RIP John Doherty

[Motterman]

Manchester United have announced that former Busby Babe John Doherty has died at the age of 72. Doherty, who was chairman of the Association of Former Manchester United Players, made 26 appearances for the club, scoring seven goals, before retiring at the age of just 23 with a chronic knee injury.
He was a member of the 1955-56 championship-winning team and was was one of three former players who carried the Premier League trophy on to the pitch for last season's title presentation.
United chief executive David Gill said: "John was a tireless leader of the Association of Former Players and a much loved and popular figure around Old Trafford.
"His work with the Former Players saw the group go from strength to strength. His quick wit and easy manner will be greatly missed.
"It was a special moment for him to be able to bring on the Premier League trophy at the end of last season with his other friends from the Busby Babes' first title-winning team in 1956 for presentation to the team; a role he performed with great pride and dignity.
"Our thoughts are with his family."
Paddy Crerand, a close friend of Doherty, said: "I am absolutely devastated. It's hard to take. He was a great, great lad and such a big fan of United.
"He was always at the games at Old Trafford and obviously has the history of playing for the club as a Busby Babe. "One of the great things about him was the work he did for the Association of Former Manchester United Players. He was absolutely fantastic with his work for the old boys."

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Tom Clare wrote a post which mentions Doherty a few times...

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12838197&postcount=7

[sdotsom]

Just saw that online. Would be lying if I said I'd seen alot of him, but any former United player deserves respect. R.I.P.

[Achtung]

Fare thee well...



http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2863/johndohertyia8.jpg

[doug1500]

I just read this.. I have to (with much shame) admit I dont know who he was, but all the same, RIP.

[Harry Boulton]

One if the Busby Babes has died. John Doherty, aged 72.

R.I.P.....

[Achtung]

Pic from the trophy presentation last season.

http://m.gmgrd.co.uk/res/435.$plit/C_71_article_1024163_image_list_image_list_item_0_image.jpg

[TomClare]

John was a lovely lad who was so unlucky at United. If he'd have been fit, United would never have signed Billy Whelan. John injured his knee in a reserve game just prior to the first leg of the 1953 FA Youth Cup Final against Wolves, and United needed a class inside right at that level immediately, and Billy fitted the bill. That he took his chance with both hands goes without saying. Unfortunately for John, that knee injury was never to go away and ultimately finished his career at the tender age of just 23 years of age. He did make enough appearances to win a Championship winner's medal in 1955/56, but with Billy Whelan holding down the inside right berth in the first team, and the fast emergence of a young BobbyCharlton, Busby felt he could afford to let John go, and so he joined Leicester City after playing 27 first team games and scoring 12 goals. It was at Leicester that the knee trouble flared up so badly after he had played just 12 games for the Foxes, that he was forced to retire.

In latter days, he was one of the originators of the AFMUP and served it in several capacities - Secretary, Chairman, President. He worked ferociously hard for the organization and was one of the people responsible for the holding of the Munich Memorial game back in 1998 (which I firmly believe was hi-jacked by Eric) for which he got little or no thanks at all.

A local Manchester lad, he was Red through and through and will be sadly missed.

R.I.P. John and thanks for the memories - go and join your old "Babes" contemporaries on that big field in the sky and play on forever.

[Cevno]

R.i.p

[TomClare]

John Doherty
Busby Babe invalided out of football
Published: 15 November 2007
John Peter Doherty, footballer: born Manchester 12 March 1935; played for Manchester United 1950-57; Leicester City 1957-58; married (two sons, one daughter); died Heald Green, Cheshire 13 November 2007.

Was John Doherty a victim of cruel footballing fate, or was he one of the luckiest men alive? Both views carry credible currency when evaluating the frustratingly truncated career of the former Busby Babe, an extravagantly talented member of the precocious Manchester United generation which fired the imagination of the sporting world in the 1950s.

As Matt Busby launched his exhilarating youth-based revolution at Old Trafford, Doherty grew up alongside the likes of Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton and Dennis Viollet, and there was no shortage of shrewd contemporary judges who deemed the locally born inside-forward to be blessed with potential that was not out of place even in that exalted company.

He was exquisitely skilful with both feet, he packed an explosive shot to rival that of the prodigy Charlton, he passed like a dream, he worked ceaselessly and, crucially, he possessed the acute soccer brain to make the most of his other attributes. However, he was cursed by chronic knee problems, and this is where the lot which befell John Doherty can be seen in contrasting lights.

