The Forgotten Legends of Football: Billy Wright

‘Billy Wright, the man, is a human being of exemplary character. Billy Wright, the footballer, is a national treasure’– The Times.

The first golden boy of English football in the post-war era, Billy Wright, set standards of excellence on and off the field that were aspired to subsequently, and upheld, by equally godlike successors such as Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore. Blessed with boundless enthusiasm, utter reliability and good looks, Wright was a target for hero-worship even in the days before the influence of media became all powerful. If he would have been plying his trade today, he would never have been off the front and back pages of the tabloids.

Born as William Ambrose Wright, in Ironbridge, Shropshire; He started playing football for Madeley Senior School as a centre forward. An outstanding young footballer who once scored 10 goals in a single game. Encouraged by his school teacher Mr. Norman Simpson, he responded to an advert for trial at Wolverhampton Wanderers. According to a popular tale from the trial, the then club manager ‘martinet of Molineux’ Major Frank Buckley at first thought Wright was too small to make the grade but eventually relented, and Wright joined the ground staff as a boot boy on a wage of £2 per week.

Wright made his first team debut for the club aged just 15 in a 2-1 win at Notts County during the 1938-39 season. But just a few months later World War 2 broke out and league football was suspended. Billy signed professional forms at 17 in February 1941. There was some regionalised wartime football and he played as a guest for Leicester City, but his career proper was very much on hold. When he became old enough to join the war, he joined the army as a P.T. instructor and rose to the rank of Sergeant before the war ended. He played several war-time matches for Wolves and Leicester, but it was the end of the war that saw the start of Billy’s career.

With the war over, Billy’s rise to fame began. Soon he was the captain of the Wolves side. That was followed by his first England call-up and on 28th September 1946, aged 22 years 234 days, he won his first cap for England. In 1948 he was made captain of England.

Throughout the late 1940′s and 1950′s Billy captained Wolves and England. The glittering statistics of his 18 year playing career tell much of the story: three League Championship medals (1954, 1958 and 1959) and a FA Cup winners medal (1949) with his beloved club, Wolves. Eleven British Home Championship winners medals with the England team; 1952 Footballer of the Year and runner up to the great Alfredo di Stefano for the 1956-57 Ballon d’Or.

What the catalog of success does not reveal is all the hard work and determination that went into it. Wright made the grade by refusing to take no for an answer. Not much more than 5ft 9in tall, Wright began professional football as an inside-forward before switching to wing-half and by the time he reached the pinnacle of his career, he had become a centre-half, the position where he really made a name for himself and enjoyed most of his success.

Triumphing against the odds was perhaps the key to his success. Although short for a centre-half, he made up for his lack of inches with remarkable spring in his heels. He could lift his muscular frame high above any opponent in duels of the sky and could conjure up ridiculously long hang times. He was a genius in reading the game and had an exceptional ability to guess what the opponents planned to do. Time and again he would break up attacks with perfectly timed tackles and interceptions.

The Rt. Hon. Ken Purchase MP said, “I was fortunate to see Billy play, he was tremendous and a real gentleman too. Although he was only 10 stones in weight, he was 10 tons in a tackle.

He achieved some remarkable feats which in the time he played football should have been improbable if not impossible. Despite playing a majority of his career in the defensive ranks, in a professional career totaling almost 700 games, he was ‘never once’ either cautioned or sent off by any referee. He holds an equally remarkable record for the most consecutive international caps – 70; And missed only three England matches during an international career that spanned 105 caps.

Billy Wright was an inspiration to all the players around him and all who played against him. He trained extremely hard, but always had time to help the younger members of the team. As a captain, he led by example. Perhaps that is the reason why he jointly holds the record for the most caps for England as a captain – 90.

An England captain, with blond good looks, who became a legend and a fan favourite while still playing, married to a pop star. Yes, Billy Wright and his wife Joy Beverley of the Beverley Sisters singing group were the ‘Posh and Becks’ of their day and huge crowds flocked to see them wherever they went. Billy was also the first player to enter the world of celebrity endorsements, advertising famous hair and soap products.

His retirement unleashed a nationwide explosion of public praise for English football’s finest son. In 1959 he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire), by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Billy hung up his boots and tried management. In 1960 Wright was appointed as manager of England’s youth team. Two years later, Billy went on to manage Arsenal, his boyhood heroes, for four years, and then in 1966 moved into TV, retiring in 1989. Next year he was back at Wolves, as a director for the Molineux men.

In 1993, when Wolves redeveloped the Molineux Stadium, the main stand was named Billy Wright Stand. The club also commissioned a 15ft high bronze statue of Billy that was erected 3 years later, outside the stand, in front of the clubs main entrance. Sadly Billy never lived to see this wonderful tribute to him. He died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 70, and his adopted home town of Wolverhampton came to a standstill for his funeral as fans paid their respects.

The stand and the statue might be the materialistic symbols signifying that the club’s favourite son will always be remembered. But just the name of this footballing hero is guaranteed to moisten the eye of any Wolves fan.

This Shropshire lad broke record after record in a truly remarkable career. The Football League’s website describes him as ‘arguably the greatest club and country servant in the history of the game’ – praise indeed for a man who was the first player in the world to win a 100 international caps, with a reputation as a gentleman both on and off the pitch.