Kings In Kansas

How Wolves Rocked The City England Have Adopted As Home

This has been a difficult and sad Wolves week – and how we needed the extra fillip provided by Raul Jimenez’s killer goal for Mexico two nights ago. At a time when there has been both controversy and mourning around Molineux, the newly-returned striker has given us reason to look ahead to the World Cup with a little more relish. Once again, there is quite a Mexican following among us!  

Wolves players, with Mike Bailey at the front and Derek Parkin, Hugh Curran and Gerry Taylor behind, wait for the completion of the pre-match formalities in America in 1969.

Where Wolves tread and conquer, the England team follow…..eventually!

Kansas City, the base from which Bill McGarry’s men struck out to win a 1969 tournament in the USA, has today become home to Thomas Tuchel’s squad of World Cup hopefuls.

Following the friendly victories in Florida against New Zealand and Costa Rica, our national team have decamped to the middle of the country, from which they will fly west and then east on Group L duty.

There won’t be any match-day sightings of them in the state of Missouri, though, with our group games taking place in Dallas, Boston and New York.

Wolves, by contrast, were frequently on public view in Kansas 57 summers ago and frequent winners there.

If McGarry’s players thought they had undertaken a long journey by going to the north-east to complete their 1968-69 season with games against Sunderland and Newcastle in the space of 48 hours, a real eye-opener lay around the corner.

Just over a week later, they were Baltimore-bound via Bangor in Maine and soon using Kansas as both a base and a home venue.

England will use the Swope Park training complex during their stay – a venue originally used by the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs in the late 1960s and therefore known to Wolves’ players during their visit. 

But Harry Kane & Co have found themselves playing second fiddle to World Cup holders Argentina, who had first call on the best training facilities in the city due to the fact they are actually playing a game in Kansas. Holland are also in the viccinity and playing a game there. 

John Holsgrove and Les Wilson, survivors from Wolves’ triumphant LA-based American tour in 1967, prepare for lift-off again two years later. This and the other two photos appearing alongside this article, are from David Instone’s Wolves All Over The World book.

So what will Tuchel’s players find in a city that appealed to the FA and team management because of its central location? 

Author Clive Corbett spoke at length to John Holsgrove for his Those Were The Days book and, when researching the summer of ’69, was told by the lanky defender: “Kansas City was a nice place but would never be as good as Los Angeles had been (two summers earlier).

“The hotel was almost like a Travel Lodge. I told Bill McGarry I didn’t rate it and he stormed out. We went to Atlanta at the weekend and stayed in the same hotel as Villa (managed by Tommy Docherty). It was like the seventh wonder of the world, with lifts on the outside. We couldn’t believe it.

“After beating Villa, we flew back to Kansas and, on the coach, McGarry stood up and said: ‘By the way, lads, we’re moving hotels. Go in, get your gear and we’re off to the Hilton.’ He never said a word to me about it….he wasn’t going to admit it.”

Wolves needed to find a little more room among their belongings en route home from Kansas City. The reason? The tournament trophy pictured here.

It was through another win over Villa that Wolves secured the title, their impact on their adopted home being recognised whe the Mayor of Kansas presented each member of the squad with Certificates of Citizenship.

There was also a watch for the young and emerging John McAlle after he was named as player of the tournament.

Will England’s players use the 10 or 11-day span of their Group L programme well enough to make the same sort of happy memories?