I'm surprised that nobody has yet posted a tribute to the late Wille Grant who died last week at the relatively young age of 71.

Willie was an exceptional player who was an integeral part of the all conquering Elgin City team of the 1960s who then went on to manage the most successful and entertaining Inverness Thistle side in the history of the club.

The Highland football community is very much the poorer for his passing.

I recall watching him as a boy in the 70's for jags scoring hat tricks for fun he was an excellent no.9 and the biggest poacher on two feet, brilliant!

Remember watching him play for Elgin many moons ago, when the buffalo roamed the plains. He was a great old fashioned striker, always the one to look out for if you needed a goal.  Sad to see some of the stalwarts of bygone days departing.

I met Jock McDonald at Dingwall last Saturday and he was reminding me of how he got King Willie to Kingsmills. Jock, on taking over as Jags Chairman, had basically decreed that the Highland League title would be coming to Kingsmills. Now, Jock's decrees have the habit of assuming reality, but to do this he needed a manager and decided on Willie. Elgin's fee was ?150 so he borrowed ?10 from each of 15 people, including his father, and Willie arrived on a wage of ?3 a week! The resulting back to back titles in 1972 and 1973 are now a part of Black and Red folklore.

Willie was a gentleman and it was also a privilege to work with him in the press box after he retired from the active side of the game.

From Highand News

Legend's death saddens sports world

Published:  04 August, 2007

FOCHABERS was the venue yesterday (Wed) for the funeral of one of north football?s best loved faces, former Inverness Thistle player and coach, Willie Grant.

Known fondly as 'King Willie?, the Highland League legend died at home in Garmouth, aged 71.

He was a terrific goalscorer, netting close to 350 times for Elgin City in the 1950s and 60s in just 255 games and returned to Elgin as a boss in the 80s.

He was a proud member of the Elgin side that played Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 1967, the year the Hoops conquered Europe.

In the early 70s, he steered Inverness Thistle to successive league titles and his other clubs included Rothes, Hearts, Alloa Athletic and Stirling Albion.

Willie, whose death has saddened so many in recent days, is survived by wife Jill and children Gillian, Karen, Richard and Allan.

A real gentleman and such a fine striker. King Willie was under 6' and it always amazed me how powerful, accurate and dominant he was in the air. I dreamt of him puling on the blue Caley shirt (sadly not to be) but it was always a pleasure watching him in the colours of Elgin and Jags. He will always be in my "Highland League Hall of Fame" as I doubt if we will ever see such a talent again.   :clapping03:

Yes, a great player and a great loss.  He was a real thorn in the side to Caley over many a year.  I've just read(again) Rodwill Clyne's great book about the Highland League ("In a different league"), and I see, unsurprisingly, that Willie Grant was in Rodwill's all time best North Select X1.

I was sadden to hear of Willie's passing, on a couple of occasions I was on the teams bus for away games, as a young boy, and Willie always was kind and friendly to me, which helped me get over my shyness and awe of the company I was in.  :clapping03:

I once hit big Willie on top of his head with a chewed up pie from the shack at Kingsmills. The big man was always good fer the craic. PIP  :011: