He made more than 300 appearances in the Football League, playing either at centre half or in the forward line for Darlington, Northampton Town, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich City and Bradford Park Avenue.
[4][5] He began his football career with Shildon, and appeared for Woking and Fulham, before returning to the north-east with Bishop Auckland,[6] where his goalscoring – he contributed five in a 9–1 Northern League defeat of Ferryhill Athletic in November 1958[7] – attracted reported interest from major professional clubs.
[2] In the last couple of months of the 1958–59 season, Brown made three appearances in the Football League Fourth Division as an amateur for Darlington before returning to Bishop Auckland.
Although heavily linked with Newcastle United,[12] he turned professional with Northampton in October 1960, and finished the season as the club's top scorer as they were promoted to the Third Division.
In May and June 1961, Brown was a member of a Football Association touring team that visited Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States.
At the time, Arsenal were the less successful of the two north London clubs, and Brown made a surprising move to their deadly rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, in February 1964, for a fee of £40,000.