After Hurricane Hattie and the great Dunlop football team came to an end, most players from the team were going to the Belize Estate and Produce Company football team, which we called “The InterContinental Ballistic Missiles.” Others went on to the other teams. Even the fabulous “Maya” Ortega went back to Cayo and thereafter the InterContinental Ballistic Missiles ruled the waves.

You see, the Belize Estate and Produce Company, sponsor of the team, was a serious one. They started to attract players by offering jobs and, with jobs being a scarcity in an economy in disarray, young, talented, black football players grabbed at the company’s initiative.

Somebody had to stop the Missiles. “Whatever it costs us,” the Missiles had to be stopped just as Square One in their soca hit, “Kitty Kat,” urged…. “somebody pussy cat get away and it causing havoc…you must hold it down.”

Entering the fray was the “‘biggest and brightest” store in town, James Brodie and Company, under the management of Mr. Russell Grant. Mr. Grant decided that he would enter the football competition with his team called “Brodies.” Mr. Grant decided that he was going to do the same thing in offering jobs, tit for tat, so that he would able to have a formidable eleven on the MCC Grounds.

It all looked now that there would be true “fire on the Barracks,” going back to the pre-Hurricane Hattie era when we had Dunlop, MYA, Diamond A, Romac’s, and so on.

Mr. Russell Grant, a “Scotchman”, was the owner of James Brodie and Company at that time and the Belize Estate and Produce Company was owned by an English company; both nationalities being lovers of football, so the line was really drawn.

The first thing Brodies did was to recruit the best goalkeeper in the entire country of Belize, Nelson “Roo” Robinson. I can always remember Roo going to his football game in his sweater, passing down Albert Street, and his beloved girlfriend, Linda Faber, would be pushing her pram with their first born baby: they were truly young love. From those days I remember Ms. Linda, as she’s now called, so devoted to her children. We have maintained a special friendship because of football over the years, although we are involved with politics in Belize on different sides.

Brodies then attracted a defense line made up of John Young, Anselm “Drake” Williams, Frankie Clarke, John Staine, and Earl “Jenna” Gentle, all of whom were part of the 1963 All-Belize selection that went to Jamaica, except for Gentle, and I don’t need to tell you anymore…They attracted midfielders such as Winston “Fry” Michael and John “Shamba” Dominguez, and a forward line of Gilly Dunn, who, I might add, was also on that 1963 All Belize team that went to to Jamaica. They went as far as St. Joseph’s School and recruited then young Malcolm Hemmans, and one Wellington Labriel from the southernmost part of the country, who was sent to Belize City by his parents to attend Saint John’s College. And how could I forget center forward Lionel “Pops” Hamilton, who was also on that national team that went to Jamaica, or the fabulous and legendary inside right, Rudolph “Pas” Ellis, who was the brain of that team, or even right winger Freddy Gill.

Football now was at its highest level. The InterContinental Ballistic Missiles team was now not a thing of the past, but they were leveled up with the biggest and brightest store in town. They were leveled up with Independence, headed by Bembe “The Mugger” Garbutt, who broke away from BEC. They were leveled up with Landivar, headed by Angus Vernon and Keith Gardiner, and it was now truly fire on the Barracks.

Every Sunday at 4 p.m. a game would start and if you were walking, riding or driving, coming to the Barracks, when you neared where the fish stand is now located, close to Eve Street, the chanting and pouring sounds of human voices and the pounding of the zinc, which were laid on top of the bleachers to prevent rain and sun from burning you whilst attending a game, was resounding in the air.

The first year of Brodies they were going all the way undefeated and only BEC could stop them, and it was on that fateful Sunday after the kickoff, a ball was passed immediately to the left side of the field, and I can clearly remember Gilly Dunn lashing a left foot shot that hit both the bar and the post, finding its way into the goal. “First blood” was drawn,” and pandemonium erupted. I can remember in that very game the Ellis brothers, both Pas and Chico, were playing on opposing teams. Chico was captain of the great BEC, and Pas Ellis, his younger brother, was the inside right and brains of Brodies. The spectators were on their toes, anticipating the clash of the legendary Ellis brothers. When that did happen there were fancy foot works to be seen by both and it was hard deciphering who was the better player; there was rough and toughness to be seen, and even more so who had better endurance.

Both Ellis brothers would find their way to Bertie Ellis, who was their father, to complain what the other was doing, and Bertie not only acted as a good father by showing support, but also took on the role as mediator, always pacifying things between the two. Both Chico and Pas were extremely close and played every single sport together, except football.

Football fans were also waiting to see the clash of the Staine brothers: Everett Staine was playing left wing for BEC and his brother, John Staine, was playing right half back for Brodies. When they met, it was ruckus. One could never believe that they were brothers because of the hostility between the two.

At halftime the game stood 1 nil in favor of Brodies. Tension was high.

In the second half, Brodies landed two more goals and BEC scored two. The game ended 3-2 and the biggest and brightest store uncrowned the defending champions, BEC, bringing Frank Sinatra’s “Fly me to the moon” to mind. As the song said, “Fly me to the moon… Let me swing among those stars…Let me see what spring is like…on Jupiter and Mars” That is my feeling of expressing to you how high the level of football was that was being played by the biggest and brightest store, and I would almost want to say that they were the best football team I have seen, although their lifespan was short.

The following year would be bittersweet. Brodies was able to successfully defend their championship, and in that same year their star players went off to study. Pas Ellis and Winston Michael went to England to study Agiculture and Chemical Engineering, respectively; John Staine went off to the USA. That brought about the end of the biggest and brightest store in town…and on that note, when I come back we will go to the “friendly confines.”