In the mid-1950s, Manchester United had the most exciting young team in England. Manager Matt Busby had built a side of brilliant players, most of them in their early twenties, who won the league title in 1956 and 1957. The press called them the "Busby Babes". On 6 February 1958, many of them lost their lives in an air crash in Munich.
The journey home
United were playing in the European Cup, a competition English clubs had only recently begun to enter. On 5 February 1958 they drew 3–3 with Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia, a result that took them into the semi-finals. The next day their chartered aircraft stopped at Munich-Riem airport to refuel on the way home to Manchester.
Snow was falling and slush covered the runway. After two take-off attempts were abandoned, the crew tried a third time. The aircraft failed to reach take-off speed, ran off the end of the runway and crashed.
The lives lost
Twenty-three of the 44 people on board died. Among them were eight Manchester United players: Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam Whelan. Duncan Edwards, just 21 and already regarded as one of the finest players England had ever produced, fought for his life in hospital for fifteen days before he died.
Club staff, journalists, crew and other passengers also died, including several of the leading football writers of the day.
Survivors and heroes
Goalkeeper Harry Gregg went back into the wreckage again and again to pull out survivors, among them a pregnant mother and her baby daughter. Matt Busby was so badly injured that he was given the last rites twice, but he survived. So did a young Bobby Charlton, who would go on to become one of the greatest players in the history of the game.
Rising again
In Busby's absence, his assistant Jimmy Murphy — who had missed the trip because he was managing Wales in a World Cup qualifier — held the club together. With a patched-up team, United remarkably reached the FA Cup final that same season, losing to Bolton Wanderers.
Busby returned and rebuilt. Ten years after the disaster, on 29 May 1968, Manchester United beat Benfica 4–1 at Wembley to become the first English club to win the European Cup. Two Munich survivors, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes, were in the team, and Charlton scored twice.
Remembering Munich
Every year on 6 February, Manchester United and their supporters remember those who died. At Old Trafford, a memorial plaque and the Munich clock — stopped at the date and time of the crash — honour the victims. The Busby Babes never had the chance to fulfil their potential, but their story remains one of the most moving in football.