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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 20 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 United in the 1950s
| Which player, who could rightfully be described as ‘The First Busby Babe’, started his United career at full back, briefly became a winger, before reverting to full back? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Roger Byrne. Having made his debut in November 1951 against Liverpool at Anfield at left-back, Roger Byrne played the final six games of the season on the left wing, scoring seven goals in a run of four wins and two draws in which the side scored 22 goals that clinched the 1951-52 League Championship, United’s first since 1911.
He preferred playing at left-back, where his speed and ability to read the game made him one of the first overlapping full-backs in the game. A natural leader, he became captain early in 1954 and went on to lead the most exciting young team ever seen in Britain to two consecutive League titles and into Europe as England’s first representatives in the European Cup.
Winning 33 consecutive caps for England up to his untimely death at Munich - incredibly he was 'not considered good enough to play for the station football team’ during his National Service in the RAF! But to anyone who ever saw him play, for either club or country, Roger Byrne was one of the most outstanding defenders in the history of the game.
Sadly, Geoff Bent, who would not normally have been with the team, travelled to Belgrade as last-minute cover for Byrne, who had picked up a slight injury against Arsenal, and died with him at Munich on 6th February, 1958.
| Which member of this side, the first of them to make a first team appearance for United, didn’t make another one for over two and a half years, and then went on to play over 200 games? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Ray Wood. Ray Wood made his senior debut in December 1949, against Newcastle United, and didn’t play in the first team again until August 1952.
A virtual ever-present from 1953 until just before Munich when, following a poor run of form, he was replaced by Harry Gregg.
Never the same player after Munich, he made just one more appearance for United, in the 4-0 defeat at champions Wolverhampton Wanderers in October 1958, before moving on to Huddersfield Town.
Having played over 200 games for Huddersfield, he spent some time with both Bradford City and Barnsley before retiring in 1967.
Ray Wood died in July 2002, aged 71.
| Which member of the team, the second player to make it into the first team at Old Trafford, made only nine appearances in his first four seasons at Old Trafford, including none at all in one of those seasons, and yet was ever-present when they won their first League title? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Mark Jones. Making his debut at 17 against Sheffield Wednesday in October 1950, he played four times in the 1950-51 season, three times in the championship-winning season during 1951-52, and twice in 1952-53.
He didn’t make a single appearance in the first team during the 1953–54 season, yet was ever-present from halfway through the 1954-55 season, throughout the entire title-winning season of 1955-56, and had made 120 appearances for the club when he died at Munich, aged 24.
| When signing which player, one of only three purchased by Matt Busby when creating ‘The Busby Babes’, did he write a cheque for the agreed fee less one pound, and then give that one pound to the other club’s tea lady who was busily serving refreshments? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Tommy Taylor. When signing centre-forward Tommy Taylor from Barnsley in 1953, Busby, not wishing for such a young player to have the then record transfer fee price-tag hanging around his neck, came up with this novel solution.
Ray Wood was purchased from Darlington at the age of 18, in 1949.
Liam Whelan, a product of the Dublin junior club Home Farm, also signed aged 18, in 1953.
Johnny Berry, purchased from Birmingham City, aged 25, in 1951, played 273 games for United scoring 44 goals, but was forced to retire due to the injuries he sustained at Munich.
Johnny Berry died in September, 1994.
Jeff Whitefoot. Known as ‘the Busby Babe that got away’, Jeff Whitefoot was, at that time, the youngest player ever to start a first team game for Manchester United.
He made his United debut at age 16 years and 105 days, against then League Champions Portsmouth in April 1950 and had made 95 appearances between then and November 1955 when, having finally lost his place to the multi-talented Eddie Colman, he signed for Grimsby Town and shortly afterwards joining Nottingham Forest.
He went on to play 285 games for Forest before retiring through injury in 1968, and is still with us, aged 72.
* Goalkeeper David Gaskell, who had gone along to watch the match, made his United ‘debut’ at 16 years and 19 days in October 1956, when he was permitted to come on as a substitute for the injured Ray Wood in the 1-0 victory over Manchester City, in the FA Charity Shield match at Maine Road.
| Having taken over as Manager in 1945, Matt Busby’s ‘first great team’ of Crompton, Carey, Aston, Anderson, Chilton, Cockburn, Delaney, Morris, Rowley, Pearson, and Mitten, finished runners-up in the League in 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950, missing the League title by just one point in his first season 1947, and a possible ‘Double’ in 1948 when they won the FA Cup - beating Aston Villa 6-4; Liverpool 3-0; Charlton Athletic 2-0; Preston North End 4-1; Derby County 3-1; and Blackpool 4-2 in the final.
