William Hunter (born 29 July 1880) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played mainly as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, featuring for clubs including St Bernard's,

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, Rangers,

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

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 ...

and

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...

. He came to prominence with Airdrie, scoring 43

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

goals from 51 appearances between 1907 and 1909 (plus four in as many games on loan at Kilmarnock) which earned him a move to Rangers. His scoring run continued at Ibrox with 19 goals in 17 matches in 1909–10 despite often being deployed on the wing, but by their high standards the club had a very poor season (fifth in the league, out of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

defeat in the

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...

final and not even making the final of the

Charity Cup The Charity Cup (known as the ASB Charity Cup for sponsorship reasons) is New Zealand's association football super cup, which takes place on annual basis. The competition was founded in 1978 as the NZFA Challenge Trophy. The Champions of the ...

) and Hunter was not selected again, although he remained on the books until 1913, instead serving several loans. One of these was a short term deal with Hamilton with the intention of improving their team for the

1911 Scottish Cup Final The 1910–11 Scottish Cup was the 38th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Celtic who defeated Hamilton Academical 2–0 in the replayed final, after drawing 0–0. Calendar First round ...

,Hunter, Willie (1911)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank but he failed to score in any of his seven appearances and ''Accies'' lost the final to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

after a replay. After leaving Rangers, now well into his 30s, Hunter had spells with Cowdenbeath, where he won the

1913–14 Scottish Division Two The 1913–14 Scottish Division Two was won by Cowdenbeath, with Johnstone Johnstone ( sco, Johnstoun,Scottish Football League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

against the

Irish League XI The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland. The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 t ...

in 1909, while in good form with Airdrieonians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Willie 1880 births Year of death unknown 20th-century deaths Footballers from North Ayrshire Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Scottish Junior Football Association players St Bernard's F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) players Kilmarnock F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Cowdenbeath F.C. players Lochgelly United F.C. players Saltcoats Victoria F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players People from Dreghorn