Proud to be a Wolves Fan
Posted by Ben on 19th January , 2010I don’t know if I should admit this, but I have cried over the Wolves on three occasions…
The first was the most inconsequential of games, when we lost 4-1 on a plastic pitch against Oldham in 1990. It was a year or two after we won the third division, there was nothing riding on it, but I couldn’t comprehend us losing. As a 10-year-old boy, I literally couldn’t deal with the shock of defeat. Spoilt little brat!
(Me and) Wolves legend Andy Thompson
The third time was an altogether more uplifting experience, as I watched seven heroes of yesteryear get inducted into the Wolves Hall of Fame at Molineux.
Being a Wolves fan never felt so humbling, uplifting or downright emotional, as legend after legend were celebrated in front of an adoring family.
Billy Harrison of 1908 FA Cup fame was commemorated by ex-E & S sports editor Steve Gordos, before Bill Slater, Bert Williams and Peter Broadbent were inducted into the hall.
The appetite for each anecdote and story was more insatiable than the hunger for the three course meal, and each memory swelled your levels of pride to unheralded levels.
Hearing Micky Stowell talk about Bert Williams’ England jerseys in a mouse nibbled cardboard box made you smile, while Broadbent’s wife Shirley made you cry with laughter, as she talked of pulling her flirty husband in the Civic Hall.
But the tears really started to well up when Skipper Mike Bailey took to the stage, his barrel chest hidden behind self deprecation.
Derek Parkin and Kenny Hibbitt waxed lyrical about Bailey’s indefatigable spirit, talent, and penchant for bursting opponents into the Waterloo Stand, when necessary of course. Arguably the best captain the club has had, although Bailey wasn’t having any of that.
He said he didn’t feel worthy, when the reality was that half the room didn’t feel fit to be in the great man’s company.
And then came King John Richards, who Dave Wagstaffe couldn’t believe would ever succeed at the club, being as he never drank, smoked or gambled!
Phil Parkes recalled a time when the players trained at Molineux on the morning of a game against Everton. After killing two pigeons at the back of the South Bank with such wayward shooting, Parkes was quick to take the piss.
But typically, Richards scored a 20 yard screamer during the game, and ran back to the halfway line to flick Phyllis the finger! (he scored a hat-trick and we won 4-2)
Former manager Graham Turner (and me)
“I feel like a fraud being here,” he said. Nobody agreed with him. Certainly not Andy Mutch or Thommo, who recalled one or two lighter moments of their time with GT.
Once in a team meeting, David Barnes rubbed liquorish into his teeth and gave Mutchy a big goofy smile, bearing teeth like a dirty set of piano keys.
Mutchy got the giggles, and Turner got the yips, flinging tea cups at saucers at his head, narrowly missing a confused Robbie Dennison, before he kicked his chair back and went to storm out the room.
The only problem was that Mutchy had vaselined the door handle, thus depriving Turner of the dramatic exit he craved, cue more anger!
All in all, an evening to make you proud to be a Wolves fan and so grateful to support a club with so many unassuming stalwarts. Enough to make a grown man cry.
Up the Wolves!
Excellent post Ben.
Just the tonic I think many of us needed after Saturday’s misery.
Nobody needs to say anything about the likes of Mike Bailey and Bert Williams; living legends, not just at Molnieux but in the footballing world in general.
I have a real affinity for the likes of Thommo, Mutch, Dennison etc, as they dragged us back from the misery of the fourth division. None of them were world beaters, but they, along with Sir Jack, got us moving in the right direction after some horrendous experiences.
I just wonder if any of the current Wolves side will end up in that Hall of Fame at some point?
Mate, absolute quality
As a 23 year old and a season ticket holder for the past 8 years with the old man, i hear a lot about these famous players and a lot about the stories/players (scunthorpe away wish i was bloody their) any how i love reading about this topic as my old man bangs on about it all the time. post 1 i think if ebanks turns his fortunes around and stays with us a few years then he will be a legend. have we had anything better since bully in goals to games ratio? think not. i could list the names but id get as far as frankowski and i would shake my head in disbelief.
UTW
Forever a south bank inhabitant x
Enjoyed that.
We must be about the same age Ben, I remember going to my 1st game as a 6 year old with my dad – April 1987 1-0 vs Torquay followed by a 3-0 win vs Lincoln on a sparcely-crowded South Bank.
Your story about being a spoilt brat at Oldham is so familiar! We all, understandably, joke about being long-suffering fans but the irony is that for my first 2 years going to games it felt like we hardly drew let alone lost! I worked out once that in the first 40 or so games I went to Bully scored about 60 goals.. seriously!
As for current players going on to be legends.. for the first time in a while there is a real chance for a lot of these guys to rack up some serious appearances for us.. I’m thinking guys like Ward, Henry, SEB, Kightly, Jarvis, Foley & Hennessey who have 100 or so games already, are not so good that bigger clubs will definitely be splashing out, but you’d assume will always be offered new contracts.. I can see at least a couple of them being here in 5 or even 10 years time.
