“Champions of the World”
Legendary manager Stan Cullis took over in 1947 and helped Wolves win their third FA Cup – taking down Leicester City 3-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium. Cullis, together with England captain Billy Wright, led Wolves throughout the 1950s – the most successful period in the club’s history.
Wolves won their first league championship title in the 1953–54 season, while at the same time they became one of the clubs in Britain to install floodlights to their stadium.
Wolves played a number of ‘floodlit friendlies’ against some of the top sides in Europe – the most famous match saw Wolves defeat Honvéd 3-2, whose team included many Hungarian national team players who had just beaten England twice. The result led the national media to proclaim Wolves as “Champions of the World”. But others, including Gabriel Hanot – the editor of French magazine L'Équipe, wanted a competition where the best teams in Europe would play each other.
This paved the way for the creation of the European Cup, now known as the Champions League, with Wolves one of the first British clubs to take part. Two further league championship titles were won by the club in the 1957–58 and 1958–59 seasons, before another FA Cup – Wolves’ fourth and most recent – was added to the trophy cabinet in 1960.