William Cook (20 January 1909 – 11 December 1992) was a Northern Irish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager. He was capped 15 times for Ireland.

Career

Cook began his football career in Scotland with Junior side Port Glasgow Athletic Juniors. He signed for Celtic in February 1930, and made his debut within the week in a 4–0 win over Ayr United. He established himself in the side, and at the end of the following season won a Scottish Cup medal when Celtic defeated

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in the final after a replay. Cook usually played at right-back, but could also play as a left-back when the need arose. In December 1932, Cook was transferred to Everton for £3,000. It was a surprise move at the time and he is considered one of the first high-profile players to leave Celtic mid season for another club. Cook stated that the reasons for the move were financial. He enjoyed immediate success at Goodison Park, helping Everton win the

1933 FA Cup Final The 1933 FA Cup Final was a football match between Everton and Manchester City on 29 April 1933 at Wembley Stadium in London. The deciding match of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (better known ...

with a 3–0 win over

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at Wembley. On his death in December 1992, almost 60 years later, he was the last surviving player from that team. A League championship win followed in

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, but the outbreak of World War II prevented Everton from building further on this success. In his time at Everton, Cook made 250 appearances and scored six goals. During the war years, Cook guested for several clubs throughout Britain. Following the end of the war, he had brief spells at Wrexham and Ellesmere Port Town before joining Rhyl as player-manager in October 1946. Cook became coach at Norwegian club SK Brann in 1947, before returning to the UK to briefly coach

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. The next few years saw Cook travelling extensively; rejoining SK Brann for a couple of years, moving to South America to coach the Peru national side, before returning home in 1954 as manager of Portadown. Then after a spell as Youth team manager of Northern Ireland he went abroad again, spending a year as manager of the Iraq national side. He returned to the UK again in 1956, with spells as manager at Wigan and

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

before becoming trainer-coach at Norwich in 1958.

References

External links

BiographyTheCelticWiki Profile
Association footballers from Northern Ireland Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers Association football managers from Northern Ireland Expatriate association football managers from Northern Ireland People from Coleraine, County Londonderry Everton F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Rhyl F.C. players SK Brann managers Expatriate football managers in Iraq Expatriate football managers in Peru Iraq national football team managers Peru national football team managers Portadown F.C. managers Wigan Athletic F.C. managers 1909 births 1992 deaths Ellesmere Port Town F.C. players English Football League representative players Port Glasgow Athletic Juniors F.C. players British expatriate sportspeople in Iraq British expatriate sportspeople in Peru Men's association football defenders Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players English Football League players {{NorthernIreland-sport-bio-stub FA Cup final players Sportspeople from County Londonderry