Anyone noticed that Amr Zaki is joining Hull City? and they are being linked with Mido too – I bet they costs more than £20k per week!
Bloody hell Ben how tall are you? I like the photos, you look pretty happy with life. UTW.
Kwolf. I’m only 6ft. Thommo is 3ft 6ins though.
nice little post there ben. makes you realise that we all love the club through thick and thin, anger and happiness, the great times and the worst of times. We’re probably having the best of it since bully helped us climb the leagues. we’re so disappointed because we can see glimpses of greatness and hope for so much.
I forgot to mention that I’ve cried over Wolves three times too Ben:
1. Away at Bolton in the second leg of the 94/95 play-off semi-final. Miserable match, miserable conditions and one poo hole of a stadium.
2. At Molineux, watching Wolves lose to Albion on the big screen. Was sometime in the early nineties but remember bawling my eyes out when they scored their second.
3. Losing out to Albion in 2003. I’m pretty certain I remember locking myself in my room and shedding a secret tear. Horrendous day that, enough to make any grown Wolves fan cry.
Never cried, but I came closest to it after breaking a toe kicking the wardrobe door whilst listening to us getting beat away from home in the ill fated 2003 season. Brought tears to my eyes that did!
Great post Ben, and to think that as a person ages they tend to get shorter – if Andy Thompson gets any older he’ll disappear!
Well done Ben…. Great to hear some of “the” names associated with the Wolves… Anyone remember JR’s winner against the “great” Man City in 74, it came off someone’s heel & Richard’s buried it…. Bailey had a great game that day… Ta Ben for cheerin us all up…..
Have decided not to throw myself off the roof & am headin over for the L’pool game next week…. C’mon the Wolves…
I’m proud of being a Wolves fan in a way I don’t think I would be if I supported another club. There is, among proper football fans, a genuine affection for the club that, say, West Brom don’t – and will never – be on the receiving end of. That’s down to the players who have donned the old gold and black down the years. From Bert Williams, through Bailey, Munro, Richards, to Bull, Thommo, Dennison, Mutch and through to Rae, Murray and… well, you fill in the blank.
Has anyone read The Damned Utd? I don’t have my copy with me right now, but it contains a brilliant scene where Clough talks to a hotel waiter about everyone hating Leeds, and mentions Wolves playing the game of their lives against Leeds to deny them the title in 1972 (the match there were bribery allegations about). It’s a pity it never made it into the film, but just reading it made me so happy to be a Wolves fan. How many great novels have a page about Birmingham City in them? None!
Great post Ben, that’s cheered us all up a bit. We are a club with a fantastic history and are famous world wide, a club who’s also been on the brink of extinction and been to a European final.
We’re the club who started european football against the likes of Honved in the first floodlit games.
People like Broadbent, Bailey and Richards are legends i’m sad never to have seen play.
Does anyone find it sad that we’re unlikely ever to see our team win the Premier League or Champions League ever? Not without a rich arab anyway.
On a present day note, sky say we’re close to a move for James Beattie, him and Doyle up front would be good
Ben,,,are you Nathan Lloyd’s brother?
Thomas… please , please get off the happy Jack Hayward bandwagon. This really is a bug bear with me. It was Councillor John Bird, Wolverhampton Council, the Gallagher brothers, Dick Homden and Jack Harris that got the bandwagon rolling. Hayward was nowhere to be seen when teh Bhatti’s took over. Instead he took over when things were on the up, thanks to the afore mentioned people. Hayward deserted us when we needed him most, so please, less of the high praise for Hayward, and more for the real trojans.
Hi Dazza,
My Grandad was John Bird, thanks for remembering him and what he (and others) did for Wolves before Sir Jack arrived
Without the work before Sir Jack arrived Wolves would not have existed
Thanks for all the nice comments chaps, seeing those old greats and hearing their memories made me slightly sad too – the game seems to have changed irreversably now, and I’m not sure I like what I see these days.
It seemed more tangible back then somehow, like you could feel the squeeze in the North Bank as Richards scored; you could almost smell the bovril through the TV footage we were seeing.
Seems like we’re watching a pseudo FTSE table which doubles up as a football league today, where we are told to be grateful for ‘security’ and ‘long term stability.’
Imagine what Bill McGarry would have made of that?!
There is no aspiration, no expectation of glory, no association.
It’s like George Orwell never existed.
Those fans in the 70s saw us score 5 goals in one half of football against Arsenal!! They saw us beat Juventus at Molineux!!! Not only that, but they expected we’d win as well.
There seems to be one big full stop today, in the shape of a pound sign.
Steve Gordos got it right when he was asked about why he spends so much time researching the early 20th century etc.
