Willie Buchan

Who was Willie Buchan?

William Ralston Murray "Willie" Buchan was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He played for Celtic, Blackpool, Hull City, Gateshead, Coleraine and East Stirlingshire.

Buchan signed professional forms with Celtic in 1933 and spent four years with the Glasgow club, winning the Scottish League Division One championship with them in 1935–36 and the Scottish Cup in 1937.

In 1937, Buchan signed for Joe Smith's Blackpool for £10,000, then a record transfer fee involving a Scottish club, making his debut on 20 November 1937 in a 2–0 defeat at local rivals Preston North End. He scored his first goals for the club two games later, in a 2–2 draw at Middlesbrough on 4 December. He went on to score ten more goals in the 23 remaining games of the league season and, with his total twelve goals, finished joint-top scorer with Bobby Finan.

The following season, 1938–39, he finished joint-top scorer again, this time with new signing Jock Dodds, the pair scoring ten goals apiece. During the first of six seasons of inter-war football that followed, Buchan returned to Glasgow in an attempt to re-join Celtic, but the club showed little enthusiasm. He instead joined his local team, Stenhousemuir, as a guest player. When the club closed down for the duration of the war, Buchan returned to England to become a PT instructor in the Royal Air Force. Buchan made one appearance for Scotland in a wartime international.