William Alexander Woodburn (8 August 1919 – 2 December 2001) 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 for Rangers and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He was the last footballer in Britain to receive a life ban from the game for

indiscipline ''Discipline'' is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson, released on 22 September 1981 by E.G. Records in the United Kingdom and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. This album was King Crimson's firs ...

, although the ban was later rescinded and he has since been inducted into both the

Scottish Football Hall of Fame The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Nominations are made each year by fans and a committee selects the inductees. The first inductions to the Hall of Fame were in November 2004 in a ceremony at Hampden Par ...

and the Rangers Hall of Fame.

Football career

Rangers

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, he played for

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side Edinburgh Ashton before signing as a professional for Rangers in October 1937. He made his debut on 20 August 1938 in a 2–2 draw in the League against

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 made 12 appearances as the club won the league title. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(during which numerous trophies made their way to Ibrox, although Woodburn was considered a reserve player for part of that time), he established himself in the Rangers side and won four more

Scottish league championships 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 sout ...

and four

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Willie Woodburn Hard-tackling Rangers and Scotland defender

Bob Crampsey Robert Anthony Crampsey (8 July 1930 – 27 July 2008) was a Scottish association football historian, author, broadcaster and teacher, described as a "much loved Scottish cultural institution" by ''The Times''. Early life and career Crampsey wa ...

, The Herald, 4 December 2001 He appeared in the first

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

Final in April 1947, when Rangers beat Aberdeen 4–0 and won it a second time two years later. In 1947 he received a 14-day ban for a "violent exchange" with Motherwell's

Davie Mathie Davie Mathie (15 August 1919 – 3 January 1954) was a Scottish association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), centre forward. Mathie played for Motherwell F.C., Motherwell (two spells), Clyde F.C., Clyde, Part ...

, then in 1953 he punched the

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

striker

Billy McPhail William Simeon McPhail (2 February 1928 – 4 April 2003) was a Scottish football player who played for Queen's Park, Clyde and Celtic. He scored three goals in Celtic's record 7–1 victory over Rangers in the 1957 Scottish League Cup Final ...

, which earned a 21-day ban. Later that year, Woodburn was sent off for retaliation in a match with

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

. The clubs met again the following season in a League Cup tie at Ibrox on 28 August 1954. Playing with a knee injury, Woodburn took exception to a bad foul and retaliated by headbutting a Stirling player. The

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

convened a disciplinary hearing the following month, which lasted just four minutes, and Woodburn was suspended

sine die In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is oppo ...

. The England international

Tom Finney Sir Thomas Finney (5 April 1922 – 14 February 2014) was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the spor ...

, one of many well-known forwards Woodburn had encountered in his international career, described the ban as "a grave injustice". The SFA revoked their punishment three years later, but by then Woodburn was 37 and his playing career was over.

Scotland

Woodburn won 24 international

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for

between 1947 and 1952. He made his debut in a 1–1 draw with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. Woodburn also appeared seven times for the

Scottish 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 ...

Post retirement

After his retirement from football Woodburn ran a garage business before becoming a sportswriter with the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

''.

Career statistics

International appearances

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodburn, Willie 1919 births 2001 deaths Footballers from Edinburgh Rangers F.C. players Musselburgh Athletic F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Scottish sportswriters Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Association football central defenders Scottish Football League representative players Banned sportspeople News of the World people