Bill Shorthouse | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 May 1922 Bilston, England |
| Died |
6 September 2008 (aged 86) Wolverhampton, England |
William Henry "Bill" Shorthouse (27 May 1922 – 6 September 2008) was an English professional football player and coach, who spent his playing career with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Career[]
Born in Bilston, Staffordshire, Shorthouse attended St Martin's School in nearby Bradley.[1] He served in the Royal Engineers in the Second World War, and was wounded in the arm during the Normandy Landings.[2] He had joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as an amateur in 1941;[3] his senior debut came on 23 August 1947 in a 4–3 First Division defeat at Manchester City.[4]
He played as a defender, first at centre-half until replaced by Billy Wright, then at full-back.[3] He was part of the club's 1949 FA Cup-winning team and was a near ever-present as the club won their first league championship in the 1953-54 in English football|1953–54 season.[1]
The defender remained a first choice player at Molineux until retiring in late 1956. In total, he played 376 senior games for the club – putting him among the club's top 20 appearance makers – before launching a career in coaching.[1]
Shorthouse went on to coach at Birmingham City,[5] and he and chief scout Don Dorman acted as caretaker managers at the end of the 1969–70 season while the club sought a replacement after Stan Cullis, Shorthouse's former manager at Wolves, retired.[6] He also briefly coached the England youth team during the following season and later worked as a youth team coach at Aston Villa, guiding them to victory in the 1980 FA Youth Cup.
Known as "The Baron" to his teammates, he died in a Wolverhampton nursing home on 6 September 2008 at the age of 86. He had been suffering from dementia.[7]
Honours[]
Wolverhampton Wanderers
- First Division
- champions: 1953–54
- runners-up: 1949–50, 1954–55
- FA Cup winners: 1949
- FA Charity Shield shared: 1949
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Tributes paid to Wolves legend". Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.. 12 September 2008. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080913034337/http://www.wolves.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/0%2C%2C10307~1387174%2C00.html.
- ↑ Rippon, Anton (2011). Gas Masks for Goal Posts. Football in Britain during the Second World War. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-7188-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTw7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT103.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ponting, Ivan (17 September 2008). "Bill Shorthouse: Stalwart of the finest Wolves side". London. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bill-shorthouse-stalwart-of-the-finest-wolves-side-934143.html. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ↑ "Player stats: Debuts". Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110613030420/http://www.wolves-stats.co.uk/Player_Debut.html.
- ↑ Alexander, Douglas (4 March 2007). "Lancashire hot Scot". London. http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:LSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=1181A72846924BF8&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=0D0CB57AB53DF815. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ↑ "Managers". Tony Jordan. Archived from the original on 10 April 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030410030300/http://www.bcfc-archive.freeserve.co.uk/managers.htm.
- ↑ "Football star Bill dies, 86". Wolverhampton. 8 September 2008. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110522152834/http://www.expressandstar.com/latest/2008/09/08/football-star-bill-dies-86/. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
External links[]
- B career statistics at Soccerbase
The original article can be found at Bill Shorthouse and the edit history here.