Richard Stearman’s dad is already steeped in three decades of history in Wolverhampton.
Now Paul Stearman is hoping his son can carve his own place in the hearts of the city through his actions for Wolves.
As a former Banks’s landlord of pubs such as the long-gone Traveller’s Rest in Heath Town and the still-flourishing Fieldhouse in Wightwick, Paul has seen the highs and lows of Wolves fans at first hand.
He said: “I remember when we kept The Fieldhouse, we used to take people to games because a lot of customers were season ticket holders or box-holders.
“It was around the time of Emlyn Hughes and Wolves were pretty successful, so we did more business when the team were going well.
“I also played right-back for the Traveller’s Rest Sunday League team! I think you grow up with two or three teams who you always look out for.
“Because we lived in Wolverhampton and had a lot of family living in the area, Wolves has always been close to our hearts.
“Through my work with the brewery, we have been to the box at Molineux and whenever Richard was injured or not playing for Leicester, we’d go over to watch Wolves.
“As a Championship venue, Molineux is second to none and as soon as we heard Wolves were interested, Richard was very impressed.”
Ironically for Richard, the Stearman family may have ended up staying around the Wolverhampton area, rather than moving to Market Harborough in Leicestershire.
He said: “We decided to get out of being licensees after 14 years because we weren’t seeing much of our children.”
So, in the first of various roles, Paul became an area manager providing advice to numerous establishments.
One of the pre-requisites of the job was that he moved to the region he was responsible for – Leicestershire.
It was in that rich sporting county that Richard began to show signs of following the equally heavy sporting tradition which runs through the Stearman family.
Like Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey, Paul and his twin Gerard both played basketball for England.
Richard’s Penn-bred mum Stephanie also represented the county and university at badminton.
As young Richard grew up – at 20, he is now 6ft 2ins – it became clear he had the determination to follow his parents’ sporting footsteps.
Paul said: “Richard was spotted by Leicester at the age of nine. Whatever he does, he wants to win.
“When he was nine or 10 and we went on holiday, he would enter all the football, swimming and table tennis tournaments.
“You would half expect him to win. By the time he was 12 or 14, his intelligence was beginning to shine through as well.
“Although he was football training all the time, he still managed to pass 11 GCSEs.”
According to Paul, no one was more focused on Richard’s development than former Wolves youth coach Rob Kelly, who went on to manage him at Leicester.
He said: “Rob was a very good manager for him,. He’s a very genuine man who could see Richard was giving everything he could.
“He got on really well with Rob. Sunderland came in with a bid for him, because Roy Keane’s assistant Tony Loughlin had worked with Leicester’s Academy.
“Richard was aware of the interest through his agent and one or two Premier League clubs, so we sat down and had a chat.
“Martin O’Neill went to several games at a time when there was lots of interest in Richard and Joe Mattock.
“Martin spoke to the chairman but the interest didn’t manifest itself further than that.
“We thought he’d be better served staying even though the packages were significantly more.”
Paul believes Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has already become a big influence on his son’s career.
He said: “Mick spoke to Richard several times on the phone and he was really impressed by him.
“He stressed how much he and Wolves really wanted him which is what you want to hear. After that the package becomes a bit secondary.
“Richard wants to get better. He had three-and-a-half years at Leicester, 11 managers and played with 400 different players. But he never finished higher than 17th.”
Now happily settling in at Wolves, Paul is satisfied his son can progress.
He said: “He can see with Wolves, all the signs are positive – the target is Premier League football,.
“He’s not yet 21 but he wants to improve. You only have to look at the younger players here such as Michael Kightly, Andy Keogh and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to see that’s possible.”
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