| Billy Cunningham |
 William Milligan Cunningham was born on Tuesday, 15th July, 1941, in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire. The 5' 11 (10st 7lbs) midfielder signed for Willie Thornton's Thistle on Thursday, 8th October, 1959, having most recently been with Baillieston Juniors. Aged 18, he made his debut appearance on Wednesday, 21st October, 1959, in a 5-3 friendly defeat away to Dumbarton. Billy scored his first goal for Thistle on Monday, 26th September, 1960, in a 2-0 neutral-venue win against Celtic in the Glasgow Cup. He scored the last of his 33 goals on Saturday, 10th August, 1968, in a 3-1 win away to Morton in the League Cup. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 5th April, 1969, in a 2-1 win at home to Arbroath in the SFL First Division, having clocked up an impressive 305 appearances as a Jag. Billy's club-list included Baillieston Juniors and Partick Thistle. |
 The young Billy was mainly known as an inside left when he came to the fore with Ballieston Juniors in the late 1950s. New Thistle manager Willie Thornton fought off competition from Hamilton Accies, Dundee United and Stirling Albion, landing his signature in early October 1959. Within a couple of weeks, the youngster made his debut in a 5-3 defeat at Dumbarton, one to forget. After finding his feet with the reserves that term, Billy was introduced to competitive first-team action in September 1960, a 3-2 Glasgow Cup win at home to Clyde getting things started in a positive way. By the end of the month, the youngster was in dreamland when he turned out in front of 45,000 at Hampden Park for the final. Better still, it was he who broke the deadlock against Celtic after 72 minutes, pouncing on a poor clearance. 2 minutes later, Davie McParland ran through the Celtic defence and shot home to seal the win; Partick Thistle 2 Celtic 0! Billy made 14 competitive appearances in that breakthrough season, before kicking-on as a near ever-present. Willie Thornton was building an excellent Thistle team at this time, and it was decided that wing half would be the main position for the 20-year-old Billy in season 1961-62. Thistle finished 7th that season and really went from strength to strength, so much so that it was game on for a genuine title challenge in 1962-63. Of course everyone knows the story by now, Jags were winning incessantly and were joint-top at the turn of the year, only to be de-railed by "the big freeze" that winter. Still, the 3rd place finish was a joint-club-record which still stands today, and it was enough to secure a place in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. Billy played in all 4 of the European games in the autumn of '63 as the Jags defeated Glentoran in the 1st Round but lost out to Spartak Brno in Round 2. Jags were 7th in the league that season - another fine placing - and Billy had a personal highlight in a Friday night league game at home to Falkirk in March '64, netting his only senior hat-trick in a splendid 4-1 win for Thistle. After all the excitement of those early 60s seasons, the second half of the decade was somewhat anticlimactic and when manager Willie Thornton jumped ship in the autumn of 1968, the writing was really on the wall for Billy and for the team. Billy featured in just 6 of the league games under Scot Symon as Jags finished 14th in the 18 team Division. The results and the atmosphere were on the slide by now, and Billy seems to have been yearning for a fresh start. In July 1969, just before his 28th birthday, he flew out for a new life in Sydney, the capital city of the state of New South Wales. He was described as an 'Observer' in his migration papers, presumably in the medical profession. |
| (WS/JK) |
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