[Motterman]

ATTENTION: This is, quite probably, the most important thread in BigSoccer's Manchester United Forum history. It certainly will be a solemn and respectful one. The following posts are for Manchester United supporters, and for supporters of other clubs, to offer their thoughts, tributes, stories, links to stories, pictures, prayers, and condolences to commemorate one of the greatest sporting tragedies in history. However; be warned - anything that seems like a troll at all will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. We are typically one of the most lenient boards on BigSoccer, but not in this thread.

We recognize that there is a need for a separate thread for banter and related discussions regarding the Munich tragedy, and you can find that here: Munich Open Discussion Thread

jammybastard has started a "50 Years On: The Media Remembers..." thread. I highly encourage you to check it out, as seeing personal accounts on video really brings the experience and reality of what happened home. Check it out here:
50 Years On: The Media Remembers...

The Media thread and other information about the Munich tragedy and other information about the history of Manchester United Football Club, is in our History SubForum as well.

After 1 month's time, this thread will be closed again and then stickied in the Manchester United History SubForum indefinitely, so please make a significant contribution.

And when we say "significant", we don't mean post alot of stuff (leave that for the Open thread), we mean post something personal and powerful. Something worth remembering...

Thank you.

~Your BigSoccer Manchester United Forum Moderators~


The Flowers of Manchester

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Geoff Bent
Roger Byrne
Eddie Colman
Duncan Edwards
Mark Jones
David Pegg
Tommy Taylor
Liam Whelan
Walter Crickmer
Bert Whalley
Tom Curry
Alf Clarke
Don Davies
George Follows
Tom Jackson
Archie Ledbrooke
Henry Rose
Eric Thompson
Frank Swift
Kenneth Rayment
Bela Miklos
Willie Satinoff
Tom Cable

[Motterman]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/080202/2/xv2p.html

Munich disaster changed Manchester United forever

Sat 02 Feb, 12:09 AM


MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Manchester United stopped being just another football club on the afternoon of February 6 1958 when the plane carrying them home from Belgrade crashed after a refuelling stop at Munich.
A transformation took place in the national consciousness as a stunned public learnt by wireless and news flashes on small grainy television sets of the tragedy that had wiped out the cream of a generation, the Busby Babes.
People who had no interest in soccer began following the fortunes of United, neutrals willed them to win. The players who survived the crash, such as Bobby Charlton, won a special place in people's hearts and United itself became an icon of hope born of tragedy.

[Motterman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai.../sfnmun302.xml

Just for an instant those in the room thought Sir Alex Ferguson was going to cry. Certainly, there was a catch in his voice when he was asked if it would be fitting for Manchester United to win the European Cup in the year that marks the 50th anniversary of the Munich Disaster.

"I have to confess it makes me a wee bit nervous," he replied after a long pause. "It is maybe a good thing that the fear of failure is upon us. It is a very, very emotional high point in the club's history and how we deal with it is not going to be easy. I do have a bit of nervousness about this season but I do think we have the right players to do it. I think I've given them the ammunition for it. Munich may be an incentive but, who knows, it may be the biggest handicap of all.


Sir Alex Ferguson: Aiming to win seal Champions League victory

"But the players we have here are not afraid of challenges; they can play without nerve and there are too many of them who can play without nerves for us to fail miserably. I think we have a marvellous chance."

[Motterman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai.../sfnmun101.xml

How Matt Busby arrived at Manchester UnitedBy Robert Philip

Four decades into the future, Alex Ferguson would be moved to describe Old Trafford as the "Theatre of Dreams" as he gazed round in wonderment following his appointment as manager of Manchester United, but when Matt Busby turned up for work on his first day on Oct 22, 1945, the once-magnificent stadium lay before him as a Second World War bomb site.

[Motterman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai.../sfnmun102.xml

Bobby Charlton's tales rekindle Babes passion
By Tim Rich

"Dennis, it's dreadful." They were the first words Bobby Charlton spoke as he came round on the slush-covered runway at Munich Airport, grateful that he had kept his overcoat on as the plane made its third, fatal attempt to take off.


