Not only has he been a fan for 80 years, he also served as a Director from 1979-1996. He was on the plc board from 1999-2003 and was a club Vice-President from 2003-2008. His knowledge of the Club and his memories are truly remarkable.
Bill’s first game was a reserve match in 1933. He was taken to the game by his Aunt Dinah who worked in a shoe factory and whose outlet was football. She would stand with Bill and a friend of hers behind the Filbert Street goal. Remarkably Bill has a Leicester Mercury photograph of the three of them standing in this spot prior to a game in the 1930s.
In that 1933/34 season, Leicester City reached the FA Cup semi final against Portsmouth at St Andrews. Dinah went to St Andrew’s for the game. Bill didn’t go but he remembers cutting out photographs of the game and putting them in a scrapbook. Leicester lost 4-1. In this match, Leicester’s Sep Smith played against his two brothers.
Bill started to watch the first team in 1934/35. Unfortunately, this was a relegation season. The great players from the 1920s like Adam Black, Hughie Adcock and Arthur Chandler were at the end of their careers. Bill did see the team promoted again in 1937 following the remarkable goalscoring feats of Jack Bowers, aided by crosses from Eric Stubbs (who died last year aged 100).
A very vivid pre-war memory of Bill’s was seeing Stanley Matthews, playing for Stoke City at Filbert Street, being completely dominated by Leicester’s full back Maurice Reeday. Bill also vividly remembers two successive seasons watching Leicester play the famous Arsenal side of the 1930s. In both games, Leicester’s reserve goalkeeper Joe Calvert saved a penalty from the great Cliff ‘Boy’ Bastin.
Before he joined the RAF a few days after his 18th birthday in November 1943, Bill watched war-time football at Filbert Street. Before Bill was posted to India he remembers seeing the future Wolves and England stars Billy Wright and Jimmy Mullen playing for the City.
When league football resumed after the war, Bill would listen to matches on the forces radio in Sri Lanka. He returned to Leicester in February 1947.
He went to Leicester City’s victorious FA Cup semi-final against League Champions Portsmouth in 1949 when Don Revie scored two of Leicester’s goals in front of Field Marshall Montgomery who was supporting Portsmouth.
Back in Leicester during the 1950s, Bill witnessed two promotions to the top flight in 1954 and 1957, and has clear memories of Leicester’s star players from that era. These included all-time Football League record goalscorer Arthur Rowley, fellow striker Derek Hines and mesmeric left-winger Derek Hogg.
The 1960s evoke fond memories of a decade playing at the top level, three FA Cup Finals, two League Cup finals and one League Cup win. He remembers manager Matt Gillies, with whom he later became friendly, as a true gentleman.
Bill watched Bloomfield’s sides of the 1970s when stars like Keith Weller, Jon Sammels and the Alan ‘the Birch’ Birchenall transformed City into one of the most attractive sides in England.
He joined the board in 1979. For this he is indebted to the Shipman family. He recalls that when Terry Shipman asked him to join the Board to keep an eye on the Club’s finances, he nearly fell through the floor. With four of the long serving directors now in their 70s becoming life members after having given the Club marvellous service for decades, Bill joined the board with Tom Smeaton. He stayed for 17 years until 1996.
Jock Wallace was the manager when Bill joined the board. He got on well with him and was sorry when he left to go to Motherwell. He felt that within weeks Jock realised that he might have made a mistake.
Bill was involved in David Pleat’s appointment, recalling: “David’s knowledge of football was second to none. We directors always used to travel on the team coach in Jock’s time but David stopped that. Initially David did very well indeed at the Club, but when he started to change the team things started to go wrong. My experience as an independent councillor for 25 years taught me to listen to the fans who obviously wanted Pleat out. In the end we agreed that he had to win the home games against Blackburn and when he didn’t we announced that he would leave the Club. I fully supported this. We then had success with Brian Little who turned the Club around, with three successive Play-Off finals and promotion to the Premier League.”
Bill then recalled the Martin O’Neill era.
He said: “We had interviewed him 12 months before. This time we interviewed him and Mike Walker. When Martin came to his first board meeting after his appointment I questioned his desire to spend a million pounds on Steve Claridge, This irritated Martin but I went with the majority decision and told him that I would fully support this. We went on to become good friends.
When I was 71 I went into life membership and retired from the board. The Club floated on the Stock Exchange. There were terrible problems and eventually an EGM was called at Castle Donington in 1999. I was proposed for the plc board at this meeting. Birch seconded my nomination. He said, ‘He’s 74 and he runs around the pitch with me!’ There were 800 people at the EGM. Apart from three people, everybody voted me on to the plc board. One of the first things we did was scrap the Bede Island Stadium plans.”
Bill, who became a Vice-President of the Club from 2003-2008 is still a regular supporter, rarely missing a match. He is a regular visitor to the gym and is an inspiration to us all. He is one of the very few people who could justifiably be called Mr. Leicester City. It was a privilege to talk to him.
PICTURES:
1. Bill Shooter pictured during his time on the Leicester City board.
2. On this 1936 Leicester Mercury photograph young Bill is the boy with the side parting partially obscured by the trophy pediment. His Aunt Dinah is the second lady away from him.
3. Bill, a regular supporter in 1935/6, can still name all of these players from that season. (Muncie, Liddle, McNally, O’Callaghan, Maw, Ritchie, Frame, Smith, Sharman, Jones, McLaren)
4. Jock Wallace
5. Martin O’Neill