This Week in the Public Domain: Billy Bassett, Chairman of West Bromwich Albion, 1908-37

Published: 11^th Apr 12 6:52 pm

by Eric Imhof
Soccer Blogger

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This Week in the Public Domain: Billy Bassett, Chairman of West Bromwich Albion, 1908-37

Billy Bassett - public domain

This week’s photo is actually a screenshot from the DVD “Full Throstle: The Official History of West Bromwich Albion.” The still is of Billy Bassett, the team’s chairman from 1908-1937. This brief post has some good information about Bassett, including the claim that, during his playing days, he was “without doubt, the best outside right in the British Isles.” Don’t believe such a claim? Here is his statistics page, if you’d like to defend or refute said assessment.

According to their Wikipedia page, “The club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter’s Spring Works in West Bromwich, then in Staffordshire but now part of the West Midlands administrative county. They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the Albion suffix.” Neat, right?

I know that previously I have written that Tottenham Hotspur is the most British-sounding football team in the Prem, but perhaps I wrote too hastily. I mean, West Bromwich Albion? Can’t get much more delightfully British than that. Also, what’s not to love about their crest, which features a throstle perched on a berried hawthorn branch? So heart-warmingly English!

For a real in-depth treatment of the team’s history, check out the West Bromwich Albion history site. By far the best part of the site is an old-timey video archive, including this clip of West Brom defeating Birmingham at Wembley in 1931. There are also sections with pictures of old programs, maps of old stadiums, and halls of fame for almost every decade the team has been in existence. For the football history lover, this site will certainly make that dreadful cubicle workday (every so slightly) more bearable.

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