On Saturday 20th February 1965 Wolves travelled to Villa Park, Bobby Woodruff scored for Wolves in a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup 5th Round. That day Wolves played in their regulation gold shirts, black shorts and gold socks. The first replay took place on Wednesday 24th February 1965 at Molineux. 47, 929 supporters that evening saw something different with the Wolves strip.
The Express & Star, the following day printed the usual brilliant match report but also a smaller article at the bottom with the headline.
'THAT ALL GOLD STRIP'
The article states that Wolves wore their 'attractive all-gold strip in the cup replay last night' and that Wolves manager Andy Beattie had produced one of the pairs of shorts the day before the game and asked the players if they would like to wear them. The players agreed. One reason given in the report was the players could see each other more easily and quickly than they would in the darker shorts. This is interesting as it is a similar reason to why we moved away from Old Gold in 1954 to as it was described at the time, a brighter shade of gold.
The articles stated that it hadn’t been decided if this change would stay and become the regular strip. Pictorial evidence shows Wolves wore the gold shorts in the second replay. A Hugh McIlmoyle hattrick saw Wolves beat Villa 3-1 at the Hawthorns. The shorts remained for the rest of the season. Wolves also wore the 'THAT ALL GOLD STRIP' in the 1965/66, 1966/67, 1967/68 & 1968/69. LA Wolves also wore it in 1967.
Peter Knowles played for Wolves during this period. Many pictures of Knowles in a Wolves strip show him wearing gold shorts. Knowles would have played central league and youth team games in the black shorts and would have worn them when he made his debut in 1963/64. Knowles would have also worn black shorts in the brief period he played in 1969/70 before his retirement in September 1969. The vast majority of Knowles first team games however would have been in gold shorts
Since 1891 Wolves have worn gold & black. These colours are now engrained into our history. From 1891 to 1931 many different versions of gold and black can be seen with many different designs such as stripes, diagonal halves, pin stripes. The socks were also black. We even had a few seasons in the 1920s where the shorts were white. We can see skipper George Getgood leading out the Wolves side during that season in white shorts. We also wore white shorts from 1925 to 1930.
In 1931 Wolves began to wear a darker shade of gold or more commonly known as 'Old Gold'. This lasted until 1954. Despite the change in 1954/55 to the brighter shade of gold as it was referred to in the programmes, one or two photos do show we did wear the old gold on occasions that season too. It then seems to disappear until the final Goodyear kit (2000-2002). The shirt however from 1954 in the main was the lighter and brighter gold. The shirt worn by the 1954 league winners is a totally different shade to that of the 1958 & 1959 champions. We also see the Rayon shirt in this era too.
In May 1969 Wolves returned to the USA to compete in North American Soccer League as the Kansas City Spurs. Wolves again were victorious but this time the black shorts returned, and this is detailed in the matchday programme. The 1969/70 season saw Wolves return to the more traditional black shorts.
It wasn’t just Wolves in the 1960s that made a change like this. Leeds United moved to all white in 1960. Previous they had played in yellow and blue similar to the Leeds Rhinos Rugby League side. On 25th November 1964 Liverpool played Anderlecht in the European Cup at Anfield. It was the first time Liverpool wore red shorts rather than white. Leeds & Liverpool have never changed back. The recent trip to Liverpool and Wolves attire that day gave the game a very 1960s vibe.
The gold shorts at Wolves have never disappeared. They have since been used as change shorts away from home. In the modern era away shirts/thirds shirts are worn more often. Previously they were merely change shirts. Wolves would wear the away/change shirt at places like Hull City, Bradford City, Oxford United, Watford and Newport County. Newport County is a very interesting one indeed which we will look at next month.
Wolves have worn gold shorts at many away game since 1969 at places such as Bolton Wanderers, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Sunderland, Derby County. Wolves have also worn the Gold shorts on various trips to the Hawthorns and other places too. The gold shorts have also been worn this season at Leicester City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Blackburn in the FA Cup & most recently at Anfield. In the main they have been used against sides who wear black or very dark shorts.
There has also been times when Wolves have gone back to the white shorts with the gold shirts away from home too bringing back the 1920s vibes. The white shorts were worn with the gold shirts in both FA Cup away ties with Chorley in November 1986. We also wore the white shorts at Preston in November 1987, when Wolves tackled the famous plastic pitch of Deepdale. This may well have been due to the fact the club was still recovering financially and they may not have been any gold shorts available. There is certainly no pictures or any signs of gold shorts to accompany the Staw Distribution Shirt worn from November 1986 to May 1988. We also had to borrow Sheffield United’s white shorts in our trip in the Zenith Data Systems Cup in 1989. We did have gold shorts that season as we wore them in the following game up at Sunderland. It is highly likely the incident at Sheffield United was merely an error and the wrong shorts were packed.
There was the game at the Manor Ground in 1992 where Wolves also borrowed the red Oxford away shorts to go with our blue away shirts. We also wore a strange combination at Watford in October 2008. The gold shorts that day were worn with the black away shirt. The same was worn against Besiktas Away in the Europa League group game in October 2019. This looked very smart. At Watford however in 2009 it simply did not match at all with the fluorescent sponsor and trim of our black away shirt that year.
We have found so much imagery of us wearing the gold shorts over the years. Here are 3 examples. The first is of 1966-67 promotion squad. Two also away from home, Ally Robertson at Bury on the opening day of the 1988-89 season. Our personal favourite has to be Kevin Ashley donning not only the All Gold but the all “Tyremark” during the 1992-1993 campaign. There are many more images from all the eras too.
Happy 60th birthday to 'THAT ALL GOLD STRIP'.
By Peter Crump
