Bill was born in 1898 in the town of Kirkintilloch which is not far from Glasgow in Scotland, he served in the British Army during the 1st World War after giving a false age so he would be accepted, during the course of that war Bill was shot in the head his family was relieved to hear he had survived this ordeal.
Bill had the opportunity to play soccer for Glasgow Rangers and the Scottish representative side but turned his back on these opportunities because he had decided he would go to Australia.
In 1919 Bill emigrated to West Australia to join his sister who lived at the coal mining town of Collie. After the end of the 1st World War the Collie area did not restart their Soccer Association again until 1921, in that year the association sent a representative team to Perth to play the Metropolitan rep team, Bill Dempsey was acknowledged as one of the best players in this match and some of the Perth clubs like the League Champions Thistle tried to entice Bill to join them.
This Collie team had defeated the Perth League Champions Thistle in September of 1921 by a score of 4 goals to 2 goals needless to say Bill Dempsey was among the goal scorers.
Bill Dempsey was appointed as captain of the Collie Association at the inaugural Country Championship which they won in 1922 and he was also named as one of the best players of the championships. Bill played and was captain of many Collie Representative Teams who won numerous Country Championships and South West Championships [ S / W / Cups ], also at club level he was part of many championship winning teams.
During this period the media of the day usually picked Bill along with Stan Cherry, Mal Mc’Ginn, Bill Shannon and Brin True as some of the best players of that era.
Bill was a left footed striker and was one of the top goalscorers for his club and the Collie Association, he field position was on the left-wing. His record of 71 league goals in a season still stands in the annals of southwest soccer history and has yet to be broken, 51 of these goals were scored with his head. Bill was also selected to play for West Australia on a number of occasions but had to decline because of family commitments.
Bill and his wife had 9 children, sadly Bill Dempsey broke his back in a mining accident and his soccer career was terminated because of this injury.
Mr Bill Dempsey will be remembered as the great player that he was and for his goal scoring exploits, he also made a significant contribution to southwest soccer.
2004 Bill was inducted into the SW Hall of Fame.