An expired passport and a transfer: The story of Wolves' last US tour in 1981

Or whether Matheus Cunha will be so taken in by the sights and sounds of the Sunshine State that he returns on holiday with his family next year.

Or if Craig Dawson creates such an impression in the friendly fixtures that he gets snapped up by one of the teams in opposition to Wolves immediately after returning from the pre-season trip. Ah hang on, that one’s sort of happened already. Hammer Time.

But replace those three names and scenarios with the Molineux class of 1981, and those are just three of the stories that emerged the last time Wolves travelled out to the States, and indeed played a fixture in Jacksonville just as they did – eventually - in the early hours of Sunday morning against West Ham.

John Richards so enjoyed visiting Disney World during the trip that he took his family back on holiday to sample the Magic Kingdom the following year.

Colin Brazier was quickly snapped up by the Jacksonville Tea Men who Wolves had played against for a temporary loan spell, later to return permanently.

And alas, poor Geoff Palmer. His previous passport had expired and his new one came through just as the rest of the squad were boarding the plane for the States. It was, like one or two tackles once made by the iconic Wolves full back, just a little too late. He didn’t make it.

All this drama for an end-of-season friendly which, in all likelihood, only came about because Wolves were in need of the financial benefits that accompanied it.

The carrot of heading to play the first ever international fixture at the Jacksonville Gator Bowl was as much about the finances as it was the football.

It was little over a year since they had lifted the League Cup, the club’s most recent major trophy, but equally only a year before they would go into receivership in what would turn out to be an extremely turbulent half a decade.

“From what I recall it was just one game at the end of the season at a time when the club were struggling financially,” striker and Wolves legend John Richards recalls.

“They were looking for funds from any source, and sponsors over in America must have offered something which made it worth heading over.”

The players certainly weren’t complaining.

For many, it was their first ever taste of life Across the Pond. Pre or post-season trips traditionally ventured no further than Europe.

Coming at the end of the 1980/81 campaign, in which Wolves had finished 18th and been defeated by Tottenham in a replay in the FA Cup semi-finals, there was not the same sort of intensity or training required as with pre-season trips when fitness was a pre-requisite.

And that led to a fair few describing the Trans-Atlantic excursion as something of a ‘jolly’.

“We hired a few cars and headed off to Disney World which was a magical experience,” Richards recalls.

“So magical that I took my family there for a holiday the following year.

“A few of the lads went for a game of golf – Hibby (Kenny Hibbitt) for one I’m sure – but the big thing I remember is how different America was for us all.

“The roads were massive, the cars were big and flashy, the big shopping malls where you could get lost, we’ve got them over here now but didn’t have them back then.

“The drive-through cinemas, there were so many more McDonalds over there, all the huge signs, it was like we were seeing the future.”

At the time Brazier, who operated in so many different positions for Wolves, had no way of knowing that he would be returning to Florida very shortly after the trip, but his first impressions were certainly extremely positive.

“It was just fantastic,” he recalls.

“I think to go over to Florida, with that weather, and the way we were looked after, we were concentrating more on partying than playing!

“Myself and a few of the younger lads went around Daytona Beach, we had a few games of golf, we enjoyed the sort of luxury that we weren’t really used to.

“Every time we opened our mouth, we had about 20 American people around us, and everyone thought we came from Liverpool because they knew all about The Beatles!

“It was an amazing trip.”

Sadly, however, it was less than amazing for Palmer, the celebrated Molineux full back who was one of the gang of four to have won both the 1974 and 1980 League Cup Finals.

He takes up the story, which sadly didn’t turn into the American dream.

“My passport had run out but when I found out we were due to go to America at the end of the season, there should have been plenty of time to renew it,” he says.

“But there was a strike going on which affected passports, so it quickly became a bit of a problem.

“I went up to the office in Liverpool but they couldn’t do it straightaway, and I had a meeting with my local MP as well who said he would do what he could.

“Every morning I’d be looking out for the postman who knew I was waiting and he’d be like, ‘sorry Geoff – nothing yet’.

“And then, of course, the day they flew out, the passport arrived.

“We worked out later I think it arrived at my house just as they were getting on the plane.

“Nowadays clubs would probably get you on another flight out there to meet up with the team late but that wasn’t possible at the time, so I had to miss out.

“I was gutted, especially as a few of the lads ended up playing in America afterwards and doing quite well.

“Then I heard about all the other stuff that went on such as being able to hire cars and go to Disney World – and that just rubbed salt into the wound!”

Palmer had also missed out on Wolves’ previous trip to the States in 1972 as he was still a young player at the time awaiting the senior debut which would arrive a year later.

That particular trip took in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, after which Richards returned home to link up with the England Under-23 squad while his team-mates headed on to New Zealand and Australia to ultimately complete 12 matches in three countries across 29 days.

But ’72 and ’81 were actually Wolves fourth and fifth forays into the Land of the Free, all of which have come at the end of a season, having first headed out in 1963 for two games in New York, and then Philadelphia, St Louis and San Francisco, winning all five.

The summer of 1967, which followed the Second Division promotion campaign under Ronnie Allen, featured the re-branding as Los Angeles Wolves and no fewer than 14 fixtures in claiming the United Soccer Association Championship, a journey re-told by the club in a documentary last year.

