From what we can glean, there were some great loyal men who played big roles in helping to establish and develop the Partick Thistle Football Club, but when we gaze back through the mists of time, there’s one name which positively towers above them all, for many different reasons, in Partick Thistle’s 19th century story. That man is Willie Paul – Thistle's first-ever bona fide internationalist. Willie had a quite phenomenal career in many ways. Over the course of his 18 active seasons he scored in (at least) 155 different matches with (at least) 236 goals in (at least) 412 appearances. I say at least. There are almost 500 goals unaccredited during the 18 seasons in which Willie Paul was active in the first team, i.e. between 1883-84 and 1900-01. It's almost certain that he's actually our all-time top scorer, even if he sits a few behind Willie Sharp in confirmed goals.

The major stats highlights of Willie's career make for sensational reading:

• Became Thistle's first internationalist in 1888.
• Scored FOUR goals for Scotland in one game in 1890 – a feat which still stands jointly as a national record, more than 130 years later.
• Was overall top scorer in EIGHT different seasons, a feat matched by no other player in Thistle’s history.
• Became the first Thistle player to break through the TWO HUNDRED GOALS barrier – only Willie Sharp has matched this.
• Scored FIFTEEN hat-tricks – the highest tally of any Thistle player in history.
• Scored in SIXTEEN different seasons – only Willie Sharp (18) went further.
• Appeared in EIGHTEEN different seasons – only Willie Sharp (18) and Jackie Campbell (19) equalled or went further.

As we can see purely from his stats, Willie’s achievements at Partick Thistle were exceptional enough for any man in any era, but given that he grafted for his money down the dockyards and played fitba’ for no financial reward in his spare time, they could more fairly be described as phenomenal. Quite simply, Willie Paul powered his way into becoming the first Partick Thistle giant in the best possible way – by sticking the ball in the back of the net. Such was his outstanding goalscoring record - more than 40 confirmed goals in 1886-87 and 1887-88 - that the selectors couldn't ignore him and he brought great honour to himself and to Partick Thistle when he got the Scotland telegram early in 1888.

At Hibernian Park on the 10th March 1888, Willie Paul absolutely cemented his building legendary status when he became the first player to win a full international cap whilst a Jag, opening the scoring and helping Scotland to a 5-1 win against Wales to kick off the British Home Championship campaign. This was the first Scotland match ever to be played in the capital, and kick-off was delayed until 4.15pm to allow for the assemblage of 8,000 persons to settle. By 4.21pm Willie Paul had fired Scotland into an early lead! In line with the SFA policy of the day whereby caps were limited to one per player per year, Willie was next selected to play for Scotland against Wales on the 15th April 1889. Scotland travelled to Wrexham knowing that a single point would be enough to secure the Home Championship title. This was the only one of Willie’s 3 Scotland games in which he never scored, but there were no complaints – the 0-0 score-line was enough to see us crowned champions of Britain for the fifth time.

Following another two successful trials for Scottish XIs in which Willie scored thrice in two games, our man was selected to play for his country for the third year in a row. On 22nd March 1890, Scotland opened their British Home Championship title defence in Paisley with a convincing 5-0 victory over the Welsh, at Underwood Park, the home of Abercorn FC. The trusty shot of Willie Paul earned him the joint-share of an all-time Scottish scoring record when he scored four for his country. Willie was the second Scotsman to achieve this feat which has subsequently been matched by nine others. Over 120 years later, the haul of four remains intact as the official record for a Scottish internationalist.

Although he gave favour to a number of other clubs, Willie was, to all extents and purposes, Partick Thistle from boy to man. His Partick Thistle adventures are as deep as the Clyde, but scoring Thistle's first-ever SFL goal against Morton in August 1893 (in a 3-2 win at Cappielow) was typical of the man. Winning the championship in 1897 - and election to the top-flight as a result - was another huge milestone, and Willie as top-scorer with 21 competitive goals more than played his part that term. Thistle's first-ever top-flight match took place at Meadowside on 4th September 1897. Inevitably, Willie Paul was in the thick of it and his goal ensured a famous victory as told by Niall Kennedy at Partick Thistle Early Years:

