Express & Star

Wolves FA Cup memories – Day crowd went wild welcoming home their heroes

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A sea of people welcoming triumphant Wolves home on May 8, 1960.

No FA Cup final for Wolves this year, although they did have a good run until Coventry put a spanner in the works. And, sad to say, since 1960 England have won more World Cups than Wolves have won FA Cups.

So no scenes to look forward to like these, when huge crowds filled the streets to welcome home their heroes in black and gold after their triumph at Wembley all those years ago.

A sea of people welcoming triumphant Wolves home on May 8, 1960.

The date of glory was Saturday, May 7, 1960, when Wolves ran out 3-0 winners against Blackburn Rovers, who played half the final with only 10 men after full back Dave Whelan was stretchered off with a broken leg – there were no substitutes back then.

Among those watching was, of course, the legendary Billy Wright, the former Wolves captain, who said he sat in the stand and trembled for the first 66 minutes and did not manage to sit back and start to enjoy the game until Norman Deeley knocked in Wolves' second goal.

And how the town (as it was then) celebrated as the team returned on the Sunday with the cup. Cheering wildly, crowds stood shoulder to shoulder all the way from Low Level station, from where the team coach left, to the town hall to give Wolves a tumultuous welcome home.

Newspapers estimated there was anything between 80,000 and a staggering 200,000 people packing Queen Square, North Street, and Cheapside. Children climbed parents' shoulders, lamp-posts, and window ledges.

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