Stan Cullis: The Iron Manager

by Jim Holden

Few men have made a greater impact on football than Stan Cullis. He was a fine centre half, but Cullis became an even greater manager, winning three Football League championships and two FA Cups for the Wolves. This is his story. The dramatic claim that Cullis's Wolves team were 'champions of the world' after beating Honved in 1954 sparked the creation of the European Cup tournament. That, in itself, would guarantee his place in soccer history. There is much more, however, to the story of Stan Cullis. He emerged from a bleak childhood to be appointed captain of Wolves in the week of his 20th birthday, and at the age of 22 he became the youngest skipper of the England national side. Cullis was a great player; Ferenc Puskas, the great Hungarian, described him as 'the most classical centre-half of his time'. Cullis became an even greater manager, thanks in part to 'long-ball' tactics that provoked endless controversy. His reputation was worldwide. When Wolves brutally sacked him in 1964 the first offer of a new job came from Italian club Juventus. He turned it down. Stan Cullis fully merited the unique title he loved to live up to; he was the Iron Manager.

206 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2005

About the author

Jim Holden founded Holden International in 1979, and throughout its almost 30-year history, Holden has grown to be a world-renowned leader in the sales process improvement field.

Mr. Holden's career has been marked by exceptional innovation. In 1990, he established Holden as the first company to model sales effectiveness, an achievement that garnered the Regional Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Service Industry.

Mr. Holden is also a globally recognized business author, with titles including Power Base® Selling, World Class Selling, The Selling Fox, The New Power Base Selling, and just released, Selling in an Anxious World, available on Kindle and hybrid paperback (a cross between hardcover and softcover).

Mr. Holden earned a B.S.E.E. with high honors from Northeastern University in Boston and is a member of the National Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi, and the National Interdisciplinary Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi. He began his sales career in 1974 with Teradyne, a Boston-based high-technology company. Prior to founding Holden, he was Vice President of Sales for Aegis, a third-party distribution company selling computer-based test systems into the manufacturing environment.

Mr. Holden and his wife Chris reside in the greater Chicago area. He was a founder/director of the First National Bank of Roselle and has served as a director of two other area banks and several early development-stage companies. He is active in the community, having founded the Partnership to End Homelessness in Chicago, and is a supporter of many other charities, including cancer research.