Willie Hunter (footballer)

William "Willie" Hunter (born 14 February 1940 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Hunter played most of his career with Motherwell, but also played for Detroit Cougars, Hibernian, Hellenic and Cape Town City. Hunter also represented both Scotland and the Scottish League. After retiring as a player, Hunter was manager at Queen of the South and Inverness Caledonian.

Hunter joined Motherwell from Edinburgh Norton in 1957 with Motherwell then managed by Bobby Ancell. Hunter became part of the side that became known as the 'Ancell Babes'. Although usually played as an inside left, he also played occasionally as a winger, and was compared favourably to Gordon Smith for his performance in that role.

In May 1967, the Detroit Cougars paid £14,000 for his transfer and Hunter moved to the new American professional league, the NASL. His new side survived for only one year however and at the end of the 1968 NASL season, he returned to Scotland to join Hibernian. Hunter was a substitute as his new team lost the 1968–69 Scottish League Cup Final to Celtic, and he played for the Edinburgh team until 1971.

Hunter earned three caps for the Scotland national team while with Motherwell, all in 1960. He scored his only Scotland goal in his first cap in a 3-3 draw with Hungary. He also played in defeats to Turkey and Wales.

After four years playing in South Africa, Hunter returned to Britain as assistant manager of Portsmouth, a role he held for three years. Hunter worked for his former Motherwell team-mate Ian St. John at Portsmouth.

He earned the opportunity to manage in his own right at Queen of the South in 1978 working with players such as Allan Ball, Iain McChesney, Nobby Clark, Crawford Boyd and Jocky Dempster. Hunter left Dumfries after only four months. His last involvement in football was as Inverness Caledonian's manager from 1979 to 1981.