Bob Waddell is best known as one of the founders of the modern-day club Grange Thistle in 1920. A profile piece in The Sun Pictorial on 31 July 1930 summed up his career to date:
Waddell’s active association with Queensland Soccer covers a period of 19 years. During that time he has been player, club secretary and president, Q.F.A. delegate, and Queensland selector.
According to the newspaper, Waddell arrived in Queensland in 1911 after playing schoolboy football in Scotland. He played for Rocklea and Wilston in Brisbane and was involved in the merger of these two clubs into Merthyr Thistle. Despite the article asserting the merger occurred in 1913, both Rocklea and Wilston played in 1914, meaning Merthyr Thistle was born at the end of that season.
Waddell and Merthyr Thistle had a successful first season in 1915. The Sport Referee of 11 September listed Waddell in the team which won the Flavelle, Roberts and Sankey Cup against Balmoral in windy conditions at the Exhibition ground.
When Waddell enlisted in March 1916, he was 22, married, and working as a wheelwright. He was allocated to the 41st Battalion and departed Australia in August.
His military records show Waddell was gassed in June 1917 and despite returning to his Battalion by the end of the month had recurring illness over the next two months. After recovering, he was appointed Lance-Corporal in August before being shot in the leg in October leading to a fracture of the femur. He was evacuated to England in November and started back to Australia in 1918.
Merthyr Thistle had struggled on until 1917. They returned in the shortened 1919 season when they lost the final of the senior grade to Pineapple Rovers. Waddell was not seen in connection with the club after his return from war, with his injury preventing him returning to the field.
According to Waddell in the Brisbane Soccer Record of 3 June 1924, the old Merthyr Thistle club folded at the end of the 1919 season. Waddell affirmed the new Thistle club which started in its place was unconnected to the old guard, a point also made in his Sun Pictorial profile of 1930:
Unfortunately, his injuries ended his active playing days, so Bob, with customary aversion to inaction, entered the organising ranks, and in company with other returned soldiers and Soccer players, Billy McBride and Johnny Peebles, helped to form another Merthyr Thistle, a senior team that came into existence to help the newly-formed Queensland Football Association along.
Peebles and McBride, both captains of the Queensland team before and after the war, led on the field, and were joined by handful of former Merthyr Thistle players in Comerford, McMillan, Ross, Grice and Lambert.
Waddell helped lead the club off the field, becoming club secretary from 1920 until 1924. Under his stewardship, the club saw success, being runners-up in the top division in 1920 before winning the 1921 Charity Cup. They won their first premiership in 1923.
In 1925 Waddell became Thistle’s representative on the Queensland Football Association. The same year he was also selector for Queensland state team for the visit of England. He became Thistle club president in 1927 and 1928 and by 1930 was named a life-member of the club.
The Waddell family had a long relationship with soccer in Queensland. His grandson Bill also became president of Grange Thistle, before becoming president of the Queensland Soccer Federation.
Waddell later moved to bowls for the Ithica club. The Truth of 17 April 1938 reported Waddell set a record of winning 19 straight A pennant games. He was club administrator for 20 years, finally stepping back to just a bowler in 1951.
Waddell was still seen playing for the club in 1960 before his death in 1963.