Johnny Hancocks may have been below average height for a footballer but he had the heart of a giant and for ten years he thrilled crowds all over England with his. speedy wing play, unstoppable shots and never-say-die spirit. He was to become a part of the Molineux folklore, a name forever associated with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

  John Hancocks was born on April 30th 1919, in Oakengates. His football days, whilst at school, saw him playing as centre-half and inside left. He played in the Wrekin Schools team before, at the tender age of fifteen, he made his debut for Oakengates Town in the Birmingham League. In October, 1938, Johnny joined Walsall, a partnership soon to be disrupted by the Second World War. He joined the army and spent his time with them as a P.T. instructor.

  During the war he made several appearances for the army in representative games and also guested for Wrexham and Shrewsbury Town. Johnny's last game for Walsall was at Chelsea when the Saddlers took on Bournemouth in the Division Three South Cup final.

  On the 11th May 1946, Wolves handed £4,000 over to their neighbours and Johnny Hancocks became a Wolves man. Rebuilding after the war was in full swing and the next day the club signed the man whom Johnny was to provide with countless crosses, Jesse Pye, for £12,000 from Notts County. Johnny got to know his new team-mates on a close season match tour of Sweden. And the team were certainly in unison for his debut, which was against Arsenal at Molineux on the Saturday that peacetime football resumed in this country. The Gunners were well and truly hammered by six goals to one, with Pye notching a hat-trick in front of 50,845 fans, who immediately took to the 27-year-old debutant wearing the number seven shirt on the right wing.

  Six-one was a significant total because, on 12th October that season, Huddersfield Town limped away from Molineux having succumbed to that score, and Johnny got his first goal in that game. In that first season he only missed two games and scored two goals. Wolves, of course, missed out on the League by losing the final match of the season at home to Liverpool. 

  The following campaign saw Hancocks finish as joint leading scorer on sixteen goals with Pye. The fans marvelled at the power that dispatched free kicks and penalties into the net from the feet of the little man. In 1948 he was awarded the first of his three caps when he was picked to play for his country against Switzerland at Highbury, where he netted two of England's six goals. 1949 saw him play against Wales, but in April that year Johnny won his first club honour when Wolves defeated Leicester City in the F.A. Cup Final.

  It was he who provided the cross for Pye to bullet a header into the net, surely one of the best goals ever seen at Wembley. Johnny's final cap was awarded when he faced Yugoslavia, again at Highbury.

  It was at Highbury that Wolves met Portsmouth in October, 1949, in the F.A. Charity Shield and Johnny scored Wolves' goal in a drawn game. But for the team the season was to prove another one of 'so near yet so far' with regard to the league. Having finished third, fifth and sixth in the three respective peacetime seasons, this time they ended the term as runners-up to Portsmouth on goal average.

  The start of the new decade saw Wolves' fortunes slip somewhat and despite the fact that Johnny rattled in another 19 goals, they dropped down the league to finish in 14th place and missed a return trip to Wembley, losing narrowly to Newcastle in a semi-final replay. That season Johnny got his first hat-trick for the club against the Albion at Molineux. The following two seasons saw Wolves finish 16th and then third, but, at last, in 1953/54 they got the reward their football deserved when they won the League Championship. Only seven men scored the 96 goals amassed that season, with Johnny and Roy Swinbourne in second place with 24 behind top scorer Dennis Wilshaw on 26.

  Johnny collected another hat-trick in the 8-1 Molineux mauling of Chelsea. 1954/5 saw the team finish as runners-up once again. This time he finished as top scorer for Wolves with twenty-seven goals, one of them coming in the thrilling four-all draw with West Bromwich Albion in the Charity Shield. One more season and eighteen more goals saw him finish as top scorer again, then surprisingly, and much to the chagrin of the Molineux faithful, Wolves signed Harry Hooper and replaced the diminutive winger.

  After a season playing for the reserves Johnny left Molineux and joined Wellington Town as player-manager. In 1960 he joined Cambridge United, then after a brief spell with Oswestry Town, ended his playing days with GKN Sankeys at the finish of the 1960/1 season. Following the hanging up of his child sized boots, he worked in an ironfounders in his home town of Oakengates until he retired in 1979. He was a regular at functions involving former Wolves' stars until ill health took a hold. On 19th February, 1994, Johnny Hancocks away passed peacefully.

WOLVES PLAYING CAREER 1946-1956
League Appearances 343 Goals 157
FA Cup Appearances 33 Goals 8
League Cup Appearances 2 Goals 2
TOTAL APPEARANCES 378 GOALS 167