Stan Cullis made his professional football debut with Wolverhampton Wanderers on 16th February 1935. Despite impressing the manager he had to wait until the 1936/37 season before he became the first choice replacement for Bill Morris in defence for Wolves.
He successfully led the club to become one of the top teams in England, although they also became the third team to achieve the infamous ‘Double Horror’ after losing their grip on the league top spot with a dreadful end of season run, before losing the FA Cup final 4 – 1 in the same season in 1939.
With the timing of the second world war, much of Cullis prime was lost and he only received 12 full caps including one as captain.
It has been claimed that when England played Germany in 1938 in Berlin, Cullis was the only player in the England squad to refuse to perform a Nazi salute. He was then dropped from the team in a match England won 6 – 3.
Following the war he played a final season for Wolves, who again fell just short of claiming the league title. He announced his retirement at the end of the season through injury, and became the assistant manager of the club to Ted Vizard.
In 1948 at the age of 31 he became the manager of Wolves and oversaw the most successful time in the club’s history to date. In his first year in charge he became the youngest manager to win the FA Cup, and five years later he helped the club to their first league title.
With another two league titles and a further FA Cup to his name, the club began to struggle in the 1960s and he was eventually sacked in 1964. After saying he would not return to the game again, he decided to take up the post as manager of Birmingham City in 1965, and eventually retired from the game in 1970.
He passed away in 2001, and now has a statue and stand at Molineux.
