Bill Struth

William Struth (16 June 1875 – 21 September 1956) managed Rangers Football Club for 34 years, from 1920 to 1954, as its second manager and later as a director. He ranks among the most successful managers in Scottish and British football, collecting 30 major trophies: a record 18 Scottish league championships, 10 Scottish Cups, and two Scottish League Cups.

Born in Leith, Edinburgh, Struth was the eldest child of stonemason William Struth senior and Isabella Cunningham. He grew up in Edinburgh and Milnathort in Kinross-shire, working as a stonemason while also competing as a professional runner into his 30s. In the early 1900s he began training players at his local club, Heart of Midlothian, and in 1908 moved to Glasgow to become trainer at Clyde, where he worked alongside Alex Maley, brother of Celtic manager Willie Maley. He joined Rangers in 1914 as assistant manager, and at age 45 in 1920 took over after predecessor William Wilton drowned in a boating accident off Gourock.

As manager, Struth won the league title 18 times, including 14 titles in 19 years before the Second World War and five consecutive championships from 1927 to 1931. His tenure saw Rangers’ first league and cup double in 1928—ending a 25-year Scottish Cup hoodoo—and the club’s first treble in 1949, making Struth the first Scottish manager to achieve that feat. Counting wartime competitions (the 1939–40 Scottish Emergency League, six wartime Southern League titles, the Scottish War Emergency Cup, the 1946 Victory Cup, a Summer Cup, and four Southern League Cups) plus local tournaments (19 Glasgow Cups, 20 Glasgow Merchants Charity Cups), his total trophy haul reaches 73, the most of any manager in British football history.

Struth was known as a strict disciplinarian. He required players to wear a collar and tie for training, and bowler hats were mandatory for Rangers players. He signed Adam Little, and an interview with Little offers insight into Struth’s methods. In 1947 he became a Rangers director, and after retiring in 1954 was appointed vice-chairman. In 1952 part of his leg was amputated due to gangrene. He died on 21 September 1956, aged 81, at his home in Dumbreck and is buried in Craigton Cemetery, overlooking Ibrox Stadium. His wife, Catherine Forbes, died in 1941. His grave lies in the south-west section on a terrace on its north side.

In 2005, Rangers chairman Sir David Murray unveiled a bronze bust of Struth in the Main Stand at Ibrox, now named the Bill Struth Main Stand in his honour.