The Story of the Wolves – Part 52
FOLLOWING on from last week’s cartoon portraying the ‘team of 1938-39’ that secured a second successive runners-up position in Division 1, this week’s offering (only part of which is recorded in my dad’s scrapbook) reflects upon a cup run and an infamous controversy.
Controversy first – in the summer of 1937 manager Major Buckley was approached by a chemist called Menzies Sharp. This is another part of Wolves’ history that receives splendid coverage by Merv Davies and Tim Gibbons in their book ‘Training with Wolves’.
Secret remedy
Sharp claimed that he had, “a secret remedy that would give the players confidence.” It is believed that his ideas were based on the experiments of Serge Voronoff, a French doctor, who had been born in Russia. His first official transplantation of a monkey gland into a human had taken place on June 12th, 1920. Thin slices (a few millimetres wide) of testicles from chimpanzees and baboons were implanted inside the patient’s scrotum, the thinness of the tissue samples allowing the foreign tissue to fuse with the human tissue eventually.
Refused
Impressed by Sharp, Buckley agreed to try the treatment on his players. Whilst the treatment was voluntary, the vast majority of Buckley’s players were cajoled into taking the treatment. Only two refused – first team player Dickie Dorsett and 17-year-old reserve goal keeper Don Bilton.
According to Patrick A. Quirke, the author of ‘The Major: The Life and Times of Frank Buckley’:
“Dorsett, a well-established and experienced footballer, had stood up to Major Buckley’s
insistence (some might say bullying) on a number of occasions.”
The ‘gland treatment’ was a course of twelve injections for each man, prepared by Menzies Sharp. The treatment was administrated by Dick Bradford, the club masseur (as illustrated in the cartoon). There were to be two courses per season and although the Major wished to keep it a secret, word soon got out. Rumours circulated that Wolves players were being injected with “gland extracts from animals”.
On 15th April, 1938, Dicky Dorsett and Dennis Westcott both scored four goals when Wolves beat Leicester City 10-1. After this defeat the Foxes complained to Montague Lyons, a Leicester member of the House of Commons that the Wolves players were being injected with monkey glands. Lyons demanded that the government instigate an investigation into this treatment.
When Walter Elliot, the Minister of Health, rejected this request, Labour MP Emanuel Shinwell suggested that considering Wolves’ impressive form, ministers of the Conservative government should be put on a course of these injections. The following season Tommy Lawton, who was a member of the Everton team that lost 7-0 to Wolves on 22nd February 1939, claimed that
these injections were improving the performance of the players.
Whether this was true or not it transpired that Wolves’ opponents in the 1939 FA Cup final had also been using glands. In an article titled ‘All in the Day’s Sport’ by Roland Allen, Menzies Sharp talked about the match:
“Both teams have been receiving exactly the same treatment. Each has benefited to the same extent from my gland extract from special bulls, rabbits and other animals. Wolves began the treatment first. Portsmouth came under treatment later.”
Investigation
The Football League carried out an investigation into the ‘monkey gland’ treatment. However, it refused to ban the injections but they did arrange for a circular to be posted in the dressing rooms of every club in England and Wales. This declared that players could take monkey glands but only on a voluntary basis.
Back to football – as the cartoonist depicts, Wolves enjoyed a good run in the FA Cup in 1939, beating Leicester City 5-1, Liverpool 4-1, Everton 2-0, and Grimsby Town 5-0 to reach the final against Pompey at Wembley on 29th April. They became the first club to play a final at five different grounds.
For the record, these were The Oval (1889), Fallowfield (Manchester) (1893), Crystal Palace (1896 and 1908), Stamford Bridge (1921), and Wembley (1939, 1949, and 1960).
Back to 1939, the fifth round tie on 11th February saw a record Molineux crowd of 61,305. The attendance of 76,962 for the semi-final with Grimsby at Old Trafford on 25th March was a then-record.
In the run to the final Dennis Westcott scored 11 times (including one four-timer and three doubles) in five games. Wolves netted on 19 occasions and they were red-hot favourites to take the cup. As for their underdog opponents it was their third final and they had lost the previous two, and they would only finish in 17th place in the Division 1 table.
However, as we well know Wolves’ fans were left tearful as they lost the final 4-1 with Dicky Dorsett scoring their only goal. Major Buckley’s Wolves became the first team in the history of English football to be runners-up in the sport’s two major competitions in the same year.
Conspiracies
As with any unexplained shock result, myths and conspiracies were rife after the event. The 1939 Cup Final had a few: heightened pre-match nerves; unusual travel plans and use of monkey glands as a performance enhancer.
Prior to the game it was tradition that the teams’ players signed an autograph book. The book was passed from one dressing room to the other. On receiving the book from the Wolves dressing room, Portsmouth captain Jimmy Guthrie
pointed out to his team mates that the Wolves players’ signatures were shaky and spidery. This gave belief to Guthrie and his team-mates that their opposition were nervous for the occasion.
Merv and Tim give a full coverage of the final and outline the key moments:
“Portsmouth took the lead nearing the thirty-minute mark when Bert Barlow, who had left Wolves to join Portsmouth only two months before the final, opened the scoring from inside the penalty area. John Anderson hooked in a second goal past Wolves keeper Alex Scott just before half-time from Jimmy Mcalinden’s cross.
“With the game 2-0 to the ‘underdogs’ at half-time it was important that Wolves started the second half well. So, Major Buckley must have been in despair as almost straight from the kick-off Alex Scott fumbled a tame shot and could only get one hand on the ball, and this allowed Cliff Parker to slide in and kick the ball away from Scott’s hand to make it
3-0.
“Wolves, in a desperate bid to get back into the game, did mount a minor recovery with Dickie Dorsett scoring his 29th goal of his season when his eight-yard shot beat Harry Walker in the Portsmouth goal.
“However, Portsmouth put the result beyond any doubt as Cliff Parker headed his second goal from winger Fred Worrall’s cross. The King and Queen were in attendance and it was Portsmouth captain Jimmy Guthrie who walked up the hallowed Wembley steps to receive the cup from King George VI and complete, at the time, one of the game’s biggest cup upsets.”
War
With the start of World War II just a few months away, this group of Molineux men would never be given the opportunity to atone for the missed opportunities of 1938-39.
However, for some there would be a War Cup success to celebrate, as we shall see next time.