Billy Watson was a Scottish-American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

left half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He began his career in Scotland before moving to England and then the United States where he played in both the American Soccer League and

St. Louis Soccer League The St. Louis Soccer League was based in St. Louis, Missouri and existed from 1915 to 1938. At its founding, it was the only fully professional soccer league in the United States. The league was founded from two teams from the St. Louis Soccer F ...

. Watson began his career in Scotland playing for Ayr United and

Vale of Leven F.C. Vale of Leven Football Club are a Scottish Association football, football club based in the town of Alexandria, Scotland, Alexandria, in the Vale of Leven area of West Dunbartonshire. Nicknamed ''the Vale'' and formed in 1939, they play at Mil ...

in the early 1920s. In 1925, he transferred to English club

Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

before moving to the United States in 1926. In the spring of 1928, he signed with the Bethlehem Steel of the American Soccer League at the end of the 1927-1928 season as a replacement for injured Bob MacGregor. He played only three games with Bethlehem. He began the 1928-1929 season with the New Bedford Whalers, but was transferred to the

Providence Gold Bugs The Providence Clamdiggers was a member of the American Soccer League. They were renamed the Providence Gold Bugs before the spring half of the 1928–1929 season. The club won the American Soccer Association Cup in 1929. After the fall 1930 s ...

after only three games. In the spring of 1931, he played for Fall River F.C., but moved to back to the Whalers in the summer. In 1932, the Whalers defeated Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. (SBF) of the

for the

1932 National Challenge Cup The 1932 National Challenge Cup was the annual open cup held by the United States Football Association now known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Eastern Division Western Division a) aggregate after 3 games, Stix advance 2 games to 1 Final F ...

title. By that time, the ASL was on its last legs and

Alex McNab Alexander McNab (27 December 1894 – 3 April 1960) was a Scottish-American soccer player and coach. He began his career in Scotland before moving to the United States. In the US, he won six consecutive National Challenge Cups with teams from bo ...

, New Bedford's captain accepted an offer to move west to SBF where he became a player-coach. He then recruited the core of the New Bedford team, including Watson. Watson would remain in St. Louis for the remainder of his career. In 1933, SBF used these new players to win the

1933 National Challenge Cup The 1933 National Challenge Cup was the annual open cup held by the United States Football Association now known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. As in 1931, the ASL teams played a round robin format instead of direct knockout games. The five New ...

, repeating as champions in 1934. The St. Louis teams relied on the sponsorship of local businesses to the extent that they changed names to match their sponsors. As a result, when the

Stix, Baer and Fuller __NOTOC__ Stix, Baer and Fuller (sometimes called "Stix" or SBF or the Grand-Leader) was a department store chain in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1892 to 1984. Founders and History Originally called the Grand-Leader, the original centra ...

department store sold the rights to the team to St. Louis Central Brewery, the team became known as St. Louis Central Breweries F.C., then the

St. Louis Shamrocks St. Louis Shamrocks was an American soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They competed in the St. Louis Association Foot Ball League, winning two championships. Thomas Cahill founded Shamrocks in 1897. When St. Teresa was suspended from the ...

in 1935. Watson remained with the club through these name changes, winning the 1935 National Challenge Cup and finishing runner up in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

and

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

. On 6 February 1938, he signed with South Side Radio, but his teams become obscure after that. He was still actively playing in 1939 when he was part of a St. Louis All-Stars team which played a Scottish F.A. team touring the United States. and was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame in 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Billy Scottish men's footballers American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Ayr United F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–1930) players Fall River F.C. (1922–1931) players New Bedford Whalers players Providence Gold Bug players St. Louis Soccer League players St. Louis Central Breweries players St. Louis Shamrocks players South Side Radio players Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. players Vale of Leven F.C. players Living people Men's association football wing halves Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate men's footballers Year of birth missing (living people)