Wolves’ exclusive 300 Club
CLIVE CORBETT brings us Part 26 of his tribute to the small group of players who gave the best years of their careers to Wolverhampton Wanderers
4 – William Ambrose Wright CBE
Born: Ironbridge on 6 February 1924 Died 3 September 1994 Wolves 1939-1959 Club Honours: Division 1 champions (1953-54, 19571958, 1958-59) FA Cup (1949). Hall of Fame (2009) Appearances (Goals) League 490 (13), FA Cup 48 (3), Other 3 Total 541 (16)
BILLY Wright’s association with Wolverhampton Wanderers began in 1938 at just 14 years old, making his debut in a ‘B’ team game against Walsall Wood.
He remembered his first hours at Molineux: “90 minutes after leaving my Ironbridge home, I was out on the pitch with the rest of the ground staff boys. Groundsman Albert Tye told us: ‘All I want you to do is to clear the grass off the pitch and put the clippings in a sack. So much for the glamour of football.”
Billy was soon given the nickname of Snowy by player for his shock of blond hair.
The following July his six-month trial with the club came to an end and manager Major Frank Buckley decided that Billy was too short and frail to cope with the physical demands of the First Division, and sent him home.
In their book, Training with Wolves, and assert that it was Merv’s grandfather, Wolves trainer Jack Davies, who changed Buckley’s mind and saved what would be a glittering career for the lad from Ironbridge.
Later that year Wright
Tom Galley, Merv Davies Tim Gibbons
made his first-team debut in a friendly against Albion on September 23, 1939, when Wolves won 5-3 at the Hawthorns. A week later he scored two goals when Wolves won 4-1 at
Billy scored two second-half goals in that game and at 15 is believed to be the youngest goalscorer in a Wolves first team game. In both games Billy played on the left wing.
Notts County. Loaned
Billy, then an insideforward, was loaned out to Leicester City, along with Jimmy Mullen. Between them they scored 23 goals and helped the Foxes to beat Walsall to win the Midland War Cup final.
Wright turned professional during the war, on his 17th birthday, but fractured an ankle in 1942, an injury that threatened to bring his career to a premature end. But the expertise of trainer Jack Davies and hard work on Billy’s part saw him overcome this setback, and during the conflict he served as a corporal in the Shropshire Light Infantry and played 21 inter-services games and four Victory internationals.
Billy made his firstteam debut in an FA Cup third round first leg match away to Lovells Athletic (the works team for the sweet factory in Newport, Monmouthshire) on Saturday 5th January 1946. Wolves won 4-2 and were also victorious in the return to secure a 12-3 aggregate success. His first league start came in the number six shirt on 31st August 1946 in a 6-1 defeat of Arsenal at Molineux, a match which also saw first Wolves appearances for Bert Williams, Johnny Hancocks and Jesse Pye. Incredibly, Wright made
his full England debut just 28 days later in a 7-2 win over Northern Ireland in Belfast. A first league goal for Wolves came five days after that as Wolves overcame Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park.
Captain
Handed the captaincy by Stan Cullis in 1947, Wright led Wolves to three Division 1 titles (1953-54, 1957-58, 195859) and an FA Cup triumph in 1949 during the greatest period in the club’s history. He spent his whole playing career at Wolves, never being cautioned, sent off or dropped from the team. Indeed, he only missed matches due to injury or international call-ups.
Wright’s performance in the first semi-final in 1949 against Manchester United at Hillsborough was the stuff of legends as injuries reduced Wolves to nine men, and it was fitting that he should receive the cup from Princess Elizabeth at Wembley on 30th April 1949.
He led Wolves in a number of the prestigious floodlit friendlies, notably against Spartak and Honved, and was converted from wing-half to centre-half in the 1954-55 season. He was chosen as Footballer of the Year in 1952, and also published numerous books, including Captain of England (1950), The World’s My Football Pitch (1953), and Football Is My Passport (1957).
Billy captained England for the first time in his 16th full international, on 9th October 1948 away to
Northern Ireland. In total he led his country in a then-world record ninety matches (later equalled by Bobby Moore), a period that included their campaigns at the finals of 1950, 1954 and 1958 World Cups. He also played for England in 70 successive games, all as captain, and missed only three matches in 13 seasons as an England player, all in the 1950-51 season.
He was the first footballer in the world to earn 100 international caps when he skippered England against Scotland at Wembley on 11th April 1959. Only eight players have since got into three figures for England appearances.
Retirement
Wright played his last match for Wolves on 22nd April 1959 in a 3-0 home win over Leicester City and for his country on 28th May against the USA, unexpectedly announcing his retirement from the game on 7th August of that year. 20,000 turned out at Molineux three days later to witness Billy’s final outing in a Wolves shirt, in a public practice match between Whites and Colours.
His total of 490 league appearances for the club was overhauled by fellow 300 Club member Derek Parkin in March 1982.
Billy was awarded the CBE for services to football on 13th June 1959 and was later made a life member of the Football Association. The following year he became manager of England’s youth team. He was appointed manager of Arsenal on 16th March 1962, having originally been chosen as
Winterbottom’s assistant manager for the 1962 World Cup finals. He spent four years at Highbury and after leaving became a television pundit and head of sport for ATV and controller of sport for Central Television, before retiring in 1989.
Billy enjoyed the rare distinction of being honoured twice on This Is Your Life, being surprised by Eamonn Andrews in 1961 and then by Michael Aspel in 1990.
In May of that year Sir Jack Hayward revealed that he wanted Billy to become a director of the club: “If I buy the club, I will ask Billy to join the board. He is the greatest player Wolves have ever had.”
When Sir Jack re-developed Molineux, the Billy Wright Stand was officially opened on 25th August 1993 before a match against Millwall.
Walter Statue
Billy Wright died on 3rd September 1994 from pancreatic cancer and on 21st February the following year a statue created by sculptor was unveiled outside the stand that bears his name.
Billy was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game.
James Butler Tributes Ferenc Puskas, Honved:
“Billy Wright is a good friend of mine as well as a respected opponent. I told him after the match (Honved 1954) that he should be proud to be captain of such an outstanding team. We have not come up against a better club side.”
Admiring
Mike Bailey: “I particularly remember admiring Billy in a match against West Ham at Upton Park. The ball was rolling out of play for a goal kick but Billy stopped it and played the ball out from the back. He wasn’t under any pressure and just controlled and passed it out to the right winger. I really admired that.”
Malcolm “He was the best reader of a game. He was already moving to the ball before the opposition had passed it. He could read the game and see where the ball was going to be put.”
Roy Swinbourne: “I’ve never seen anybody so enthusiastic about the game as Billy. He’d got a boyish enthusiasm for training, for everything he did with football.”
Dennis Wilshaw: “His captaincy was by example. He wasn’t a captain who used to get on to us on the pitch. What Billy did was reach a standard that was very high and he kept to that week after week. That was what made him such a great player to have in your side”
Bert Williams: “You knew very well with Billy that he was going to cover more ground than two players. He was a genuinely nice person, a downto-earth person.”
Finlayson: