Wolves FA Cup memories – Day crowd went wild welcoming home their heroes
If only...
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.
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.
A newsreel cameraman balanced dizzily on a high window ledge of the Queen's Hotel to capture the spectacular scene. Over 200 police officers were on duty including mounted police, and tubular steel barriers sealed off the front of the town hall.
Members of the St John Ambulance dealt with about a dozen people who fainted, together with a small girl whose foot was trodden on by a police horse.
In fact one of the horses caused an anxious moment in jammed Queen Square when a dog bit one of its legs and it reared up. The crowd fell back, but the rider managed to calm the animal.
Black and gold painted rattles – not something you get at football these days, but once part of the traditional fun – were spun, making a noise like machine-gun fire, while hooters added to the general din.
The Don Everall coach carrying the Wolves team, which had a lorry packed with photographers travelling in front of it, arrived at the town hall at 3.59.
The mayor, Alderman Norman Bagley, appeared on the balcony a few minutes later and spoke into a battery of microphones.
"This is a proud day for Wolverhampton – and a prouder one for our wonderful Wolves," he said.
Then there were the speeches. Manager Stan Cullis appeared.
"May I say how glad we are to be back home again. At least it's a refreshing change not to be pelted with orange peel," he said.
Pelted with orange peel? Surely Wolves fans would never do such a thing?
Historically, the final was to play its part in lending weight to a growing body of opinion that it was time to end the no-substitute rule. It was the second final in succession in which a team had played most of the match a man down, as in 1959 Roy Dwight, who had opened the scoring for Nottingham Forest against Luton, broke his leg after 33 minutes. Ten-man Forest nevertheless won 2-1.
In a television interview immediately after Wolves' victory, Cullis said it was time for subs to be allowed as the rule had "ruined yet another final." The match referee, Kevin Howley, agreed. Subs were first permitted during English league football a few years later, in the 1965-66 season.
Fans who remember Wolves' FA Cup glory will be well into pensionable age, and the wait continues for a repeat.
In the words of Johnny Logan, what's another year.