He had been sitting next to Dennis Viollet who, with Tommy Taylor, provided the deep cutting-edge to the Busby Babes. As the propeller-driven Airspeed Elizabethan, call-sign Zulu Uniform, ploughed through the airport's perimeter fence, Viollet, who at 24 already had a reputation as one of the more sophisticated members of this young, wondrously talented Manchester United side, turned to Charlton and told him, contrary to all the evidence splintering around them, to relax.

The next time they spoke they were still in their seats, some 70 yards away from the wrecked plane, Viollet with a deep gash to his head, Charlton outwardly uninjured except for bruising. As the rear section of the aircraft sheared away they had been thrown from the seats onto the runway, and been found by Manchester United's reserve goalkeeper, Harry Gregg, who proved one of the heroes of the disaster. Gregg initially thought them dead, before dragging them "like rag dolls" back into their seats, where they regained consciousness in the damp, bitter February air.

[Motterman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai.../sfnmun202.xml

Matt Busby's philosophy the stuff of legend
By Robert Philip

According to Old Trafford folklore, when the doctor placed her new-born son into Nellie Busby's arms in the family's cramped pitman's cottage, he ran his eyes over the babe's thrashing, stocky legs and prophesised: "A footballer has come into this house this day." (The date, incidentally, was May 26, 1909 and come that day in 1999 Manchester United would celebrate the 90th anniversary of Matt Busby's birth by completing a historic treble with victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Barcelona.)

Like his two great cronies, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein, Busby was raised in an impoverished coal-mining community where boys were expected to leave school before secondary age to begin work 2,000 feet or so underground. Denied any serious education, it befell young Matt to become the sole bread-winner for his mother and three sisters, his father, Private Alexander Busby of the 7th Battalion of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, having been killed by a sniper's bullet on April 23, 1917 during the Battle of Arras.

[Motterman]

http://www.legacy.com/ManchesterEven...onID=102168163

Busby Babes



They were the pioneering team who captured the hearts of a nation.

The Busby Babes had ripped up the post-War formula for soccer success.

Instead of a side packed with ageing pros, Matt Busby had put faith in the youth policy he had nurtured at Old Trafford and promoted players to senior roles.

Busby's vision and his Babes' burgeoning talent signalled a new blueprint that took on the established old boys in the First Division.

The new-look Reds swept to glory with the 1956 and 57 league titles going their way. Busby wanted his United boys to savour experiences abroad and ultimately confront the all-star Real Madrid team in the embryonic European Cup. The Babes against the Bernabeu boys was a mouth-watering prospect for everyone.

But tragically at Munich on February 6, 1958 that dream turned into an horrific nightmare as a generation of golden talent was wiped out and the Flowers of Manchester were no more.

Having played Red Star Belgrade, the Busby Babes and entourage stopped in Munich for refuelling and the terrible plane crash occurred.

Eight players perished: Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, Davdi Pegg, Billy Whelan, Eddie Colman, Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards. Edwards died 15 days after the crash.

Walter Crickmer (Club secretary), Tom Curry (first team trainer) and Bert Whalley (coach) died from the United staff.

Eight journalists were among the dead: Tom Jackson (Manchester Evening News), Alf Clarke (Manchester Evening Chronicle), Don Davies (Manchester Guardian), George Follows (Daily Herald), Archie Ledbrooke (Daily Mirror), Henry Rose (Daily Express), Eric Thompson (Daily Mail) and former City player Frank Swift (News of the World).

Captain Kenneth "Ken" Rayment, a British co-pilot who suffered multiple injuries in the crash and died three weeks later as a result of brain damage, steward Tom Cable, travel agent Bela Miklos and supporter Willie Satinoff also died.

[Motterman]

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sh...ducts/026.html

Munich Remembered - 50th Anniversary

The Manchester Evening News has published a 48 page colour supplement to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.
This special edition is packed full of photo's and memories from that day's tragic events.
Please add £2.00 for UK orders and £5.10 for Worldwide orders.
Please allow 14 days for delivery.

[Motterman]

Nice tribute up at Red Cafe:

http://www.redcafe.net/archives/history/munich.php

[Motterman]

Collection of Tom Clare's postings on Munich and the Busby Babes...

http://www.redcafe.net/f6/50-years-tom-clare-183945/