Peter Knowles
Born: Frickley, Yorkshire, September 1945

Peter Knowles joined Wolves nursery side Wath Wanderers in 1961 and turned professional in October 1962. Twelve months later he made his league debut in a 1-0 win at Leicester City and the following season established himself as a first team regular. Sadly the club were relegated that season, but in 1965/66 Knowles was in fine form and scored 21 goals in 34 games including hat-tricks against Carlisle Utd (home 3-0) and Derby County (home 4-0). Wolves won promotion back to the 1st Division in 1966/67, Knowles was hampered by injuries but still managed to contribute 8 goals in 21 games that season. Knowles was capped 4 times by England at Under 23 level and looked likely to win full international honours. Then in 1970, after scoring 64 goals in 91 games he turned his back on football and became a Jehovah's Witness. Knowles was only 24 and his sudden departure from the game was a great shock to everyone.

James Mullen
Born : Newcastle-on-Tyne, 6th January 1923; Died: Wolverhampton, October 1987

Jimmy Mullen is the youngest player ever to appear for Wolves in a first team match. He was just 16 years and 43days old when he played in the 4-1 win over Leeds Utd on the 18th February 1939 in front of 32,000 fans. During the Second World War he helped Wolves win the Wartime League (North) Cup in 1942, and as well as "guesting" for Leicester City (with Billy wright), scored 27 goals in 87 games for Wolves. When League football resumed in 1946/47, the fast raiding left-winger appeared for Wolves for 13 seasons. He won the first of 12 caps for England when he played against Scotland in April 1947 and his last seven years later, when he scored against Switzerland in the World Cup. He also had the distinction of being England's first ever substitute when he replaced the injured Stan Mortensen against Belgium in May 1950. He scored in a 4-1 win. With Mullen on the left flank and Johnny Hancocks on the right, Wolves possessed the best pair of wingers in the Football League at that time. With Wolves, Mullen won three League Championship medals in 1953/54, 1957/58 and 1958/59 as well as an FA Cup winners medal in 1949. He played the last of his 486 league and cup games, in which he scored 112 goals, in March 1959 as Wolves beat Arsenal 6-1.

Steve Daley

An England International, Steve Daley joined Wolves as an apprentice and signed as a professional in 1971. It took him a number of seasons to establish a regular first-team place after making his debut as a substitute in a 4-2 win over Nottingham Forest in September 1971. In fact, when he did win a regular spot, Wolves were slipping out of the top flight in 1976 but he was an ever-present the following season and Wolves made a swift return to the First Division. He scored 13 goals, easily the best of his career. In the summer of 1978, Daley was selected for the England 'B' tour of Australia and won his first cap at that level in a 1-1 draw against Malaysia. After another season at Molineux, Daley, who had scored 43 goals in 244 games, joined Man City for a British record transfer fee of £1,437,500. Having spent a little over a year at Maine Road, he crossed the Atlantic to play for Seattle Sounders in the NASL. He later returned to England to play for Burnley, scoring a hat-trick for the Clarets in a 3-2 win over Port Vale. After another spell in America, he ended his league career with Walsall.

Steve 'The Tank'  Kindon

After starring in Burnley's FA Youth Cup run of 1967-68, Steve Kindon became the first member of the Clarets victorious Youth Cup side to establish himself in the First Division. He scored on his Turf Moor debut in a 3-1 victory over West Ham Utd, and after winning Youth international honours, he was ever-present in Burnley's First Division side of 1969-70, top-scoring with 17 goals. After the Lancashire club were relegated in 1971, Kindon was unable to sustain the form that his speed and talent warranted. He joined Wolves for a fee of £100,000 in the summer of 1972 and scored on his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle Utd on the opening day of the 1972-73 season. However, it took him a while to settle down in the Midlands and he only appeared briefly in the club's successful League Cup run in 1973-74, missing out on the final when Wolves beat Man City 2-1. Though the club were relegated at the end of the 1975-76 season, they bounced straight back as Second Division Champions  the following season with Kindon playing his part. He had scored 31 goals in 167 games for Wolves when he returned to Burnley in November 1977 for £80,000. He spent two more seasons at Turf Moor taking his goal tally to 58 in 225 games before joining Huddersfield Town where a knee injury ended his career.

