In all, Glenbuck produced a staggering 50 professional footballers in little under 50 years. To get a real understanding of this figure, it must be remembered the village population seldom exceeded 1000 at any one time, and was considerably below that for much of it.

The village was a mining community, and Bill and his brothers all had spells down the mines along with the other menfolk of the village. It was this hard, austere lifestyle that fuelled the footballing fervour of the people here. After spending six days a week down a mineshaft the men would embrace the fresh air and the chance to play football as a God given escape from the drudgery. Bill's father, with his athletics background, was involved in the early days of the village team, Glenbuck Athletic.

The Ayrshire Junior Football Association had been founded in 1889 and it's first cup winners were Glenbuck Athletic. Indeed, the team built up a fiercesome reputation in the early days of Junior football in Scotland and at this time Junior football often enthralled the spectator more than the professional game and was held in higher regard in some quarters. In the summer months, the men played endless rounds of five-a-side games, the value of which Bill was to recognise when he went into management years later.

The team played with a sense of teamwork and team spirit that was unusual at the time. Football had developed in it's early years as very much a game for individuals but at Glenbuck they played it differently. Men who had relied on each other for their lives at the coalface found it second nature to weld together in a football team. The strength of the team was greater than the sum of it's parts and Glenbuck continued to provide a string of professionals and international players.

At the end of the last century, the team changed it's name to Glenbuck Cherrypickers and rooted itself firmly in the fabric of Scottish football history. By the time Bill was old enough and good enough to force his way into the team, the recession of the 1930s was taking hold and many of the men of the village were leaving to find work. The Cherrypickers folded, without Bill ever having played a first team game for them, and instead, he signed for another local team, Cronberry Eglinton as a right-half.