Greenock Morton

01/01/2000

Billy Steel

Full Name: William Steel
Age: Died age 59 (01.05.1923 - 13.05.1982)
Position: Inside Foward

Born: Denny, Scotland
Nationality: Scottish

International Honours: 30 Scotland Caps, 12 Goals
Height: 5' 6"

Transfer Fee: £50 - St. Mirren
Date Signed: 01.05.1940

Date Left: ??.06.1947
Transfer Out: £15,500 - Derby County
Former Clubs: Bo'ness Cadora, Leicester City, St. Mirren, Morton, Derby County, Dundee, Los Angeles Danes

Honours with Morton (player): Southern League Cup runner-up - 1941/42

Personal Honours: In 2006 Steel was inducted into Scottish Football's Hall Of Fame
Miscellaneous: Steel won 3 of his Scotland caps (in which he scored 3 goals) while at Morton.

Between 1939-40 and 1945-46 there was no official league structure so Billy's official Morton appearances are restricted to season 1946/47 - even though he appeared for Morton throughout the war years (in 1942/43 we finished runners-up to Rangers in the Regional League West). Those appearances were down to a football loving commanding officer in the Royal Signal Corps who he volunteered to join in 1942.

His £15,500 transfer from Morton to Derby was a World record transfer at the time.

He has a chapter dedicated to him in Graeme Ross' More Morton Greats and author Bob Macalindin has written a biography about him titled Billy Steel: Scotland's Little Maestro.

Morton career - starts, sub appearances, clean sheets:

1946/47:

Old Div 1: 9, 0, 2 Lge Cup: ? Scot C: 3,0,1 All Together: 12, 0, 3

Totals:

League: ? Lge Cup: ? Scot C: ?

Overall: 12 Starts, 0 Sub App, 3 Goals

These stats are taken from Graeme Ross' More Morton Greats. Ross' stats do not include League Cup games and in season 1946/47 Morton played at least 6 league cup games so he will have probably played more than 12 official Morton matches in his career.

In Action For Scotland: A pencil drawing by Senga Murray Used in The Scottish Football League The First 100 Years by Bob Crampsey