Wolverhampton
A formidable cup side, Wolves reached three finals between 1889 and 1896, winning the trophy in 1893. In
1906, Wolves slipped into the Second Division: two years later they defied the odds to win the FA Cup for the second time, beating the hot favourites Newcastle United 3-1 at Crystal Palace.
The club reached yet another FA Cup final in 1921 while still in Division Two. This gamemarked the first time that a crest was worn by a Wolves team, consisting of the Wolverhampton coat of arms. This featured only in the first half as the team changed into clean jerseys at half-time. This crest also featured in the 1939 and 1960 finals and was worn in the League during 1947-48.
Disaster came in 1923 with relegation to Division Three (North) although they stormed back as champions in 1924, losing only three matches. During their brief stay in the lower division, the traditional striped jerseys gave way to plain old gold with a bold "V".
The strip shown for 1928-29 is something of a puzzle. Although official portraits show players wearing these interesting striped tops research by Jonathon Russell into the club's programmes of this season indicate that the older plain old gold jerseys were used for most, if not all that season.
Under the guidance of Major Frank Buckley, Wolves returned finally to the First Division in 1932. Now wearing their famous old gold shirts with black collars, Wanderers were runners-up in 1938 and 1939 when they also reached the FA Cup final. Starting out as favourites against little fancied Portsmouth, the players were provided with extract of monkey gland to boost their performance but crashed 1-4.
The period after the Second World War was a golden age. After retiring as a player, Stan Cullis took over as manager in 1948, guiding them to an FA Cup win in 1949 and Division One championships in 1954, 1958 and 1959. The club also pioneered midweek floodlit matches against European sides, including the Dynamo and Spartak teams from Moscow, Real Madrid and Budapest Honved. For these games, played under primitive floodlights on gloomy winter evenings, Wolves used a special fluorescent kit. Research by Steve Gordos has established that these appeared on at least two occasions on gloomy Molyneux afternoons in November and December 1951, two years before floodlights were installed. Programme notes from a match at Fulham In the match against Charlton last week, Wolverhampton started something entirely new by appearing in the second half in shirts of yellow, made of material that glows in semi-darkness.
After their 1954 title win, the shade of the shirts became a brighter gold, according to Steve Gordos.
In 1960 they won the Cup once again and almost achieved the double, missing out on the Division One title by a single point.
In 1964, Wolves parted company with Cullis and slipped briefly into the Second Division but further Cup
success arrived in the Seventies.
Gold shorts were adopted towards the end of the 1964-65 season in an effort to give the team a more modern appearance. The match programme, Molynews (oh dear) announced
the return of black shorts on 9 August 1969. The following season a stylish new badge was introduced consisting of a wolf leaping over the letters "WW." This evolved into three wolves worn in the centre of the shirt while the lettering remained on the left breast.
Defeat in the UEFA Cup final. Against Spurs in 1972 was followed by League Cup success in 1974. After a season in the Second Division, Wolves returned to the First Division as champions in 1977 and a second League Cup win
in 1980.
A wolf's head replaced the leaping wolves in 1979, perhaps the most iconic of the designs that appeared in the decade.
In 1982 the club was bought by the Bhatti brothers. At first all seemed well as Wolves won promotion to Division one in 1983 but on and off the pitch the club descended into chaos, plunged straight down to the Fourth Division and faced extinction. A consortium
including the local council, Asda and builders, Gallaghers, rescued the ailing club and they won the Fourth and Third Division championships in successive seasons (1987-88 and 1988-89) to return to the Second Division. During this period the wolf's 
head was placed on a gold/white shield with scrolls.
In 1990 millionaire fan Sir Jack Hayward bought the club and invested £20m of his personal fortune in the redevelopment of Molineux, transforming it into one of the most modern in the country. Among the innovations of the period was the reintroduction of the Wolverhampton coat of arms to the team's shirts in 1993. This was
replaced in 1996 with an elaborate version of the wolf's head: the overall shape was echoed in the design of the shirts worn that season. This version was used for six season before being replaced with a much simpler version.
Hayward continued to pour money into the club but it was not until 2003 that his ambition was realised and Wolves returned to the top 
flight after beating Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium in the play-off final. Six months later Hayward resigned and handed over the chairmanship to his son, Rick. Sadly, Wolves triumphant return was short-lived and they were relegated after one season.
In 2006 the club embarked on a complete clear-out, appointing Mick McCarthy to build a new side with the emphasis on youth, ambition and talent. Twelve senior players departed, halving the club's wage bill. The young squad performed above expectation and reached the play-offs that season. In August 2007 Jack Hayward gifted his controlling shares to business man Steve Morgan who promised to invest £30m in the club to re-establish them in the Premiership. Following their strategy of signing promising young players from the lower divisions, Wolves won the Championship title in 2009.