New Headline: Meet the Legend: Legendary Latty Wilson Born on March 18, 1869, Sparking Sunderland's Rise to Glory

Hailing from Mauchline in East Ayrshire, Lalty’s family home is deep in Rabbie Burns country. He first played organised football for his hometown team of Mauchline in 1887/88 and the following season played for the Ayrshire Rifle Volunteers. Season 1889/90 saw the volunteers change their name to Newmilns, amalgamating with Newmilns Rangers and Newmilns Star in the process, and Wilson played the 1889/90 season at centre-forward for the Ayrshire outfit.

On 22 March 1890, he earned his first cap for Scotland in a five-goal-to-nil victory against Wales; he scored one of the goals in what was described as a very good debut. His performances brought him to the attention of Sunderland and their manager, Tom Watson, who were about to embark on their first ever season in the Football League. Scotland was a great source of players for Sunderland at this time, and apart from Wilson, they also signed legendary goalkeeper Ted Doig and potent forward Jaimie Millar.

A substantial signing-on fee of £70 was paid for Wilson’s services. Lalty made his debut on 13 September 1890 in front of 5,000 fans at the Newcastle Road ground. The opposition were established league members Burnley and although the game ended in a 3–2 defeat for Sunderland, Wilson made a promising debut, but not at centre-forward.

For all of this season he mostly played right-half alongside Captain John R Auld another Ayrshire lad who played centre-half and John W Murray another Scot who had also joined the club in 1890 and played left-half. In Sunderland’s inaugural season in the league, Wilson missed only one game, playing twenty-six league and cup games and helping the Lads to a very respectable seventh position. With Johnny Campbell and Jamie Millar rattling the goals in, Sunderland won their very first league title in their second season in the league (1891/92).