With Tommy McNulty and Johnny Downie coming in for Anderson and Morris, and Berry and Byrne for Delaney and Mitten, United finally won the Championship in 1952, after which the predominantly teenage players, dubbed ‘The Babes’ by Tom Jackson of ‘The Manchester Evening News’, a nickname Matt Busby did not particularly like, began to come into the side.
By 1953, most of them had begun to establish themselves in the first team, but in what season did they win their first League Championship title? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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1955-56. Finishing the season with 60 points, 11 clear of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackpool, and beating then League Champions Chelsea 3-0 and 4-2 along the way, incredibly they lost 4-0 to Second Division Bristol Rovers in the opening round of the FA Cup on January 7 1956!
The very next game against Sheffield United at Old Trafford on January 14, was when the eleven players who were to become synonymous with the name ‘Busby Babes’, Wood, Foulkes, Byrne, Colman, Jones, Edwards, Berry, Whelan, Taylor, Viollet and Pegg, played together for the first time.
Two years later, on 14th December, 1957, the game against Chelsea at Old Trafford, would be the last.
| In 1955, the Football League had refused to allow then Champions Chelsea to take part in the new European Cup. A year later Matt Busby defied them, amid all sorts of warnings about what would happen to United if European games interfered with their League or Cup schedule at home, and took his young team into what he saw as the future of football. In September 1956, in their first European Cup tie, which team did United beat 12-1 on aggregate? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Anderlecht. Having won the first leg of this preliminary round on September 12 1956 in Brussels 2-1, with goals from Taylor and Viollet, United hammered the Belgian champions 10-0 in the second leg at Maine Road on September 26 with four goals from Viollet, three from Taylor, two from Whelan and one from Berry.
When interviewed afterwards, the Belgian captain said that in his opinion the entire United team, all Englishmen but for Liam Whelan, but whose deputy was budding England superstar Bobby Charlton, should line up as the England international team!
Duncan Edwards. Duncan Edwards, the truly outstanding member of this great team, was born on 1st October, 1936.
He made his United debut on 4th April, 1953, aged 16 years and 185 days, and his England debut at 18 years and 183 days, and was in the opinion of anyone who ever saw him play the complete footballer.
Had he lived, he would probably have featured in four World Cups for England, for whom he was tipped to be the next captain, and would have been in his prime at only 29 years old in 1966 when England won the World Cup.
Bobby Charlton described him as “The best player I’ve ever seen, the best player I’ve ever played with for United or England, and the only player who ever made me feel inferior.”
When asked which current player might be compared to him, older United fans mention Roy Keane, but point out that Duncan was bigger, faster, more powerful and far more even-tempered!
After a heroic battle against the appalling injuries he sustained in the crash, Duncan Edwards died peacefully in the Rechts Der Isar hospital in Munich on 21st February, 1958, aged 21.
| While returning from which European Cup tie did the Manchester United party encounter a snowbound airport, in an eerie premonition of what was to befall them a year later at Munich? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Athletico Bilbao. On 17th January, 1957 at Bilbao Airport, the passengers, including the stars of Manchester United FC, had to climb onto the wings of their airliner with sweeping brushes to help remove snow and ice, before they were cleared for take-off.
The following season, while returning from the second round game against Dukla Prague, United were delayed and narrowly missed having to postpone a League game against Birmingham City, not to mention the wrath of the football authorities in England. As a result of these incidents, Matt Busby decided that the club would charter aircraft for all future trips.
| On 4th May, 1957, United were poised to make history by becoming the first team in the 20th Century to win the elusive ‘Double’ of League Championship and FA Cup in the one season.
Having secured their second successive League title, scoring over 100 goals along the way, they were also through to the Cup Final at Wembley. Which team did they meet there? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #1
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Aston Villa. Losing goalkeeper Ray Wood to a reckless charge by Villa winger Peter McParland in the sixth minute, which left Wood unconscious with a shattered cheekbone, a foul which strangely went unpunished, and with no substitutes in those days, United had to play most of the FA Cup final with 10 men.
With centre-half Jackie Blanchflower ‘playing a blinder’ in goal keeping the score level at 0-0 at half time, Busby risked putting the concussed Wood back on, on the right wing in the second half.
With the centre-half in goal, and leading goalscorer Whelan playing in midfield, United were out of shape as Aston Villa, slowly gaining the upper hand, scored twice with both goals coming from McParland, who should probably not have been on the pitch.
When a Taylor header pulled it back to 2-1, Wood was put back in goal, as United re-organised themselves and laid seige to the Villa goal, trying to snatch at least an equaliser and force a replay.
But with Villa packing their defence, they held on to take the Cup.
