Billy Biggar

William 'Billy' Biggar was a goalkeeper formerly of Fulham. A giant of a man, he was only at the club for one season and was largely understudy to first choice goalkeeper Jack Fryer.

=Career=

Before Fulham
Born in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, he was born William Biggers and later as he grew he took to calling himself 'Biggar'. As a man who was tall, when playing football as a child he took to being in goal as soon represented Mexborough 'A', which we can assume is a reserve side. This would have been around the early 1890's and throughout this decade played for Thurnscoe Victoria and Birtley, which ultimately led him to sign professional terms in 1900 with Sheffield United. This was a huge step up for Billy, as at the time they were one of the greatest sides in England, and he found himself understudy to the great William 'Fatty' Foulke. His debut came toward the back-end of 1899-00, but it was not to be a famous debut, as Billy let in 4 goals. This led him to only make 14 league appearances over two years with the Blades, standing in when Foulke was injured. In 1902, he was signed by West Ham and started off the season in goal for them until 27 September, when the Hammers lost 5-1 to Wellingborough Town. As a result, Fred Griffiths took over from Biggar as West Ham's first choice goalkeeper. His stint was on the whole rather unsuccessful at West Ham - he let in 22 goals in 8 matches for them.

Fulham
In May of 1903, Fulham had signed a number of players to compete in their new division, Division One of the Southern League. Billy was one of these, however, he was to be number two to the also newly-signed and impressive Jack Fryer. Unfortunately for Billy, this was the situation throughout the 1903-04 season and he only made 6 league appearances, with many other appearances for the reserves or playing in matches in the London League. Although a competant goalkeeper, an 8-1 defeat to Millwall Athletic was to be his downfall and never looked like overtaking Fryer as number one. He moved on the following season, to Watford.

After Fulham
After he left Fulham in 1904, his career flourished as he became first-choice goalkeeper at Watford. He became a mainstay there for six full seasons where he made a club record number of appearances in the Southern League for the club, and was club captain for 15 months. In 1909 he had the bizarre distiction of both saving and scoring a penalty in the same game, during a Southern League match. At the end of the 1909-10 season he was offered half summer wages, to which he 'curtly refused', and ultimately left to join Rochdale who also played in the same league. In a meeting on 30 May 1911, the Joint Leagues Board reduced his Watford and Sheffield United valuations (he was still on the transfer list of both clubs) to £150 and £25 respectively. He stayed at Rochdale for a number of years, before he retired during the First World War, his final playing season was 1916-17 where he was player-coach. He remained on at the club as a trainer for a further two seasons, but returned to playing for Lancashire-based amateur side Leyland Motors for the 1919-20 season.

The last we know of Billy was that he became player-coach for a season at Earlestown F.C., at the grand old age of 57 in 1931-32. Soon after, he joined the Oldham Athletic coaching staff and worked there for 3 seasons until his death.