But for the Second World War, Stan Cullis would surely have become one of the few footballers to achieve massive success as both a player and a manager. Born in Ellesmere Port, England, in 1916, Cullis joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as a teenager, and by 1934 had made his way into the first team. Wolves were on the way to becoming one of the top teams in England, finishing runners-up in the league in 1938 and 1939, when the war took away many of the best years of Cullis' career.
Because of the war he won only 12 caps for England, although he did captain his country in wartime internationals. When competitive football resumed in England in 1946, Cullis played just one more season for Wolves in which the club once again narrowly missed out on a first league title, and when he announced his retirement he was given a job on the coaching staff.
In 1948, aged just 31, Cullis became manager of Wolves and presided over the most successful era in the club's history. In his first season in charge, be became the youngest manager to win the F.A. Cup at Wembley as Wolves beat Leicester to win their first major trophy since 1908. Five years later Wolves overhualed local rivals West Bromwich Albion to win the English League for the first time.
Cullis' team restored some pride to English football after the national team's thrashings at the hands of Hungary when they beat the star-studded Honved side in a friendly, and Cullis' comments that his team were "champions of the world" played a large part in the formation of European club competitions.
Cullis led Wolves to two more league titles, in 1958 and 1959, and in 1960 they narrowly missed the hat-trick while also winning the F.A. Cup again, sealing their position as one of the dominant teams of the era. The 1960s saw Wolves begin to struggle, and Cullis was surprisingly sacked in 1964, declaring that he would not work in football again. He did return a year later to manage Birmingham City, but could not reproduce the success he had enjoyed at Wolves. Cullis retired from football in 1970, and died in 2001 at the age of 84.
