Signing Info:
Transferred from: Berry's Association FC, 17/02/1899, £
Previous Clubs:
Berry's Association FC
Debut:
01/04/1899 v Woolwich Arsenal (Bank Street) 2-2 (League Division Two)
Farewell:
Transferred to Atherton Church House, 05/1905, £
Passed Away:
26/10/1946
Biography
Five separate players had been signed and tried out in James McNaught's vacant centre-half berth in 1898-99 before Newton Heath finally discarded all of them once Billy Griffiths, of 13 Albion Street in Manchester, arrived in February 1899 from local shoe manufacturing side Berry's Association. A towering 5' 11", 12 stone specimen with a fierce shot and abundant speed, he made his debut against Woolwich Arsenal on April 1st and remained unbeaten throughout the last seven league matches of the campaign.
After minor indiscipline issues with the directors early on - and nearly getting a military call-up - Griffiths established himself as a permanent figure in the lineup for the following five years, long after the club had morphed into Manchester United. Indeed, he was one of only three players to appear in Heath's last and United's first league outings. He was also present in the Manchester Senior Cup final in April 1902 when Manchester City were defeated 2-1.
In 1903-04, Billy surprisingly finished as United's leading league top scorer from midfield (despite all the money they had spent on buying forwards) with 11 goals and, apparently, there was an ulterior driving motive for his high return: seeking a specific result, the bookies would often shout "score a goal, Billy" to him, to which he gladly acceded, provided he received a little kickback!
Billy was also quite the prankster, one time collaborating with a couple of his Heathen teammates to switch the physio's medicinal alcohol bottle to urine. There was much amusement in the next match when one of the players went down injured and the physio ran onto the pitch.
United awarded Griffiths a benefit on April 1st, 1904, when he bagged a brace past City's reserves then pocketed a nifty £150. Three weeks later, however, the great Charlie Roberts arrived at centre-half, and Billy lost his place for good. He spent a season with the reserves then joined Atherton Church House - a recently formed Sunday school team - in 1905. He was still only 29 years old but a keen fondness for the drink had accelerated his demise. In fact, the story goes that, when he took over a pub shortly after his United days, on the very first night, they closed the doors and drank the place dry! Thanks to Mrs Lynn Ferguson (Great grand-daughter of William Griffiths) for information provided. Biography kindly provided by Charbel Boujaoude.
