Willie Rankin (Inside Right, 1924-29) - The little inside-man was the wily schemer in a fine Motherwell side. Willie played for Scotland on a 2 month tour of Canada and the USA in 1921 and won 3 Scottish League caps. Following promotion in 1924, the Cowdenbeath directorate audaciously pulled off the surprise signing of Willie Rankin from Motherwell for a Cowdenbeath record fee of £1,000. For the next 5 seasons, Rankin was the most influential presence in a team packed with talent. He was the epitome of the traditional Scottish inside-forward and provided the ammunition for the likes of Devlin, Lindsay, and Leonard to plunder goals. Rankin made 169 league appearances for Cowden and scored 25 goals. Subsequently, he played for Clyde and Montrose and then went to play for Benoni in South Africa. In 1950, the news filtered through to Cowdenbeath that Willie Rankin was gravely ill and had had both his legs amputated. A few months later came the news that the old Cowden idol had died.