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Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990. Born in Paisley, Scotland on 17th February 1945, Alastair Brennan first played senior
hockey in the early sixties, under the eagle eye of elder brother Billy,
then the player/coach of the Paisley Mohawks. When the Paisley club folded in 1970, he moved to the west
coast to play for the Ayr Bruins, until he suffered a broken neck in a
car accident in 1972. Despite being advised by doctors that he would not
and must not play again, Alastair Brennan fought his way to full
fitness, only to face the problem that no coach wished to run the risk
of playing him in case of further serious injury. Determined to return,
eventually Lawrie Lovell, player/coach of the Fife Flyers gave him a
chance and Brennan went onto to complete seven happy years icing for the
Kirkcaldy club. He then returned to the Bruins as player/coach and apart
from a brief spell with the Dundee Rockets winning a championship medal
in 1983, he remained with the Ayr club until retiring after the Wembley
finals in 1984. In that the first of the Heineken championships to be
played at Wembley, Brennan has the satisfaction of scoring, early in the
third period of the semi-final against the Murrayfield Racers. But, his
and the Bruins hopes of the title were dashed as the Racers recovered
from a 4-2 deficit with goals from Tony Hand (2) and Jim Lynch to pip
the Bruins 5-4. As well as brave, Brennan was versatile. After starting
his career as a forward, he spent a long mid-career spell patrolling the
blueline before reverting back to the wing for his final season. Having
announced his retirement, he continued his association with the Ayr
Bruins, serving as bench coach. Alastair Brennan made the first of his record 102
appearances for Great Britain in 1965 and went onto compete in eight
world championship tournaments playing against twenty-two nations. In senior games in British competitions, Alastair
Brennan finished with a statistical record of :-
Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris – 1990. |