When asked how he felt about being robbed of the double in such a way, United captain Roger Byrne quipped, “Never mind, we’ll be back next year!”
But by next year Roger Byrne, and five others who had played at Wembley that day, Eddie Colman, Duncan Edwards, Liam Whelan, Tommy Taylor and David Pegg, would be dead, and the playing careers of two others, Jackie Blanchflower and Johnny Berry, would be over.
Astonishingly, United were back the next year, as the patched-up band of survivors, reserves and hastily-signed replacements, somehow made it to the final, only to lose 2-0 to the same Bolton Wanderers side ‘The ‘Babes’ had annihilated 7-2 just four months earlier.
| With 10 out of the 11 ‘Busby Babes’ Englishmen, and seven of them already honoured at full international level for England by the time of the Munich disaster, who were the three who remained uncapped? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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Colman, Jones, and Viollet. By 1958, Byrne, Edwards and Taylor were established England regulars, with Byrne on a run of 33 consecutive caps, and with England one of the favourites to do well in the World Cup Finals in Sweden that summer, it was virtually certain that Colman, Jones, and Viollet, all three of whom were on the threshold of full international recognition, would have featured in the national squad.
While Jones had long since established himself as a fearless centre-half, particularly commanding in the air, Colman’s boundless energy, ball-winning tackles and creative passing had already attracted the attention of the selectors. And, with Viollet’s strike partnership with Tommy Taylor yielding so many goals, it was only a matter of time before these two would play together at international level.
With Johnny Berry, the only member of the side who was not strictly a ‘Babe’, as at the age of 25, he was already an established professional when signed by Busby, already capped four times, and Wood, Foulkes and Pegg once each, the Munich crash not only robbed England of stars like Byrne, Edwards and Taylor, but also of the services of a probable four or five others.
| Having controversially lost to Aston Villa in the 1957 FA Cup Final, League Champions Manchester United met the Cup Winners a few months later to play for the FA Charity Shield. What was the result? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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Manchester United 4 Aston Villa 0. The team for the Charity Shield was more or less the same as that which had played in the Cup Final, except that on this occasion United would play with a regular goalkeeper … and all eleven players!
With Freddie Goodwin coming in for the injured Eddie Colman, and Dennis Viollet, who had missed the final through injury, returning in place of Bobby Charlton, United ran out easy winners to take the consolation prize by four goals to nil, with three from Tommy Taylor and one from Johnny Berry.
| Which players, having lost their first team places following a run of poor results in late 1957, had, without knowing it, already played their last games for United, a full two months before Munich? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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Blanchflower, Berry, Whelan, and Pegg. These players, none of whom was selected to play Red Star in Belgrade on 5th February, 1958, were all in the squad for the game as reserve cover. Whelan and Pegg died at Munich the following day, while Berry and Blanchflower never played again. Wood was to make just one more appearance for United.
Blanchflower had played his last game for United in the 4-3 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, on 30th November, after which he once again lost his place to Mark Jones.
With 17-year old goalkeeper David Gaskell making his debut in this game and letting in four goals, Ray Wood returned, letting in three more away to Birmingham City a week later on 7th December.
Sadly, the 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea a week later on 14th December was not only the last time Berry, Whelan, and Pegg would turn out for United, it was also the last time the famous ‘Busby Babes’ eleven ever lined up together.
Realising he had a goalkeeper crisis, Busby again splashed out on a goalkeeper.
With Morgans, Charlton, and Scanlon coming in for Berry, Whelan, and Pegg, for the home game against Leicester City on 21st December, United embarked upon a 15-game unbeaten run in the League, FA Cup and European Cup that, but for Munich, would probably have taken them to the double, if not the treble.
Incredibly this run, during which they scored 41 goals, did not end until 8th March, a full four weeks and four games after the crash at Munich had destroyed the team.
| On 18th January, 1958, in the last League game the Busby Babes would play in front of their adoring supporters at Old Trafford, they beat Bolton Wanderers by what score? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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7-2. With three goals from Bobby Charlton, two from Dennis Viollet and one each from Duncan Edwards and Albert Scanlon, the game was nothing short of a massacre.
This was the identical Bolton team that United’s patched-up post-Munich side, containing just four survivors from this Old Trafford mauling, which somehow managed to get to the FA Cup Final, would meet four months later at Wembley, controversially losing 2-0.
Ipswich Town. They beat Ipswich Town 2-0 - with both goals scored by Bobby Charlton.
In the fifth round, against Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford on 19th February, the first game Manchester United played after Munich, there would be only goalkeeper Harry Gregg and right full-back Bill Foulkes left of the team that had faced Ipswich.
