie Florence – At 13 years of age, Stevie Florence was told that he would never walk again after being badly injured in a farm accident. However, the Arbroath teenager showed tremendous courage and resilience to bounce back, going on to make 372 league and cup appearances for his home town club and during an amazing 18-year-spell at Gayfield.
He was part of the team which won promotion from Division 3 to Division 2 in season 1997/998 and was in the side which went up from Divison 2 to Division 1 in 2000/2001
Stevie is still heavily involved in football and has been a key player for the Arbroath Vics and will be involved again soon as he recovers from injury.
3 worthy winners to the Arbroath Hall of Fame!
There was an auction in between the inductee’s which raised a lot of money before Carnoustie Comedian Paul Reid had everyone in fits of laughter with his amazing football impressions.
There will be a full round up tomorrow with photographs from the night.
We would like to thank everyone for attending and hope everyone makes it home safe!
C’mon the Lichties!
