Tributes to Wolves great Phil Parkes after death aged 79 | OneFootball

Former Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Phil Parkes has died aged 79. According to ExpressAndStar.com, the popular stopper, known to generations as Lofty, died on Saturday morning, 8 August.

Standing six ft four in, Parkes spent 18 years at Molineux and made 382 appearances before departing in 1978. He joined as a schoolboy in 1960 and played 127 consecutive league matches, a club record that still stands. He later entered the club’s Hall of Fame and served on the Wolves FPA committee after retiring.

Lifelong fan and FPA administration manager Richard Green recalled Parkes’s imposing presence in goal at Castlecroft, often in a bright red top. He described a dressing-room raconteur whose laughter and banter with friends such as Steve Daley rarely stopped.

Green said Parkes was driven to help the local community, highlighting a visit to Compton Care where he spent hours with outpatients until he had to be coaxed away. He summed him up as a natural entertainer and a major support to the FPA.

Former team-mate and FPA chairman John Richards, the club’s record scorer with 194 goals in Old Gold, called him larger than life with a big heart. He said Parkes was always ready to help, a fixture of the Wolves family for well over 60 years, widely known as Lofty or the Big Man.

Richards added that many will struggle to come to terms with the loss and sent thoughts to Parkes’s family and close friends.

Source: ExpressAndStar.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”