That was another pioneering trip, with so many of the players taking advantage of their first ever opportunity to cross the Pond.

“I’d never even been out of England before, not even to Wales,” recalled goalkeeper Phil Parkes.

“I’d never even had a passport so needed to get one of those sorted quickly.

“I’d only played 14 first team games, one when Fred Davies was injured and then the last 13 of the season as we got promoted to the First Division.

“Then Ronnie Allen asked me if I wanted to go to America? Well, yes please.”

After that triumphant visit, Wolves returned for more tournament action two years later, coming through another nine fixtures – this time under the banner of Kansas City Spurs - to lift the NASL International Cup.

Sadly, the friendly against Jacksonville in 1981 certainly didn’t hit the heights of ’67 and ’69 in terms of results.

Wolves were beaten 4-1 and, whilst Richards got the goal, he can’t even remember it, unlike the other aspects of the visit.

“We would all probably have holidayed in Europe at the most up until that time, but most of the lads will have enjoyed the trip, especially the younger ones who saw it as an adventure,” he adds.

“Another thing I remember is that whilst America was ahead in so many areas that we have seen over here since, their hotels were very different back then, namely in that they didn’t serve food.

“There was no breakfast or evening meal or anything like that, so we were given an allowance, so many dollars a day, to go out to a local café and restaurant and sort ourselves out.

“Normally on a tour, you are cossetted, everything is done for you and you just have to turn up and things like meals are all prepared.

“But on that trip, we were left to our own devices a bit more and each morning we could decide where we would go for breakfast and I remember that being another of the enjoyable experiences.”

And so, while Wolves haven’t been back to America in 43 years, Brazier was back over there within a few short weeks.

“I was back and then flying out for a family holiday to Madeira from Birmingham but there was a crack in the plane’s windscreen, so we had to land at Luton,” he explains.

“There was a call for me over the tannoy to go and take a phone call and it was someone from Jacksonville asking if I fancied going back out to play for them.

“So, I did! I spoke to Wolves and they were fine, so I went on loan, I think from May to September, which I really enjoyed.

“I would later go back permanently at a time when Ian Greaves had become Wolves manager.

“I had scored a hat trick in the reserves on the Tuesday night, two goals on the Saturday and then another hat trick on the Tuesday, and Ian called me in and said he’d got good news and bad news.

“The bad news was that Wolves were letting me go, the good news that I could go back to America, and by the Thursday I was flying out again.

“I loved it over there, living on a golf course near the beach with fantastic food and what was proper five star treatment – it was a totally different world.

“Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown was my roommate at Jacksonville and there were other British lads over there like Archie Gemmill and Keith Bertschin, and I played against world-class players such as George Best.

“The stadiums were magnificent and the only problems sometimes were the pitches as they had been used for baseball and we had to hop over the pitcher’s mound but it was still brilliant.

“If things hadn’t gone the way they did with problems with the league and the team eventually folding, I would probably never have come back!”

In a game which Brazier played against Best, he saw red following two challenges, having to walk around the pitch after receiving his marching orders, only for Best to also get dismissed later on for chasing the referee after the award of a dubious goal!

Brazier also came up against several of his former Wolves team-mates during his spell Stateside, as the likes of Parkes, Hibbitt and Steve Daley were among many who headed over as the American leagues started to take shape.

Daley, who made the move to Seattle Sounders after such a difficult time following his record-breaking switch from Wolves to Manchester City, would also later join San Diego Sockers in between a stay with Burnley.

“I absolutely loved it out there and had a great time,” he reflects.

“Seattle was a base for the Boeing air plant, so they employed a lot of English people, and a few of us were over there to play for the Sounders as well.

“We were averaging crowds of between 25,000 to 30,000 at the Kingdome and got to the final of the Soccerbowl, the equivalent of the FA Cup, before losing to New York Cosmos.

“There were so many great players over there as they were looking to grow the game, and we all got on brilliantly.

“Some of the talent that went over – Pele, Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Neeskens – it was unbelievable.

“I learned a lot about coping with adversity during my time at City but to have that experience in America to follow – alongside my time at Wolves it was one of the best of my career.

“We went over with the whole family and my wife and the kids loved it too, I wish I had gone earlier, maybe in 1979!

“Obviously you’d fly to the away games because of the distances involved and I remember, when we got back, one of the lads would always have a party waiting for you at their house.

“We’d all got basements with bars built in and would take it in turns to host and hold barbecues and so on – the whole thing was a fabulous experience.”

So many memories and links between Wolves and America from many moons ago, and indeed former striker Jemal Johnson, who was at the impressive victory over West Ham, scored the fastest goal in NASL (North American Soccer League) history in just 12 seconds, when playing for Jacksonville Armada.

More memories are no doubt being made during the current fortnight for the class of 2024, including new faces making an immediate impact across the three friendly fixtures of the schedule.

Tinged however with lingering frustration for one Hall of Famer – the tale of Palmer’s passport predicament which he certainly hasn’t forgotten.

Instead of being out there enjoying a taste of the high life, he found himself back in Wolverhampton, and popping in for a spot of training with the club’s younger players.

“And do you know what? I’ve still never been to America.”