“Its more fun than living in the present!” So yes Rich, agree with you!
Adam: I must have been a year later than you mate. Reading was my first game in 1988 in August (Dennison scored a header!)
Dazza: You can airbrush history in any which way you like pal, but it was Sir Jack who wrote off £40 MILLION of debt when he gave the club away.
It was Sir Jack who rebuilt Molineux, gave us one of the best training grounds in the country and gave a succession of managers a wad of money out of his own back pocket to waste.
Naiive? Maybe, but don’t question the integrity of one of the most selfless, caring and downright generous gentlemen ever to bleed gold and black. Show some fucking respect, if you’re capable.
And he also tried to buy the club when the Bhattis did, although you’ve conveniently forgot this.
Dazza
I don’t know the full facts behind what went on in the mid-80s but I think comments like ”Hayward deserted us” and was ”nowhere to be seen” are probably overstating. I understood that Harris was in touch with Hayward during this process?
However, there is some truth to what you say in the sense that Sir Jack bought the club in 1990 when we were established in what is now the Championship. A lot of people do seem to think he bought the club at our lowest point when he did no such thing. So if you are being really harsh you could argue he left us in the same division he found us!
Jack Harris and others certainly deserve huge credit for the work they did to get the club through the events of 1986 and this recognition comes from, I believe, Sir Jack’s insistence that a Stand be named after Harris in the new Molineux.
Ben, show respect for who? A guy that came in, when it was convenient, to buy the club on the up, then, to pull the plug on Dave Jones when he needed it most? You really are having a laugh !! Jones got us promoted with a similar bunch of players to what McCarthy did, yet, he had no financial clout to keep us up …sound familiar? So, my full respect will always be with Dave Jones and Graham Turner, the 2 best Managers we have had since McGarry. If Hayward hadn’t thrown a hissy, we would be well establshed in the PL by now. Haywards legacy to us is the smallest stadia in the PL, each new one that is built is far bigger than ours. Sorry, got no time whatsoever for the guy. He was good at making himself out be some sort of messiah… it succeeded with you….not me. I will also have the biggest gratitude to Councillor John Bird, it was he who truly saved the Wolves. He shoudl have been given the freedom of the city…not Hayward.
It’s probably worth pointing out that we don’t have the smallest stadia in the PL. Anyway, who’s seen this little gem doing the rounds?
http://cc.fulhamfc.com/forum/topics/read-this-quite-good-from-a
We certainly don’t have the smallest stadium in the PL.
Portsmouth is smaller, and I’m sure Craven Cottage is too.
Hull and Sotke must not have big stadiums, nor would Burnley and Bolton.
It is true that we need to fill in those damn corners, will they ever. We have the potential to have a 35000 (atleast) stadium and have it packed week in week out
Hayward sold the club for a tenner, insisting Morgan injected 30 million. We are one of only 2 clubs in the premier league not in debt. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Thierry Henry took 14 games to score a premier league goal. Give SEB a bloody chance. He’s just come back from injury and the service he’s received so far has been abysmal.
Dazza. That’s better mate. I decent, structured argument instead of an insult about me looking like Nathan Fucking Lloyd. :-0 (is my writing that bad as well?!)
So apologies for the abrupt response.
You haven’t got to go through the intricies of those dark days. I’m equally indebted to the council, the Gallagher brothers, and Jack Harris. We were probably sat together in pink faded John ireland seats at one point.
But answer me this. How was it a convenient time to buy the club when the ground looked like Baghdad, (which he could never call his own anyway) with no saleable assets and a commerical department consisting of Gary Leaver in a garden shed behind the North Bank?
Yes, he has been naive, petulant, and short sighted, but don’t question his integrity.
He made this club an investible propostion again, having rebuilt it top to bottom, and wrote of £40 million of his own wealth to make it attractive to another investor.
How can you have no time for him for that?
Of course he’s made mistakes, but not before pumping in millions of pounds into a club he adores.
His biggest fuck up IMO was ever appointing Jez Moxey, after appointing a succession of foolish family members before him.
He’s the one who shafted Colin Lee, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle (remember the famous programme notes?). And now McCarthy is suffering as he still blocks moves for players on average wages, despite seeing us suffer the consequences in 2003. I actually wonder if he prefers us going up and down – more bonuses for asset stripping that way.
He’s the one who oversaw a £40 million DEBT before SJH wrote it off. Yet he’s the one who is heralded as a business savvy God. And he’ll be the one pricing me out of a season ticket next year.
We’ll probably agree to disagree.
Ben, how on earth did you find out my middle name?
Ben..Nathan Lloyd is good looking dude …lol
Agree to disagree we will, and I certainly never meant to abuse you….apologies for that
We all get very apssionate about this club eh?
Enjoy the weekend
Dazza, have you been at the meths under the cupboard again?