On one hand, his injuries caused him to be invalided out of the game when still in his early twenties, which came as a devastating blow to one of the most gifted young players in the land. On the other, had he remained fit it is virtually certain that he would not have left the club to join Leicester City; and equally likely, therefore, that he would have been a passenger on the aeroplane which crashed at Munich in February 1958, killing eight of his erstwhile United team-mates and maiming two more so that they never played again.

Doherty had enlisted at Old Trafford in 1950, having shone for Manchester and Lancashire Schoolboys, and he made rapid progress, first working as an office boy cum apprentice footballer, then signing professional forms on his 17th birthday in March 1952, and making his senior début only nine months later. Though Busby's unprecedentedly extensive squad was bursting with enough high-quality players for two teams at that time, the rookie retained his place for a handful of games and also excelled as United reached the semi-finals of the inaugural FA Youth Cup.

But then Doherty suffered his first major injury in the second leg against Bradford on the day before he was due to begin his National Service, which had to be deferred. United recruited the Irishman Liam Whelan, who would die at Munich, as a replacement in time for the final triumph against Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Doherty began a slow rehabilitation before entering the RAF, from which he was eventually discharged as unfit for duty.

Now his dreams of a professional career appeared to be in tatters, but he surprised the club medics by making a recovery of sorts and was reintroduced to First Division action, tentatively at first, in the autumn of 1955. By now Manchester United were a thrilling side and they finished the season as runaway champions, with Doherty playing more than a third of the games in the face of white-hot competition for the inside-right berth, and qualifying for a title medal on merit.

But then, with his long-term prospects seemingly revitalised, he fell prey to further knee complications and was supplanted once more by the richly gifted Whelan.

There followed further harrowing, but only partially successful, efforts to regain fitness, as well as a difference of opinion with the manager over team selection, the two factors culminating in a £6,500 transfer to newly promoted Leicester City in October 1957. Doherty got off to a bright start at Filbert Street, where he linked effectively with another former Red Devil, Johnny Morris, but within two months he was sidelined once more, and was in hospital for his umpteenth knee operation when he learned of the Munich tragedy.

Already devastated by the loss of many close friends, soon Doherty received another crushing blow when informed that he would never play again at Football League level. He reacted with resilience, accepting the player-management of Southern League Rugby Town, then in the autumn of 1958 received an offer which might have transformed his working life.

Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby's inspirational lieutenant at Old Trafford, was courted by Arsenal to become their new boss and told Doherty that, if he accepted, he wanted his former United charge, whom he respected for his impeccable judgement of players, to become his own number two at Highbury.

In the end, however, Murphy's loyalty to Busby moved him to reject the overtures from north London and Doherty remained in non-League circles, later serving Altrincham, Bangor City and Hyde United.

Thereafter the intelligent, acerbically witty Mancunian accrued wide experience in the world of finance during the 1960s and 1970s, served Burnley as chief scout for part of the 1980s, then went on to succeed in insurance and sports promotion. In addition he was a founder member and long-serving chairman of the Association of Former Manchester United Players, which raised large sums for charity, and he was the moving force behind the club's belated testimonial match for victims of the Munich calamity staged in 1998.

Ironically, Doherty had grown up as a Manchester City supporter, yet he came to love United more passionately than anything except his family, and he earned renown as an outspoken sage in all matters relating to the club, showcasing his pithy, articulate and unsentimental views in The Insider's Guide to Manchester United (2005).

To return to the question in the first sentence of this obituary: John Doherty was not bitter about his ruined career, often describing himself as one of the luckiest men to walk the earth. As he put it to me as we finished work on the above-mentioned volume: "I grew up making my living by playing a game, then I went on to a gloriously happy family life, while lots of my mates were dead before their time. What's to complain about?"

[Dark Savante]

RIP

Was John one of the attendees at the dinners you hold annually, Tom?

[TomClare]

No, but I used to see him at the Former Player's Dinners in the 90's which I was lucky enough to get invites to before I emmigrated over here. He was a larger than life character and spoke his mind. John did a lot of work for charities in his various roles with AFMUP. He was quite a player but those dodgy knees did for him in the end.

On my Dinner note, I have a very special guest lined up for next year, and if there is anybody from this Forum that is going to be in Manchester on Friday 2nd May (Friday before the last home game of the season) you are more than welcome to attend.