Grassam, William

Biog

West Ham United captain Willie Grassam returned to his native Scotland to join Celtic in May 1903.

The Larbert-born inside-forward had been with the recently formed London club for three seasons when he was tempted to Parkhead. He made his Celtic debut in the 5-0 Charity Cup final thrashing of Hibernian on 21st May 1903.

Despite the big signing capture, he was to only make two league appearances to follow his debut, firstly in a 1-0 victory over St Mirren, then in a 3-1 defeat to Third Lanark, both league matches played concurrently in Aug 1903 in which he was filling in for the great Jimmy McMenemy.

His second (and last) league match is notable as the Celtic players wore a black armband to remember Irish Nationalist Hugh Murphy, one of the club’s biggest supporters since its inception, had died 2 days beforehand. In that match Celtic wore the Hoops for the very first time.

By September he had returned south to play for Manchester United. Willie Grassam would later return to West Ham.

His best form was said to be at West Ham in his two stints, where he created history by becoming the first West Ham player to score a hat-trick when he scored 4 goals in his debut on 1st Sep 1900 against Gravesend in a Southern League game.

He passed away in 1943 after having moved to the US.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

Pictures

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