Three of the very best for Wolves

Chief Sports Writer Martin Swain leads the tributes of three more outstanding servants to the gold and black cause added to the Wolves’ Hall of Fame.

Two great captains, one great goalscorer, another flood of special memories. Wolves’ Hall of Fame today makes room for three more outstanding servants of the gold and black cause with two of its most inspirational leaders, Bill Slater and Mike Bailey, joined by the great ‘JR’ – John Richards – as the latest incumbents of the honour.

Wolves are making plans for the club’s second Hall of Fame dinner at Molineux in the New Year, the inaugural event having welcomed a generations-spanning half dozen heroes in Jackery Jones, Stan Cullis, Billy Wright, Ron Flowers, Derek Parkin and Steve Bull.

Last week, ‘The Cat’ himself, Bert Williams, and that silky inside forward Peter Broadbent were served notice of their impending salute for the 2010 entry. Now Slater, Bailey and Richards can join the throng.

It will not go unnoticed that this, purely by chance, brings the number of inductees up to perhaps the ultimate first XI in the history of the club. Now that Williams has arrived and this imaginary team has a goalkeeper, supporters will surely not be able to resist discussing how it would have shaped up.

Certainly it would not have been short of leaders. Cullis and Wright are already in there but the announcement of Slater and Bailey gives this group a quartet of men whose very names simply mean Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Slater and Bailey’s prime days at Wolves are separated by less than a generation but they came from, and belonged to, such different worlds. Clitheroe-born Slater’s story offers a fascinating bridge between post war Britain’s shift from black-and-white to colour.

He was a gifted footballer but having decided early in life that he wanted to be a teacher, a reluctant professional, making history as the last amateur to play in an FA Cup final – for Blackpool against Newcastle in 1951 – before nine years later leading Wolves to that 1960 Wembley final victory over Blackburn, his defining moment of leadership with the Molineux club.

In between times, Slater wrote out some famous chapters almost in spite of and not because of himself as he pursued his football career almost as an after-thought behind his real job, a lecturer at Birmingham University.

It is almost as if leading out Wolves at Wembley, winning the title and playing for England got in the way of a far more fascinating career in education.

Slater got out of the classroom enough to play a big part in those three First Division titles of the 1950s and then continued his distinguished post-playing career with roles with the Central Council for Physical Education and British Gymnastics Association, on his way to an OBE and CBE.

The nation’s Footballer of the Year in 1960 – an event he still attends to this day – said: “I feel very honoured about being named, particularly when I think about some of the players that have already been chosen to receive the award.

“I’m in good company aren’t I? I’m very much looking forward to the dinner in January which I’m sure will be a very grand occasion.”

But Bailey was a very different animal indeed, a player who led Wolves out of their Sixties dip into a swashbuckling Seventies, lifting the League Cup at Wembley in 1974.

Bailey, who made 436 appearances during his 12 years at Molineux, was a barrel-chested, lion-hearted leader from down in the team’s boiler room, a captain who inspired great faith and devotion from his troops and whose presence was all the more keenly felt whenever he wasn’t in the side.

Bully and JR up front? Now there’s a thought. The pair of them can sort out who plays where in the Hall of Fame now as Bailey’s old striker takes his bow.

Richards is one of those enduring figures for whom great affection is reserved not just for his pre-Bull record of 194 goals from 486 appearances but the way he has conducted himself in and around the city ever since.

His reputation is intact, despite the thorny years spent in the MD’s chair during the 1990s trying to satisfy the club’s craving for a Premier League promotion.

There will be those who will still place ‘King John’ above Bull, pointing to the fact that the bulk of his goals came at a higher level – Richards typically abandons that mini-argument as an irrelevance.

He said: “Goal scorers are goal scorers wherever they play – and I was just one fortunate enough to play alongside some fabulous players.”

For the record, he helped Wolves to the 1972 UEFA Cup final as well as helping the club add the 1980 League Cup to the one won with his goal six years earlier. Yep, it’s starting to look a tasty team now, alright.

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