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Willie Woodburn Signed from Musselburgh
Athletic in 1937, Woodburn was a true colossus in the Scottish game and
one of the finest centre-halves to play for Rangers and Scotland.
Good in the air, good on the ground, Woodburn was capped
twenty-four times for Scotland played 325 games for Rangers and won every
domestic honour with the Light Blues. Woodburn, part of the 'Iron Curtain' defence of the late 1940s and early 1950s, was a member of the first Rangers team to win the domestic treble, in 1948/49. Nicknamed 'Big Ben', he collected four Scottish championship medals, four Scottish Cups and two League Cups in an illustrious career at Ibrox. But Woodburn will be best remembered as the player whose career was prematurely ended when the SFA imposed a unique life ban in 1954. Early in his career Woodburn carved a reputation for himself for hotheadedness despite his skills, which won him the accolade of 'greatest centre-half in the world'. In 1947 he received a 14 day ban for a "violent exchange" with Motherwell's Dave Mathie, then in 1953 he punched the Clyde striker Billy McPhail, which earned a 21-day ban. Later that year, Woodburn was sent off for retaliation in a match with Stirling Albion and when the clubs met again, the following season, in a League Cup tie at Ibrox on 28 August 1954, Woodburn took exception to a bad foul and retaliated by headbutting a Stirling player. The
SFA convened a disciplinary hearing the following month, which lasted just
four minutes, and Woodburn was suspended sine die. The England
international Tom Finney, one of many well-known forwards Woodburn had
encountered in his international career, described the ban as "a
grave injustice". His life
time suspension The SFA lifted the
suspension three years later but, at 38, Woodburn never returned to
football, his career forever tarnished by the ban.
He died in November 2001 at the age of 82.
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on in 1954 was a shattering blow for a man who fell foul of
his own quick temper, but who was never known as a dirty player by fans or
opponents.