Celebrating the stadium which brought gold to Wolverhampton
Aldersley Stadium – launchpad to the stars.
As we enter the final countdown to the Olympic Games, let's celebrate the vision of 1950s Wolverhampton folk who created a stadium fit for future champions like golden girl Tessa Sanderson, world-beating cyclist Hugh Porter and, from the rifle range, Malcolm Cooper, who got double Olympics gold, to name just a few.
Our archive picture harks back to the very early days of the stadium, showing a junior final before a good crowd in 1957. Naturally there have been changes since, including in the stadium's official name, but one thing that remains the same then and now is the hunger of competitors for glory.
Perhaps surprisingly, the facility was not officially opened by somebody you would normally associate with sport, although he was a star of the day nevertheless.
Taking to the platform that day, Saturday, June 9, 1956, was Jack Hawkins, a big British movie star and an ex-president of the Lord's Taverners, an organisation which had raised large sums for the National Playing Fields Association.
