Yesterday, I sat in-front of my laptop and was feeling a bit bored. So, I decided to watch a movie. But I have this strange habit to, you know, watch the same movies again and again. I have like this collection of a dozen of movies that are very close to my heart and I always prefer to revisit them in moments of solitude. So yesterday, I again turned on the laptop and started the 2011 movie “United” directed by James Strong. It was perhaps the umpteenth time I was watching the movie since I had downloaded it. But still, after an hour and a half, I again had tears in my eyes. This movie is actually based on the true story of 1958 Munich Air Crash that claimed the life of 23 people including 8 of Manchester United’s first team players or “Busby Babes” as they were fondly known. This team was the youngest side ever to win the football league in England but after that day in Munich, 8 of them would never again put on the shirt that they so revered.
Today, Manchester United is the highest valued sports team at $1.86 billion in the entire world and perhaps the most widely supported football team as well. But today it isn’t just a mere football club, it has transcended all the boundaries to become a religion, a religion with millions and millions of followers who believe in what this club stands for. And for people like me it is perhaps the only thing that we worship. But how did this small club founded by the members of Carriage and Wagon Department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways depot at Newton Heath became so big, so popular and such a craze. Well, if there is one moment that perhaps defines Manchester United, the club that it is now and the club that everyone around the world loves so much is perhaps that tragic accident on that unfortunate afternoon of 6th Feb, 1958.
On 6th Feb, 1958 the British European Airways Flight 608, took-off from Belgrade carrying the victorious Manchester United side along with a few supporters and journalists. The Busby Babes had booked a seat in the semi-finals of the European Cup against AC Milan after beating the Red Star Belgrade team, 5-4 on aggregate. The plane made a routine stop at Munich to refuel, landing at 13:15 GMT. After refuelling, the pilots tried to take-off but twice they had to abandon their attempts due to engine problems. But it was the third attempt that proved fatal. The plane couldn’t take-off and ploughed through the fence at the end of the runway before the left wing smashed into a farm-house. The wing, the tail unit and the undercarriage were ripped off and the house burst into flames. The right side of the fuselage behind the remaining wing had struck a wooden hut that contained fuel and truck tyres. The disaster had stuck. Manchester United lost 8 of its most beloved son, Roger Byrne, the captain, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, Eddie Colman, David Pegg, Liam Whelan, Tommy Taylor and the mercurial Duncan Edwards who fought with death for 15 days to eventually die on 21st Feb, 1958. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower survived but were never able to play again. But more than those who died, it was about those who survived. Harry Gregg, the Goalie who had just signed for United three months before the crash, was undoubtedly ‘The Hero of Munich’. He had sustained some minor injuries but despite that he remained behind to pull survivors including Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet, Jackie Blanchflower and Matt Busby from the wreckage. Gregg even played in the FA cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday, merely a week after the crash. He went on to represent United till 1966 playing nearly 250 games in the process. Dennis Viollet went on to play for United till 1962 scoring 178 goals in 291 matches. He still remains one of Manchester United’s finest forwards. Then there were Bill and Bobby. Bill Foulkes went on to captain United after the crash and played till 1970 representing United in 688 games. Bobby Charlton, perhaps one of the most easily recognized footballer of all-time wore the red-shirt of Manchester United for 15 more years playing in758 games as a United player, a record which lasted for 35 years before Ryan Giggs finally broke it in 2008. The other players who survived were goalie Ray Wood and wingers Albert Scanlon and Kenny Morgans.
But it was not that people from across the planet support Manchester United because they feel sorry for them. Because people hardly choose their football team out of sympathy. It was not the loss at Munich but the comeback that Manchester United made won the heart of millions and millions around the globe. A few United players died in the crash but the club didn’t. Munich resurrected United. Manchester United, after 6th Feb, 1958 wasn’t just a football club they became an institution.
On 4th May 1949, a plane carrying the then Seria A champion Torino crashed in a church in a Turin suburb and everyone was killed including 18 players, 10 of whom were Italian internationals. With just 4 matches remaining that year, Torino did won the scudetto as their opponents were instructed to field their youth teams because Torino had no choice but to field their youth team. But Torino never recovered from that tragedy. After five years, they were bankrupt, had to even sell their ground and more often than not play in Seria B thesedays. Many felt Manchester United might follow the same path but I can proudly say that they didn’t and that is what has defined the club. Manchester United chairman Hardman said that United should fulfil all the fixtures in all the competitions they were involved in, even if it meant heavy losses. The League game against Wolves on the 8th of Feb was delayed and the FA cup game against Sheffield Wednesday was rescheduled four days later, which United won and the whole nation rejoiced perhaps with the exception of the blue half of Sheffield. Red Star Belgrade wanted United to be declared that season’s honorary European Champions but the club didn’t want that. They wanted to survive on their own strengths and they did. Perhaps nothing more than the spirit of Matt Busby and Jimmy Murphy defines what this club stands for. When Murphy went to meet Busby in the hospital after the crash, Busby through a morphine haze instructed him: “Keep the flag flying, Jim, till I get back.” And Murphy did keep the flag flying high. Manchester United went on to the finals of the FA Cup with mostly youth team player and the Munich survivors. Though they lost the final to Bolton 2-0, a team they had thrashed 7-2 in the league in January. They could just win one of their remaining league fixtures to finish 9th that season but ya, they did beat AC Milan 2-1 in the first leg of the semi-finals just to lose the tie 5-3 on aggregate with Milan winning their home leg 4-0. But what that season proved more than anything else was that Manchester United will go on and on and on.
On the afternoon of 6th Feb, 1958, Manchester United stopped being just another football club. The tragedy spread the club’s name around the globe in hours following the accident. “Before Munich, it was just Manchester’s club,” said Bobby Charlton. “Afterwards everyone owned a little bit of it.”
Today, when I look at Manchester United with all the trophies and all these successes and fan followings, I just can’t seem to disagree with Rio Ferdinand.
Rio Ferdinand on the 50th anniversary match, “Munich was the starting point, really, for the tradition, the start of settling down the standard for Manchester United Football Club.”
A tribute to all those who died on that dreadful Munich afternoon.
The Flowers Of Manchester by Spinners
One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester
Matt Busby’s boys were flying, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.
The third time down the runaway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.
Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England’s side.
And Ireland’s Billy Whelan and England’s Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.
And Ireland’s Billy Whelan and England’s Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.
Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain,
And Ireland’s brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.
And Ireland’s brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.
The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
And one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne’er forget,
The finest English ‘keeper that ever graced the net.
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
And one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne’er forget,
The finest English ‘keeper that ever graced the net.
Oh, England’s finest football team its record truly great,
Its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester.
Its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester.
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