Rare 1921 Wolves shirt snapped up by club
A rare Wolves shirt worn in the 1921 FA Cup final has been snapped up by the club for £6,700.
The shirt was worn by Thomas 'Tancy' Lea in the final against Spurs at Stamford Bridge.
And it will now go proudly on display in the Wolves Museum at Molineux.
The gold and black striped jersey was worn by the players in the first half of the game.
In the second half, because the players were so drenched from the pouring rain, they changed into dry shirts which did not have badges.
Wolves said on Twitter: "Wolves are delighted to have secured another rare piece of memorabilia, a shirt belonging to Thomas (Tancy) Lea worn in the 1921 FA Cup Final.
"The game against Spurs was played at Stamford Bridge on April 23 on a muddy pitch, in pouring rain, in front of 72,805.
"The shirt will be put on display in the Wolves Museum in due course."
The shirt was snapped up during a sporting memorabilia auction by Graham Budd Auctions, held at Sotheby's New Bond Street saleroom.
It took place last month, however Wolves have now revealed the club was the anonymous bidder.
It was expected the shirt would fetch between £5,000 and £7,000.
Lea was born in Oswestry in 1893 and played for Oswestry Town before moving to Wolves, where he played from 1913 to 1921.
The game was Wolves' fifth appearance in an FA Cup final and a their third defeat, with Tottenham's Jimmy Dimmock scoring the only goal of the game.
It was one of three FA Cup finals held at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea, with the match moving to Wembley from 1923 onwards.
It is the second rare Wolves memorabilia to be purchased by the club in recent weeks, after a football from the England game in which Billy Wright won his 100th cap.
The leather football, which sold for £1,350, was used during England's 1-0 win over Scotland in 1959.
Ironbridge-born Wright owned the ball until his death in September 1994 at the age of 70, before wife Joy gave it away to an unnamed footballer.
Like the shirt, it too will feature in the Wolves Museum.