Everything changed for Manchester United on a winter afternoon in Munich 50 years ago Wednesday.
On a cold and snowy Feb. 6, 1958, a twin-propped charter flight carrying Manchester United home from a European Cup quarterfinal match in Yugoslavia crashed on its third takeoff attempt, killing 21 passengers, including 7 players, at the scene. One player died later. (In all, 23 of the 44 passengers and crew died as a result of the crash.)
“That night the weather was bad — there was snow on the runway and there weren’t the facilities like they have these days,” Sir Bobby Charlton, one of the survivors, said early last month during a news conference at United’s training facility in Carrington, outside Manchester. “We had three attempts at taking off. We thought it was a technical hitch, but looking back I think it was the condition of the runway, the slush that was on it.”
He added: “I woke up still strapped in my seat, a good few yards from the airplane. I was told I’d been unconscious for about 15, 20 minutes, but all I had wrong with me were some cuts and bruises and concussion. We got to the hospital, and for some reason I started ranting at a young lad. Anyway they gave me an injection, and I don’t remember anything until the next morning. There was a lad in my room and he had a newspaper; he was telling me in broken English what had happened.
“Then I went through a list of players, and he told me if they were alive or dead. That was a killer really.”
That United team, under the direction of Sir Matt Busby, was a revelation in the soccer world. Instead of purchasing players from other clubs, Busby dedicated himself to nurturing homegrown talent. With an average age of 24, the team — known as the Busby Babes — had won back-to-back league titles in 1956 and 1957.
The Scene
The pilot, Capt. James Thain, aborted two takeoffs because of the weather. On the third try, the plane could not gain enough speed or height and crashed just beyond the perimeter of Munich-Reim Airport.
“It was the worst accident in a sporting context in this country,” Charlton said. “Young players at their peak, playing at the highest level. Cruel, because at that time people were so excited about Manchester United and what they were doing in Europe.”
Seven Manchester United players died in the crash. One of the team’s rising stars, 21-year-old Duncan Edwards, died of his injuries 15 days later. Two players, Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower, recovered from serious injuries but never played again for the club.
The Aftermath
Busby, who died in 1994 at age 84, spent two months in the hospital after the crash and was twice read the last rites. The club completed the English season with a team of reserve players, winning only one more game. United reached the final of that year’s F.A. Cup but lost to Bolton Wanderers.
When Busby returned to his duties, he rebuilt the team with players like George Best and Denis Law, to complement Charlton and Bill Foulkes, and won the European Cup only 10 years later, at Wembley Stadium.
“It takes a special person to come back and manage a football team again after what happened,” United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said at the news conference. “If he had retired there and then, I think everyone would’ve understood.
“I remember him saying the hardest part was to come back and face the surviving players. It must’ve been like losing a family, only two of the players at that time had been signed, the rest were produced by the club. Sir Matt was courageous enough to throw 17-year-old lads into a tough league, and then to lose them ... these were young men and they would’ve won the European Cup — all the signs pointed to that. But what happened at Munich gave him the drive and commitment to rebuild the team again.”
Remembrance
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the crash, Manchester United has scheduled a memorial service at Old Trafford to begin Wednesday at 3:04 p.m., local time, the time of the crash. The club has also established a permanent exhibition at the stadium, renaming the tunnel under the South Stand the Munich tunnel. The opposition on Sunday will be United’s crosstown rival, Manchester City.
Months of discussion leading to the game centered on whether there should be a moment of silence before the match, which will bring together the red half (United) and the blue half (City) of Manchester. United officials, ever aware that City fans invoke the Munich disaster in some of their off-color (and potentially offensive) chants, tried to work with City club officials before the game. City officials suggested a minute of polite applause instead.
“The Munich air crash was not just about Manchester United,” David Gill, United’s chief executive, said. “It devastated the lives of the 23 families of those who died, as well as those who never played again and united a city in grief. Those who are able to remember say it was Manchester’s ‘Kennedy moment.’ Everyone knows where they were when the terrible news came through.”
Manchester United will play Sunday in a replica uniform from 1958.
Along with the families of the people who died in the crash, the five surviving members of the team — Charlton, Foulkes, Harry Gregg, Kenny Morgans and Albert Scanlon — are expected to take part in the tribute.
United States
More than 55,000 fans are expected at Reliant Stadium in Houston for Wednesday night’s exhibition game between the United States and Mexico. The United States has an 8-0-1 home record against Mexico since 2000, outscoring the team, 15-1. ... Because Wednesday is an international fixture date, Coach Bob Bradley’s European-based players are available. They are: Benny Feilhaber, Clint Dempsey, Bobby Convey, Michael Bradley, Carlos Bocanegra, Tim Howard, Ramiro Corrales, Heath Pearce, Freddy Adu, Eddie Lewis, Pat Noonan and Oguchi Onyewu. ... ESPN has shuffled its broadcast team for M.L.S. and national team matches, dropping Dave O’Brien (play-by-play) and Eric Wynalda (color) for J. P. Dellacamera and John Harkes. ... The United States team will begin World Cup qualifying June 15, playing host to the first of a home-and-away series against Dominica or Barbados in Carson, Calif.