First New Inductees Announced

Robbie Dennison is to become part of Wolves’ cherished hall of fame following the long hiatus in adding to the cream of the Molineux crop.

The genial Irishman, who turns 60 this spring, will be the fourth member of the Sherpa Van Trophy-winning team from Wembley in 1988 to be honoured.

Steve Bull was a founder inductee in 2009, his long-time strike partner Andy Mutch followed in 2013 and Andy Thompson was among the batch who took their places four years after that.

Now they soon have one of their best mates to keep them company at a time when the hall of fame is about to receive its biggest intake so far.

The Molineux management were able to recruit regularly and effectively from Albion in the mid-1980s, with all but Mutch of that quartet having not only served Wolves’ arch rivals but also played first-team football for them.

Dennison made 20 appearances in stripes following his capture from Glenavon by Johnny Giles in 1985, then became a major part of the thrilling renaissance on this side of the divide.

With a penchant for scoring spectacular goals as well as creating many others with his work from the wings, he was a regular in the successive winning of the Fourth and Third Division titles. In between, he scored a beauty in the Sherpa Van final at Wembley and continued as a mainstay of the side who achieved respectability and more back in the Second Division.

He went on to clock up a huge appearance tally of 353 – a total bettered by only 21 men in Wolves’ history.

His elevation to this elite corner of Molineux history will be well received by fans and team-mates alike. He was hugely popular during his career here and was a natural in the local radio summariser role he fulfilled at matches for several seasons later on.

The man who brought him to the club, Graham Turner, is another from the revival years to have been inducted (in 2010) and someone else with huge experience on the Molineux sidelines, Joe Gardiner, is being similarly honoured now as well.

The north-easterner served the club for half a century, first as a player who was part of the beaten Wolves team in the 1939 FA Cup final, then as trainer – a position that effectively made him assistant to Stan Cullis – and finally as a scout.

Gardiner’s record of 139 League and Cup games for the club barely does him justice as he lost so much of his playing career to the 1939-45 hostilities, although he had dozens of outings in the wartime competitions in gold and black as well as others as a guest player elsewhere.

We will be bringing our readers more content about these two favourites in the days and weeks leading up to the hall of fame dinner on Friday, April 28. In the meantime, an in-depth piece on Joe, by Steve Gordos, appears here http://www.wolvesfpa.com/hall-of-fame-joe-gardiner/ and David Instone’s similar tribute to Robbie can be found at http://www.wolvesfpa.com/hall-of-fame-robbie-dennison/