A desire to show that Sam English had been far more than just the player who was involved in the accidental collision with John Thomson that tragically cost the Celtic goalkeeper his life in an Old Firm game in 1931 prompted Jeff Holmes to pen an acclaimed biography of the Northern Irishman.
The retired journalist, prolific author and lifelong Rangers supporter had exactly the same motivation when he was writing his latest engrossing tome, Formidable: The Willie Woodburn Story.
Anyone who prides themselves with knowing about the history of Scottish football can tell you that Woodburn was the Ibrox centre-half who was banned from the game sine die, or for life, by the SFA.
Yet, Holmes has long felt the draconian punishment which Big Ben, as he was affectionately known during his glorious heyday, received in 1954 has resulted in his many achievements being overshadowed and the legendary status which he deserves somewhat diminished in the decades since.
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Formidable highlights that the Edinburgh-born defender, who was a member of the fabled Iron Curtain rearguard of the late 1940s and early 1950s and lifted no fewer than 29 trophies during the 17 years that he spent plying his trade in Govan, should be regarded as one of the Glasgow club’s all-time greats.
It underlines that he was something of a colossus for Scotland as well. He won 24 caps for his country, a considerable number during an era when far fewer internationals were played, and was undefeated in three appearances against England at Wembley. He was a member of the national team which drew there in 1947 and won there in 1949 and 1951.
However, the forensically-detailed and fascinating work, which has been written with the assistance of Woodburn’s daughter Joanna and grandson Robbie, certainly underlines what an injustice his infamous ban was and also reveals the senior SFA official who pushed for it was possibly driven by “sinister” motives.
“Bob McPhail, who was a Rangers icon of the 1920s and 1930s and their leading goalscorer until Ally McCoist came along, only played with Woodburn at Ibrox for one season and against him for one season with St Mirren during the Second World War,” said Holmes.
“McPhail was not the sort of character to give out plaudits readily by all accounts, but he once said that his old team mate was both ruthless and fearless and should be considered the greatest centre-half Rangers ever had. Many others, including no less a figure than John Greig, are of exactly the same view.
“Had it not been for war breaking out shortly after he made his breakthrough into the first team and the bad knee injury he later suffered, I think Woodburn would have been one of the most decorated Rangers players ever. I would put him right up there alongside Davie Meiklejohn.”
He added, “Woodburn was a commanding presence on the park who was dominant in the air. He perfected the art of passing with his head. Rather than just clearing the ball upfield like most centre-backs at that time did, he would always be looking to see who was near to him.
“He would direct his header to Sammy Cox or Ian McColl (his fellow Iron Curtain defenders). He was one of the first players to ever do that. Bill Struth, his manager, stated that tactic helped Rangers greatly. He was very clever.
“Woodburn was invariably at his very best in matches against Celtic, games which often ended in riots, bloodshed and ground closures at that time. He played against the Parkhead club 39 times in total and only lost on nine occasions. He was a member of the Rangers side which became the first in Britain to complete a domestic treble in the 1948/49 season.
“He definitely had a temper, that was his Achilles heel. But, at the same time, that is what made him such a good player. He was passionate and aggressive. Like so many guys who are hard men on the pitch, he was a lovely bloke off it. He was a gentle soul who was once described as a ‘big softie’ by McColl. He was known for being a lot of fun as well, for loving a laugh.”
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The SFA did not view Woodburn in such a favourable light after he was sent off by referee Bob Young for headbutting the young Stirling Albion debutant Alec Paterson in a League Cup tie at Ibrox on August 28, 1954.
The hosts were leading 2-0 as the Group 3 encounter entered the closing stages and were assured of victory. But their ageing talisman, who was nursing a knee injury and was heavily bandaged, took great exception to something his young opponent did as they both struggled to get to their feet after challenging for a high ball.
He lashed out instinctively but foolishly and his teenage rival, who it later emerged was a Rangers fan who had idolised Woodburn when he was growing up, suffered a burst lip and three dislodged teeth and had to be taken to hospital for medical treatment. The stunned match official, who would blow the final whistle just a minute later, pointed straight at the pavilion.
Players had been banned sine die previously. Charlie Napier, the brilliant but notoriously volatile former Celtic, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday and Scotland inside left who was nicknamed Happy Feet, was hammered by the FA in England while he was guesting for Falkirk during the Second World War.
He was cautioned in a match against Albion Rovers in 1941 for a foul his manager Tully Craig deemed “trifling”. But he was branded a “serial offender” by the authorities down south, where he was still registered with Wednesday, and hit with the ultimate sanction. The ban was lifted two years later and he finished off his playing days with Stenhousemuir.
Willie Kelly, the former St Mirren and Dundee United centre-half, became the first post-war Scottish player to be expelled from football indefinitely after being sent off when he was playing for Morton against Clyde in 1946. The ruling, which was overturned five years later, ended his career at 30. He would move to London because he found the stigma too much to bear.
But when Woodburn was, after a hearing at the SFA offices in Carlton Place in Glasgow which took place a fortnight after the incident in the Albion match and lasted less than four minutes, banned sine die it sent shockwaves through the Scottish game and beyond.
He had been warned about his future conduct by the referee committee the year before after being sent off. Still, the charge sheet against him was hardly heinous. He had just three previous infringements, one of which was a severe reprimand six years earlier.
