death_date nationalcaps manageryears birth_date years death_place caps goals nationalyears name fullname birth_place nationalteam height totalcaps totalgoals nationalgoals youthclubs clubs position managerclubs article_title
27 november 2000 8 1964 -- 1965 22 february 1925 1946 -- 1949 1949 -- 1963 1963 -- 1965 preston , lancashire 3 93 440 12 0 9 3 0 1954 -- 1955 willie cunningham william carruthers cunningham hill o'beath , scotland scotland 5 9 548 12 0 crossgates primrose crossgates primrose airdrie preston north end southport fullback southport willie cunningham -lrb- footballer , born 1925 -rrb-

willie cunningham -lrb- footballer , born 1925 -rrb-

william carruthers cunningham -lrb- 22 february 1925 -- 27 november 2000 -rrb- was a scottish professional international footballer who played in both the scottish and english leagues .
born in hill o'beath , fife , cunningham began his career as a centre half with dunfermline athletic , combining part-time football with a mining job in the local colliery .
he moved to airdrie and scored 9 goals in 93 appearances for the `` diamonds '' before a # 5,000 fee took him south to preston north end on 28 june 1949 .
cunningham had by this stage converted to playing as a full-back and made his north end debut against grimsby town at deepdale on 24 august 1949 .
12 years later he made his four hundredth league appearance in a goalless draw against bolton wanderers on 18 april 1961 , the last of the 1953 -- 54 cup final team still playing for the club .
cunningham was capped eight times for his native scotland -- including captaining the side during the 1954 world cup finals .
on leaving preston in 1963 he had a brief spell as player/manager at southport before returning to deepdale as reserve team trainer .