So uncertain was he as to what players he could put out on the pitch, Assistant-Manager Jimmy Murphy, who had not travelled to Belgrade due to international committments with Wales, instructed the printers to leave the match programme team sheet blank.
| On 1st February, in the last match United played in England before the fateful trip to Belgrade, which team did they beat in what has been described as ‘one of the greatest games ever seen’? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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Arsenal. They beat Arsenal 5-4 at Highbury with two goals from Tommy Taylor and one each from Dennis Viollet, Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards.
Scottish centre-forward David Herd who would sign for United in 1961, scored twice for the Gunners, who were 3-0 down before half-time.
* Herd played 262 games for United, scoring 144 goals, in a dynamic partnership with Denis Law.
17. Four games, seventeen goals, and eight of them scored by 20-year old Bobby Charlton!
On 5th February, 1958, the eve of the crash, United drew 3-3 with Red Star Belgrade with two goals from Charlton and one from Viollet. In the previous three matches they had beaten Bolton Wanderers 7-2 (Charlton 3 Viollet 2 Edwards and Scanlon); Ipswich Town 2-1 (Charlton 2) and Arsenal 5-4 (Taylor 2 Charlton Viollet and Edwards)
They scored 17 … and conceded 10.
27 goals in 4 games - the spectators were certainly not complaining!
| Which player played in every game, League, FA Cup and European Cup, during the 1957-58 season, despite the fact that the team was effectively wiped out at Munich half way through it? | Manchester United - 'The Busby Babes' #2
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Bill Foulkes. Like newly-signed goalkeeper Harry Gregg, Foulkes survived the crash unscathed, and lined up against Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford in the FA Cup fifth round on 19th February, 1958, just thirteen days after Munich.
He was ever-present again in 1959/60 and in the Championship-winning 1964/65, and missed only one game in each of the 1954/55, 1958/59, 1962/63 and 1963/64 seasons, and just two in each of the 1960/61 and 1961/62 seasons.
Born in 1932, and having made his first team debut in 1952, Bill Foulkes made 682 appearances over 18 seasons for United, including the victorious European Cup final in 1968, having scored the vital goal at Real Madrid that got them there.
He is the only member of the ‘original’ Busby Babes alive today.
George Best. While many might regard Sammy McIlroy, as the last player signed by Busby, to be ‘The Last Busby Babe’, there can only be one rightful claimant to that title.
After Munich, necessity dictated that Matt Busby plunge into the transfer market to find players who would, in the short term at least, somehow replace the players who had lost their lives and those who could never play again.
With survivors Gregg, Foulkes, Charlton, Viollet and Scanlon, reserves Gaskell, Greaves, Goodwin, Cope, McGuinness, Webster and Dawson, and emerging juniors Stiles, Brennan, Pearson and Giles as a foundation for re-construction, Busby, having purchased just three players when assembling his ‘Busby Babes’ side - in the years between 1958 and 1963, when United won the FA Cup, their first trophy since the crash - signed Albert Quixall, Noel Cantwell, Maurice Setters, Tony Dunne, David Herd, Pat Crerand and Denis Law.
Finishing runners-up in the 1963-64 season, the stage was set for Manchester United to once again have a tilt at the League title which they duly won in 1964-65.
Irish goalkeeper Pat Dunne was successful as cover for the injury-plagued Gregg, and England international winger John Connelly joined from neighbouring Burnley.
Foulkes had successfully taken over at centre-half, with Brennan taking his place at right-back, Tony Dunne was at left-back, Crerand at right-half and Stiles had made the left-half slot his own.
Connelly played outside-right, Charlton moved back to inside-right, Herd led the line, ‘The King’ Denis Law was at inside-left and at outside-left - the player Busby once said ‘could do things naturally that the other players couldn’t even dream about’ - ‘The Last Busby Babe’ - George Best.
This team – Gregg, Brennan, Dunne, Crerand, Foulkes, Stiles, Connelly, Charlton, Herd, Law and Best, was Matt Busby’s third ‘great’ team, which, with the indomitable Gregg back in goal, hammered Benfica 5-1 in Lisbon, and 8-3 on aggregate, in the European Cup quarter-finals in March 1966, and should certainly have gone on to win it – but somehow managed not to.
Having won the League again in 1967, United were finally crowned Champions of Europe in May 1968 at Wembley - sadly without the departed Gregg, Herd and Connelly, whose places had been taken by Alex Stepney, Brian Kidd, John Aston Jr. respectively, and the injured Law, replaced by reserve centre-half David Sadler - but with Munich survivors Foulkes and Charlton in the side, and European Footballer of the Year Best in dazzling form.
Having achieved his life’s ambition, Matt Busby retired a year later.
He died in January 1994.
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