William McIanny Carr
Born: Glasgow, 6th January 1950

Scottish International inside-forward Willie Carr began his career with Coventry City where he scored 33 goals in 252 league games during his eight years at Highfield Road. He joined Wolves in March 1975 for a fee of £80,000 and scored on his debut in a 7-1 home win over Chelsea. He went on to suffer relegation to Division 2 at the end of the 1975-76 season but then helped Wolves win the 2nd Division Championship at a canter in 1976-77. The period following promotion was another purple period in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers, with the FA Cup semi-final being reached twice and the League Cup won over a three-year period. He went on to score 26 goals in 289 league and cup games before leaving to join Millwall in the summer of 1982. After only eight league appearances for the Lions, he moved into non-league football playing for Worcester City, Willenhall Town and Stourbridge.
It was Willie accompanied by 'Ernie' Hunt (below) who invented that famous 'Donkey-kick' as seen on TV in the sixties which is nowadays banned on the professional front.

Roger Ernie Hunt
Born: Swindon, 17th March 1943

Ernie Hunt was working for British Rail when Swindon Town manager Bert Head signed him as an amateur in 1957. With the Wiltshire club, Hunt, whose real first name is Roger, won three England Under-23 caps and scored 82 goals in 214 league games before signing for Wolves in September 1965. He should have made his debut at Southampton but he decided that he wasn't fully match fit and watched from the stands as the Saints won 9-3! He did make his debut in the next match, creating goals for Knowles, Wagstaffe and Wharton in a 3-0 home win over Bury. The following season he helped Wolves win promotionto the 1st Division, top-scoring with 20 goals in 37 games including a hat-trick in a 4-0 win at Northampton Town. Hunt, who had an excellent scoring record for a midfielder, had found the net 35 times in 82 outings for Wolves before joining Everton for £80,000. Unable to settle at Goodison Park, he signed for Coventry City where he teamed up with a Wolves player of the future in Willie Carr (above). The two of them perfected the infamous 'Donkey-kick' which resulted in a spectacular goal on Match of the Day. Hunt scored 45 goals in 146 league games for the Sky Blues before a loan spell with Doncaster Rovers. He ended his career with Bristol City in 1975 and became Licensee of the 'Full Pitcher' pub in Ledbury, later switching to being a window cleaner in the same town where he also helped run a local junior team. 

Ronald Flowers
Born: Edlington, near Doncaster, 28th July 1934

Ron Flowers started his football career at Edlington Grammar School then playing for Doncaster & Yorkshire boys as a inside-forward, he then moved onto Doncaster Rovers as a amatuer where both his father and brother played. He then joined the Wolves nursery side, Wath Wanderers, in the summer of 1950 before turning professional two years later. He made his debut in September 1952 at home to Blackpool and, though the Seasiders won 5-2, Flowers headed one of Wolves goals. After helping the Molineux club win the League Championship in 1953-54, he began to produce performances that led to his winning the first of 49 caps for England when he played against France in May 1955. His last game in a England shirt came 11 years later in a 6-1 win over Norway, a year in which he was a member of England's World Cup winning squad. Flowers won further League Championship medals in 1957-58 and 1958-59 and in 1960 won a FA Cup winners medal when Wolves beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0. He spent 15 years as a professional at Molineux and scored 37 goals in 512 games before joining Northampton Town in September 1967. He later became player coach of the Cobblers before becomming player-manager of non-league Wellington Town. By the time he had guided them to the FA Trophy final they had been renamed Telford United, but in 1971 he left the club to run his own sports shop in Wolverhampton.

Bobby Thomson

Left-back Bobby Thomson was a polished defender whose performances in schoolboy football led to a number of Midlands clubs trying to sign him. Wolves won the chase and he made his debut in a 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round defeat at home to West Brom in front of 46,411 fans at Molineux. He soon established himself as a first-team regular and developed into a international layer, gaining eight full caps for England before he was 22. He also appeared for the England Under-23s and the Football League, and he helped Wolves win promotion to the 1st Division in 1966-67. But in March 1969 after playing in 300 games for Wolves, he joined Birmingham City for £40,000. After making 68 league appearances for the Blues, where he also had a spell on loan with Walsall, he joined Luton Town before ending his league career with Port Vale. He then dropped into non-league football as a player-manager of Stafford Rangers before leaving to run a sports shop in Sedgley.

If you would like a player added to Old Gold or have any information I have missed on the players please contact me