An inside right, King had a long career in the Scottish and the English leagues and played top-division football for Partick Thistle (two spells), Newcastle United (two spells),[3] Third Lanark, Motherwell, Hibernian and Clydebank.

[1][4] In 1915 he played a full league match for Newcastle as goalkeeper after regular Bill Mellor was injured, keeping a clean sheet.

[7] King served as a private on home service with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) during the First World War.

[8] His brother Alex (17 years older, leading him to be mistakenly described as an uncle)[6] was a Scottish international footballer.

This biographical article related to association football in Scotland, about a forward born in the 1880s, is a stub.