Thistle were able to field their strongest eleven but it was still an enormous task. The opponents – Hearts – had won the League title the previous season, but Thistle had also won their division, so champion faced champion. Thistle, up against a strong wind, played an early form of route one football with backs and halfs sending the ball quickly to their forwards. Robert Gray scored the first Thistle goal. However, it was the third goal that drew a huge ovation from the crowd of 7,000. Captain Willie Paul, the oldest man and the only amateur on the pitch, took a shot from long range that beat the keeper. Thistle held on after a late rally from Hearts to take both points. It was an amazing win brought about more by hard work than by skill and ability, but amazing all the same. The reaction in Patrick to the victory was unbelievable. Residents who had hung out of tenement windows watching the large crowd throng the streets before the game now watched them leave Meadowside singing and dancing. The newspapers were full of the story of a well-known Thistle follower who announced he was going to start at the nearest close and insisted he was going to visit every tenant in entire burgh to shake their hands. There were rumours that the Thistle committee had commissioned a statue of Willie Paul to commemorate his goal.

And so it came to be that Thistle prevailed in a famous battle of the Champions. Top Flight Victory # 1 was secured. With no goal average system in place Thistle went straight to the joint-top place in Scottish Football on their first day in the Top 10! Thistle survived the first term, but weren't so succesful in 1898-99. The bounce-back was immediate though and Willie added a second championship medal to his collection in the early springtime of 1900. When he eventually retired as a player Willie served on the board of directors for a few seasons, and later on was a regular supporter at the matches.

As with many working folks of the day, respite from the 9-to-5 was found by following the nation’s favourite game. On Saturday, 7th October, 1911, Willie was one of the 58,000 who were at Celtic Park to cheer on Alec Raisbeck and the boys as they attempted to win their first ever Glasgow Cup in the final against Rangers. What a crowd – how the game had grown exponentially since he retired. He himself had played for Thistle in the final of 1888. He had also played his part in getting Thistle to the final of 1900. He’d have loved to see them win it – third time lucky? Alas, it wasn’t to be. Rangers won 1-0, their first-half winner coming against the run of the play. But for poor finishing, Thistle would have surely have won the Cup. Willie was probably heading and kicking every ball from his vantage point.

Shortly after this, Willie was taken ill, following problems with his appendix. He died at home, 20 Carmichael Street, Govan, on the morning of Friday 23rd October 1911, after 4 days of sufferation. He was aged just 45. “He was a close and stylish dribbler and played with a keenness and excellence never bettered by any Partick centre… Although never capped against England, Paul played in three Internationals against Wales in successive years, beginning in 1888, and, thanks to his leadership, the Scots only lost one goal in all three games and scored ten times.” ~ The Evening Telegraph.

Willie’s career time span gave him an interesting time of it. It’s possible that the teenager watched Thistle play at Jordanvale in the early 1880s, and it’s even more likely that he played there with Partick Elm. For sure, the man played for Thistle in 3 different grounds – at Muir Park, at Inchview and at Meadowside. In his 40s he watched them play at Firhill. He saw the game progress from amateur to professional level, and he witnessed at first hand the evolution of fundamental law changes within the game itself.

Most importantly of all, Willie Paul played a huge part in transforming the stature of Partick Thistle, helping to change the outsiders’ perception of the club. On his watch, the club deemed not good enough to be invited to participate in the Glasgow Charity Cup rose all the way to the very summit of Scottish football. It was a struggle – and there were ups and downs along the way – but Thistle got there. Following Willie Paul’s second testimonial season in 1901-02, Partick Thistle began a run which spanned almost 70 years, competing in every possible top-flight campaign in Scottish football.

His astonishing plethora of club-records, milestones and tallies was quite something – but the rise and rise of the club, his one true club, is the abiding, real and tangible legacy of Willie Paul.

Truly, the man stands forever as the first Partick Thistle giant.

Willie is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →.

See also our 20-part serialisation, Willie Paul - The First Partick Thistle Giant →.

1887 - GREENOCK CHARITY CUP

1888 - GLASGOW CUP

1897 - SFL SECOND DIVISION

1900 - SFL SECOND DIVISION

1900 - GLASGOW CUP