All at Wolves FPA have been deeply saddened by the passing of our President, and club legend, Ron Flowers MBE.
Flowers, a true icon of the game, is the fifth highest appearance maker in Wolves’ history with 515 between 1952 and 1967, during which he scored 37 goals.
He won all three League Championship titles which Wolves have won during the Golden era of the 1950s, as well as the 1960 FA Cup, and picked up 49 England caps, scoring ten goals.
A part of the 1966 England squad which won the World Cup, albeit he didn’t play, Flowers was still a key influence behind the scenes and had been on standby for the final against West Germany had Jack Charlton not recovered from illness.
He also received an MBE for services to football in the 2021 New Year’s Honours list having already received a special award from the FA following England’s 1000thinternational match against Montenegro.
“It is very sad news and my immediate thought was for Ron’s wife Yvonne and all of the family,” said FPA Chairman and former Wolves striker John Richards.
“Ron was part of that incredible team from the Fifties running into the Sixties which set the standard for all the teams that followed.
“He was known to me from when I signed for Wolves in 1969 when he had just opened up his sports shop but I knew of him from that World Cup squad.
“He came from Yorkshire to Wolverhampton and made Wolverhampton his home, and we were very lucky to have had Ron as a player at our club and a member of our community.
“Ron was a big man in many ways.
“He was statuesque, blonde, a commanding presence whenever you were with him.
“As a player he is up there with the legends like Billy Wright, Bert Williams and all of those from that era.
“Ron is one of the best players Wolves have ever had and also one of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet.
“He was very unassuming, there was no edge to him at all, no ego, just a lovely, lovely man and it is such a sad loss.”
Flowers was among the founder members of Wolves’ FPA back in 1988, and would later play an influential role and become President of the organisation.
Even in his later years, he would always do his best to attend events, and was such a popular figure among former team-mates and Wolves supporters alike.
One of those supporters is Richard Green, now the Administrator of Wolves’ FPA.
“Growing up in Castlecroft my first sight of Ron was when, as young kids, we crawled under the fence at what was then the Wolves training ground,” says Richard.
“We would watch the team train and then try to emulate them in the adjoining playing fields, long after they had finished and driven off in their Don Everall coach back to Molineux.
“But this was only after they had all patiently signed our scrapbooks and I vividly remember Ron who stood out amongst them all as this colossus in gold and black.
“Tall with a ready smile, only too willing to talk to us impatient kids, he would sign our books even after the most demanding of training sessions under Joe Gardiner, Jack Dowen and Bill Shorthouse.
“I wanted to play football and be like Ron.
“This was music to my Mom’s ears who had watched the great 50s team under the floodlights at Molineux and instilled in me my undying love for the Wolves.
“Eventually I was old enough to go to Molineux and watch him play, looking on in awe as he lead the team out onto the pitch in front of thousands of fans rather than the handful of kids at Castlecroft.
“Sadly my years watching Ron play were cut short as his great career at Wolves came to a close in 1967 when he moved to Northampton Town.
“However, later while I was working at the Express & Star, it was always a privilege to pop into his shop in Queen Street at lunchtime to buy sports equipment for my growing boys and I, but perhaps best of all, just to talk to Ron.
“In recent years it has been my honour to take over the administration of the WFPA from Peter Creed and work alongside Ron and the committee.
“Ron was instrumental in its formation in 1988 along with Stan Cullis, Billy Wright, Bert Williams, Malcolm Finlayson, Bill Slater, Roy Swinbourne and the other members of that team that truly were the Golden Wolves.
“Ron became the WFPA president in 2015 and through his leadership the organisation, which had started as a means of keeping the Golden team together for social events, is now involved in raising funds for many local charities while still ensuring the former players keep in touch.
“Thank you Ron for the fond memories of growing up in Castlecroft and of knowing you – Ron Flowers a great inspirational captain on and off the pitch.”
All at the FPA send our sincere condolences to Ron’s wife Yvonne and all of his family and friends.
