When We Were Kings
By Stuart Smith
November 28 2005
In 1953 Wolverhampton Wanderers erected the first set of floodlights in England. Towards the end of that summer they held a friendly against a South African representative side. But Stan Cullis had bigger and better teams in his sights.
Post war Britain in the fifties was an austere place. English football lurched from one disaster to another. A 1-0 defeat at the hands of USA in 1950 at their first World Cup Finals. Three years later The Flying Magyars of Hungary inflicted a humiliating 3-6 loss on the national side at Wembley A year after that in the return match in Hungary it got worse, with a 7-1 defeat at the hands of the same team and Later that year they were given a footballing lesson in the World Cup Quarter Finals at the hands of Uruguay, losing 4-2.
The nation, and its football fans were in dire need of a team to lift their spirits. And so it was that Cullis organised a series of friendlies that would shake up not just Europe, but The World.
Setting his sights high, Cullis invited four of the best teams in Europe to play floodlit friendlies at Molineux against the side he had fashioned to dominate domestic football.
First up were Spartak Moscow on November 16th 1954. A week earlier the team from the USSR had beaten Arsenal at Highbury. The 52/53 English Champions being swept aside 2-1. Stan Cullis men sent out a signal of their intent in a magnificent 4-0 victory.
Next came the team then widely accepted to be the best in the World, Honved of Hungary featuring superstars Puskas, Kocsis, Czibor and Bozsik, and in total, 6 of the players who had humiliated the national team earlier that year. On a never to be forgotten cold December night the team, captained by Billy Wright, came from behind to win 4-3, cementing the clubs place in the heart of a young local lad John Hayward.
Almost twelve months later in November 1955 Cullis brought the impressive Moscow Dynamo to Molineux, their side featuring deadly striker Kuznetsof at one end, and the worlds best goalkeeper Lev Yashin at the other. But Dynamo could do no more than those before them, and left Wolverhampton licking their wounds after suffering a 2-1 loss to the men of Wolverhampton.
It seemed things couldnt get any better, After the victory over Honved the English press had spoken in raptures saying
"Even St. George in his shining armour could not have fought more gallanty for England. And Wolves had all England, yes, and all the English speaking world, behind them when they did it."
How could this be beaten? Was there anyone left for Cullis' men to conquer? Enter the mighty Real Madrid.
On 17th October 1957 the men in white came to Wolverhampton, bringing with them Gento, Kopa, Santamaria and the man still considered by some to be the best all round player of all time, Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano. Could these footballing giants, holders and already 2 time winners of the European Cup finally put paid to Cullis belief that his Wolves were the best club side in The World?
Cullis' men sealed their place in history with a 3-2 victory over the team who would go on to win the first 5 European Cups.
The FA's decision not to allow an English team to enter the early European Cups, prefering to concentrate on the domestic game denied Cullis' men the chance to prove his claims in a recognised competition. But anyone that saw his Wolves side of the 50's take on the best the world had to offer will tell you. They all came to Wolverhampton, and they all left beaten men.
As Stan said to the press as his team left the field having beating Puskas' Honved.
"There they are. The Champions Of The World"