The Encylopedia of British Football

Bobby Mason

Robert (Bobby) Mason was born in Tipton on 22nd March 1936. He was signed by Stan Cullis, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers in May 1953. An inside-forward, Mason made his first-team debut in the 1956-57 season. He joined a team that included Peter Broadbent, Eddie Clamp, Ron Flowers, Harry Hooper, Johnny Hancocks, Jimmy Mullen, Roy Pritchard, Bill Shorthouse, Bill Slater, Roy Swinbourne, Dennis Wilshaw, Billy Wright, Bert Williams, Eddie Clamp, Norman Deeley, Eddie Stuart and Jimmy Murray. In his first season he scored 3 goals in 8 games.

Wolves won the League Championship in 1957-58 by 5 points from Preston North End. The club scored an amazing 103 league goals that season. Jimmy Murray was the club's leading scorer with 32 goals in 45 games. This included hat-tricks against Birmingham City (5-1) Nottingham Forest (4-1) and Darlington in the FA Cup ( 6-1). Norman Deeley scored 23 goals in 41 appearances that season. This included a spell of 13 in 15 outings during the autumn. Mason scored 7 goals in 20 appearances that season.

Wolves also won the title in the 1958-59 season with 28 wins in 42 games. Once again the forwards were in great form scoring 110 goals. This was seven more than Manchester United and 22 more than third placed Arsenal. Jimmy Murray was the club's leading scorer with 21 goals in 28 games. He was followed by Peter Broadbent (20) and Norman Deeley (17), Mason was fourth top scorer with 13 goals in 34 games.

In the 1959-60 season the club was beaten into second placed by Burnley. Once again Wolves were the top scorers in the league with 106 goals. This was 21 more than the champions who won the title by only one point. Bobby Mason had his best season so far with 13 goals in 37 league games. He also scored two goals in six cup appearances but was controversially left out of the team that beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 in the 1960 FA Cup final.

Mason scored 6 goals in 28 league appearances in the 1960-61 season. The following season he lost his place in the first team and in March 1963 he was sold to Leyton Orient. Mason had scored 44 goals in 143 league games for Wolves.

Bobby Mason had a disappointing time at his new club and after failing to get them promotion to the First Division he left to join Chelmsford City in the Southern League.