Making Room For Another Couple Of Favourites

Another match-day, another brace of inductees – Saturday mornings have taken on a pleasurable new twist in these tense weeks of spring.

Mike Stowell and Jack Davies are the latest Molineux stalwarts announced as being on their way into Wolves’ hall of fame.

With the celebration dinner less than two weeks away, supporters find themselves doffing their caps to two men at opposite ends of the public awareness scale.

In addition to appearing in more games in Wolves’ goal than any other man in history, Stowell has spent approaching two decades on the senior coaching staff at Leicester, playing a full part in the winning of both the Premier League in 2015-16 and the FA Cup in 2021 and some journeys deep into Europe.

He has had an outstanding career in the game on and off the pitch and remains highly popular with Wolves fans, who probably wonder why some of that backroom expertise and loyalty couldn’t have been brought to bear in the West Midlands rather than the East Midlands.

Molineux and Compton would have been top of the keeper’s list of preferred workplaces when he hung his gloves up after a stint at Bristol City early in the new millennium.

For whatever reason, the door did not open here for him, though, and he had to look elsewhere to pursue his coaching ambitions and embark on an amazing journey that has included around half a dozen stints in caretaker management at Leicester, including one very recently at the side of Adam Sadler following the departure of Brendan Rodgers.

Stowell, who played 441 League and cup games for Wolves, is the second keeper after Phil Parkes to be named in the growing batch of new inductees, with Bert Williams and Malcolm Finlayson having taken their places in this elite group long ago.

While the 57-year-old remains very much on view on match-days, the inclusion of Jack Davies on the list is a nod to one of the unsung heroes of distant past decades.

We wrote on here in 2019 about the longevity of a man who filled the role of trainer at Molineux for most of his life.

We certainly know a lot more about him as a result of the fine ‘Training With Wolves’ book written by his grandson, Mervyn Davies, and Tim Gibbons nearly four years ago, not least with the crucial impact he had on the Molineux careers of the young Billy Wright and Stan Cullis.

It must have seemed Jack was around Molineux for ever, having started at the club in 1920 and still been there in the 1970s. And so much of his work was invisible to the masses.

So, with Stowell and Davies announced today and Robbie Dennison, Joe Gardiner, Phil Parkes and Alf Bishop over the last fortnight, that’s six down with two to go – and they are due to be revealed next Saturday.

*A fuller article on Mike Stowell by David Instone appears in the Express & Star today at Wolves Hall of Fame: Wolves were in safe hands with Mike Stowell in their goal | Express & Star (expressandstar.com) while Steve Gordos’s in-depth look at Jack Davies can be viewed at Wolves Hall of Fame tales: Stalwart Jack Davies played a key role behind the scenes | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)