Historical Football Kits

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Wolverhampton Wanderers

Formed 1877

Founder member of the Football League 1888

Kit History

Background

Wolves began as a school side, St Luke's FC in 1877. Two years later they merged with another local side, Wanderers FC and became Wolverhampton Wanderers. Initially they played in blue and white but later switched to "faded red and white" stripes before the old gold and black appeared in 1891, inspired by the municipal colours of Wolverhampton, which in turn represent the town's motto, "Out of Darkness Cometh Light." The shade used was very dark indeed, verging on brown. The unique diagonal halved design shown here appeared in 1893.

A formidable cup side, Wolves reached three finals between 1889 and 1896, winning the trophy in 1893. In 1906, Wolves slipped into the Second Division: two years later they defied the odds to win the FA Cup for the second time, beating the hot favourites Newcastle United 3-1 at Crystal Palace.

The club reached yet another FA Cup final in 1921 but were unable to regain a Division One place. Disaster came in 1923 with relegation to Division Three (North) although they stormed back as champions in 1924, losing only three matches. During their brief stay in the lower division, the traditional striped jerseys gave way to plain old gold with a bold "V". Under the guidance of Major Frank Buckley, Wolves returned finally to the First Division in 1932. Now wearing their famous old gold shirts with black collars, Wanderers were runners-up in 1938 and 1939 when they also reached the FA Cup final. Starting out as favourites against little fancied Portsmouth, the players were provided with extract of monkey gland to boost their performance but crashed 1-4.

The period after the Second World War was a golden age. After retiring as a player, Stan Cullis took over as manager in 1948, guiding them to an FA Cup win in 1949 and Division One championships in 1954, 1958 and 1959. The club also pioneered midweek floodlit matches against European sides, including the Dynamo and Spartak teams from Moscow, Real Madrid and Budapest Honved. For these games, played under primitive floodlights on gloomy winter evenings, Wolves used a special fluorescent kit.

After their 1954 title win, the shade of the shirts became a brighter gold, according to Steve Gordos, the former Sports Editor of the Wolverhampton Express.

In 1960 they won the Cup once again and almost achieved the double, missing out on the Division One title by a single point.

In 1964, Wolves parted company with Cullis and slipped briefly into the Second Division but further Cup success arrived in the Seventies. Defeat in the UEFA Cup final. Against Spurs in 1972 was followed by League Cup success in 1974. After a season in the Second Division, Wolves returned to the First Division as champions in 1977 and a second League Cup win in 1980. In 1982 the club was bought by the Bhatti brothers. At first all seemed well as Wolves won promotion to Division one in 1983 but on and off the pitch the club descended into chaos, plunged straight down to the Fourth Division and faced extinction. A consortium including the local council, Asda and builders, Gallaghers, rescued the ailing club and they won the Fourth and Third Division championships in successive seasons (1987-88 and 1988-89) to return to the Second Division.

In 1990 millionaire fan Sir Jack Hayward bought the club and invested £20m of his personal fortune in the redevelopment of Molineux, transforming it into one of the most modern in the country. Hayward continued to pour money into the club but it was not until 2003 that his ambition was realised and Wolves returned to the top flight after beating Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium in the play-off final. Six months later Hayward resigned and handed over the chairmanship to his son, Rick. Sadly, Wolves triumphant return was short-lived and they were relegated after one season.

In 2006 the club embarked on a complete clear-out, appointing Mick McCarthy to build a new side with the emphasis on youth, ambition and talent. Twelve senior players departed, halving the club's wage bill. The young squad performed above expectation and reached the play-offs that season. In August 2007 Jack Hayward gifted his controlling shares to business man Steve Morgan who promised to invest £30m in the club to re-establish them in the Premiership. Following their strategy of signing promising young players from the lower divisions, Wolves won the Championship title in 2009.

Sources

• (a) Geoff Bell - HFK Research Associate
• (b) Wolverhampton Wanderers FC - Images of Sport (Geoff Alman 2002)
• (c) Sporting Heroes
• (d) empics
• (e) Stoke City FC - Images of Sport (Tony Matthews 1999)
• (f) West Midlands Football (Tony Matthews 2004)
• (g) The Mighty Mighty Whites
• (h) Wolves Official Site
• (i) Association of Football Statisticians - provided by Pete Wyatt
• (j) Simon Davies
• (k) Pete's Picture Palace
• (l) Mark Parker
• (m) David King
• (n) True Colours 2 (John Devlin 2006)
• (o) Steve Gordos
• (p) Alick Milne
• (q) Memories of Molineux (Tony Matthews) provided by Jonathon Russell whose "Colours Through the Ages" are available at Sports Prints
• (r) Simon Monks
• (s) Christopher Worrall
• (t) Steven Benbow
• (u) Mark Young
• (v) My photo library
• (w) David Taylor
• (x) Stuart Davis
• (y) Jonathon Russell
• (z) British Film Institute (Youtube)
• (A) Pete Szyman
• (B) Graham Warner
• (C) Keith Ellis (HFK Research Associate)
• (D) Michael Capewell