It’s been said the gospel has a way of ‘gentling giants’.
That was true of Willie Bell, pictured above, the tough Scottish defender in the (in)famous Leeds United team who were serial contenders for honours under manager Don Revie in the 1960s.
Norman Hunter, one of his colleagues in the notoriously aggressive and hard-tackling Leeds side, described Bell as “one of the true hard men – he never flinched or blinked, just went in”.
After a spiritual revolution in mid-life, however, Willie would devote himself to Christian ministry in the US and England. After a move to the USA, where he coached “soccer” at a Baptist university for 21 years, he was renowned as a genial, softly spoken character who made serving the Lord his priority.
Willie was born William John Bell, in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in September 1937. After starting his football with the famous Glasgow amateur club, Queens Park (where the future Sir Alex Ferguson was a team-mate), games for Scotland’s amateur international team enhanced his reputation. So, when Leeds made their approach, he decided to turn professional.
He was signed as a midfielder by Revie’s predecessor as manager, Jack Taylor. He would make 260 appearances for the Yorkshire club between 1960 and 1967, scoring 18 goals. Although his first season was unimpressive – playing only five times – Revie converted him to left-back, where his tackling ability and aerial strength were better suited. He became a model of consistency, contributing to the Elland Road club’s rise from the relegation zone of the old Second Division to runners-up in both the Football League and the FA Cup in 1964–65. Interestingly, although Willie developed a reputation as a ‘hard man’, he was only booked once at Leeds.
He was capped twice for Scotland in 1966 before accepting a transfer to Leicester City in 1967. Having captained his new club, he joined Brighton & Hove Albion, of the Third Division, in 1969, where his interest in coaching was encouraged by the manager, Freddie Goodwin. The pair moved to Birmingham City in 1970, with Willie retiring as a player to become Goodwin’s number two before succeeding him as manager in 1975. Management did not go well either at Birmingham or, later, at Lincoln City, and he was sacked from both posts.
However, this crisis in Willie’s life was God’s opportunity. He said later, “One of the most consistent things in football is that coaches get fired. When I lost my job, that’s when I sat and thought, ‘What have I done with my life?’ I’d almost neglected my family – that’s how the game takes over your life. That day I said ‘The Lord is my saviour’, my priorities changed completely. It was the Lord, my family, and then the game.”
Willie began to yield to God’s direction, and in 1979 moved his family to California to work with the Campus Crusade for Christ. There he was head-hunted by Liberty Baptist College in Lynchburg, Virginia. His aim was to “build a team that would represent the Lord”.
Besides being an inspirational coach, Willie was keen to share the gospel himself. When a visiting team’s transport broke down, he shared the gospel with them while their bus was being fixed. The whole team accepted Christ and their coach praised the Lord as he had been praying for his boys for two years!
After surviving quadruple bypass surgery in 1993, Willie, with his wife Mary, felt the Lord leading them back to the UK to found the ‘Within the Walls’ ministry. From 2001, he served in prison ministry full-time in Yorkshire. Earlier that year, he was ordained a minister by the Shenandoah Valley Baptist Church.
Willie Bell died in March this year from the effects of a stroke, but his legacy lives on. The current coach at Liberty, Jeff Alder, said, “We’ve carried on that tradition. Trying to get them to understand their relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing, then using soccer as a platform to reach others, is what God has called us to do.”