“Players got away with an awful lot at that time,” said Holmes. “But that gradually changed during the time that Woodburn, who wasn’t sent off once during the first 10 years that he spent in the Rangers side, played.
“His decline as a footballer coincided with the great Rangers team that he was a member of starting to fade. Willie Waddell, who was his team mate and best friend, felt that Woodburn, who was always prepared to give his all for the cause, was starting to take it personally when the side were losing and was getting increasingly annoyed with his team mates.
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“Perhaps that was the reason for the ordering off in the Stirling Albion game. That said, it was definitely a bombshell when he got banned sine die despite there being a precedent for it. It wasn’t expected by anyone, it wasn't the norm.
“Several years later, Ian McColl stated that everyone in the Rangers team had known it was personal. He claimed that John Robbie, an Aberdeen director who was the chairman of SFA referee committee, had previously been heard to say that if he got a chance he would put Woodburn out of the game.
“McColl came out and said that it was talked about in the dressing room before it even happened. He described the whole unfortunate episode as ‘sinister’. Robbie clearly had some kind of grievance and when he got his chance he took it. Nobody knows what his issue was and they probably never will.
“I looked into Robbie quite extensively when I was writing the book and was unable to determine why he might have held a grudge. From what I could see, he was a strait-laced member of the Kincardineshire Council up in the north-east. Maybe he was just a stickler for the rules.
“There were normally seven members on the referee committee so that any decision was guaranteed a majority. But Hugh McIlvanney, the great Scottish sports writer who was a huge admirer of Woodburn, once wrote about the affair and found out there were only six when that decision was made.
“There were three for and three against. Robbie, as chairman, had the casting vote. He later claimed it was a unanimous call, but it actually wasn’t. Woodburn appealed against the decision and lost.
“The matter went in front of the full SFA council. There was a lot of support for Woodburn when they met. It was described as ‘primitive’ by one council member. But the decision stood after a stormy exchange of views.
“At one point, John Robbie stood up and said, ‘If you can tolerate a guy who's been cautioned 10 times being involved in Scottish football then you need to find another chairman’. He handed in his resignation. At that time, the SFA had real problems trying to get people to sit on committees. He was persuaded to come back.
“It is apparent that Robbie harboured a grudge against Woodburn for whatever reason. It is quite sad. But I also think there was a feeling that revoking the ban would set a dangerous precedent and that every punishment that was handed out after that would be challenged.”
Holmes continued, “McIlvanney wrote an article about Woodburn for a book called Soccer Greats which came out in the early 1960s. He found out that Sir John Cameron QC, one of the finest legal minds of the time, had been drafted in by the player’s lawyers to help. He told them, ‘If you take this to court you will win’.
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“But Rangers were reluctant to do go down that route. They were very much the establishment club. They conducted their business behind closed doors with an almost Masonic-like secrecy. So they didn’t pursue the matter.
“They were also contacted by a senior member of the SFA who had heard they were thinking of going to court. He told them, ‘Please don’t do it. This will sort itself out’. It did. The ban was eventually lifted, but that only happened three years later and by that time Woodburn was nearly 38 and was finished as a player.
“It was condemned for many years afterwards, including by the great Tom Finney. This guy played for Rangers for 17 years and captained them, albeit very briefly. He played for Scotland and was a household name. He used to play in front of crowds of over 130,000. All of a sudden, he had been kicked out of football. It was an absolute sensation at the time. Think Maurice Johnson signing for Rangers and multiply it by 10.
“He was the last guy to be banned sine die in British football. Why is that exactly? It is because it was so unjust. I think the SFA must have realised they'd done something badly wrong. Or maybe they looked at it from a legal perspective and thought they couldn’t do it again.”
Woodburn was understandably aggrieved by how he had been treated. The Vale of Leithen player Jock Watson had been banned for life after punching the referee in a game against Berwick Rangers at Shielfield Park in 1938. It took 10 minutes for the match official to regain consciousness. But the same SFA referee committee which he found so intransigent later quashed the sentence.
“Woodburn became quite bitter for a while,” said Holmes. “But he had his family building firm to fall back. He also built a car showroom in Edinburgh with his two brothers and worked in that. Then he became a sports writer with the News of the World. He was one of the few footballer-turned-journalists who was worth reading.
“He was also one of the first sports presenters on STV. He appeared on a programme called Sports Desk, which was an early forerunner to Scotsport, with Alex Cameron and Arthur Montford in 1957 and was highly regarded by viewers for his insight into the game.”
Willie Woodburn was always held in the highest esteem at Rangers despite the ignominious end to his playing days and he was one of the first three inductees into their new Hall of Fame at a packed function in the Thistle Hotel in 1999.
He was 79 at the time and suffering from dementia, a sad consequence of heading the wet footballs which he once told his daughter Joanna had felt like “curling stanes” for so many years.
But when the surprise honour was announced by the then Ibrox vice-chairman Donald Findlay QC, he stood up, fastened a button on his jacket and gave his trademark salute to rapturous applause.
Formidable: The Willie Woodburn Story by Jeff Holmes is available to buy now and can be purchased for £9.99 by emailing the author at jeff.holmes4@btinternet.com. A percentage of the profits will go to the Corstorphine Dementia Project.
