Links With The Past: 1949 FA Cup Final Memorabilia
The Club’s collection contains many items relating to the 1949 Cup Final, including this unofficial souvenir postcard and some tickets from the match.
The Leicester City players depicted on the postcard reflect the fact that goalkeeper Gordon Bradley (whose shorts from the game are in the Club’s collection) and full-back Jim Harrison had replaced the injured goalkeeper Ian McGraw and inside-forward Don Revie in the Leicester City side which had defeated league champions Portsmouth in the semi-final. Leicester City’s goalscorer in the 3-1 defeat at Wembley was Wales international Mal Griffiths.
The Wolverhampton Wanderers players depicted include five England internationals: Bert Williams, Jesse Pye and Johnny Hancocks, together with Billy Wright and Jimmy Mullen, who had both guested in the Wartime South Regional League for Leicester City in 1940/41. Jesse Pye score twice in the final. Northern Ireland international Sam Smyth scored once.
A design oddity of the postcard is that the Leicester players appear above the words ‘Wolverhampton Wanderers’ and the Wolverhampton players appear above the words ‘Leicester City’.
The two FA Cup Final tickets indicate that the cup final stadium was then known as the Empire Stadium, because it been built in preparation for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 a year after it had hosted its first FA Cup Final. In 1949, the Stadium held 100,000 spectators. Both ends of the stadium were uncovered.
The ticket for the West Standing Enclosure cost three shillings (15p), which would be worth about £5.50 today. The ticket for the seat in the South Terrace was 10 shillings and sixpence (52 ½ p), worth about £19.25 today.