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The Busby Babes
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the busby babes, busby babes, matt busby, munich air disaster, manchester united, man united, football, 1958, man utd
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The Busby Babes - Dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster
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<p align="center">
<b><font face="Arial" size="6">The Busby Babes</font></b>
</p>
<p align="center">
<font face="Arial" size="2">With thanks from <a href=
"http://www.Redcafe.net" target="_top">The Redcafe.</a></font>
</p>
<p>
<font face="Arial" size="2">This is a history of the events leading up
to, including and following the tragedy of Thursday February 6, 1958 in
which 23 people connected with the Manchester United British football
team lost there lives. Events that molded Manchester United into the
football club it is today.</font>
</p>
<p align="center">
<font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="victims/victims.htm">Victims And
Survivors</a> | <a href="highbury/highbury.htm">Highbury Classic</a> |
<a href="cuptie/cuptie.htm">Cup Tie</a> | <a href=
"munich/munich.htm">Munich</a> | <a href="news/news.htm">Manchester
Mourns</a> | <a href="farewell/farewell.htm">Farewell</a> | <a href=
"siteinfo.htm">Info & Links</a></font>
</p>
<p>
<font face="Arial" size="4"><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></font>
</p>
<p align="right"></p>
<table cellspacing="0" border="0" width="350" align="right">
<tr>
<td valign="middle">
<p>
<img src="main/munich2.jpg" width="350" height="268"><font face=
"Arial" size="2" color="white"><br></font><font face="Arial" size=
"1">Players, officials and journalists prepare to board the BEA
Elizabethan, which was to crash at Munich. The aircraft stopped at
the snowbound German airport to refuel as the party made its way
back to England from Yugoslavia.</font>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">The team Matt Busby had built from the club's
successful youth policy seemed destined to dominate football for many
years. Such was the power of the Babes that they seemed invincible. The
average age of the side which won the Championship in 1955-56 was just
22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. A year when they were
Champions again, nothing, it seemed, would prevent the young braves of
Manchester United from reigning for the next decade.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">United had taken their first steps into
European football in defiance of the football authorities and it was on
foreign soil that the final chapter in the story of the Babes was to be
written. The aircraft carrying the United party back from a victorious
visit to Yugoslavia crashed in the snow of Munich airport and the Babes
were no more.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">The young Champions flew out of Manchester to
face Red Star Belgrade remembering the cheers of 63,000 intoxicated
football fans. Five days before Munich, United had played Arsenal at
Highbury and thrilled all those who witnessed that game with a display of
the attacking football that they had made their trademark. Nine goals
were scored ... four by Arsenal, five by United.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">That game, on Saturday, 1 February 1958, had
typified the Busby Babes. They played with such flair and enthusiasm that
they thought nothing of conceding four goals in their efforts to score
five. United were trying to win the League Championship for the third
successive season and by then had already reached the fifth round of the
FA Cup.</font>
</p><font face="Arial" size="2"><img src="main/airplane.jpg" align="left"
hspace="12" width="281" height="165"></font>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">To set the scene for the tragedy, which was
to shock football, let us consider how the 1957-58 led up to a symbolic
game with Arsenal and the fateful journey to Yugoslavia. For United, the
season had started well, victories over Leicester at Filbert Street, then
Everton and Manchester City at Old Trafford being the perfect launch
towards the title. Their scoring record was remarkable with 22 goals
coming in the opening six games. Yet when they lost for the first time it
was not by just an odd goal, but by 4:0 at Burnden Park, where Bolton
Wanderers ran rampant in front of a crowd of 48,003.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">As 1957 drew to an end the Babes lost 1-0 to
Chelsea at Old Trafford, then picked themselves up to beat luckless
Leicester 4-0. On Christmas Day goals from Charlton, Edwards and Taylor
secured two points against Luton in Manchester. On Boxing Day they met
Luton again at Kenilworth Road and drew 2-2 and two days later the
`derby' game with Manchester City ended in the same scoreline at Maine
Road. A crowd of 70,483 watched that game as the old rivals battled for
pride as well as points.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">As the European Cup-tie with Red Star
approached, the side also made progress in the FA Cup with a 3-1 win at
Workington and a 2-0 victory over Ipswich at Old Trafford to see them
through to the fifth round, where they were to meet Sheffield
Wednesday.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">But the third target for Matt Busby, success
in Europe, was perhaps the greatest. In 1956 United had become the first
English club to compete in the European Champions' Cup, falling at the
semi-final to the might of Real Madrid, winners of the trophy in the
competition's first five years.</font>
</p><font face="Arial" size="2"><img src="main/paper.jpg" align="right"
hspace="12" width="263" height="265"></font>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">That year, the European seed had been sown.
Manchester had witnessed the skills of di Stefano, Kopa and Gento, had
seen United score ten times against Belgian club Anderlecht, then hang on
against Borussia Dortmund before a remarkable quarter-final against
Atletico Bilbao. In this match the Babes defied the odds by turning a 5-3
deficit from the first leg into a 6-5 victory, with goals from Taylor,
Viollet and Johnny Berry, to win the right to challenge Real Madrid in
the penultimate round.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">That was where the run ended, but when United
qualified to enter the European competition again in the 1957-58 season
it was clear where the club's priorities lay. Matt Busby wanted a side
that was good enough to win everything. The FA Cup had been snatched out
of his grasp because of an injury to goalkeeper Ray Wood in the 1957
final, but his Babes were capable of reaching Wembley once again. Having
secured the League Championship in 1956 and 1957 they could certainly
emulate the great side of pre-war Huddersfield Town and Arsenal and win
it for a third successive time.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">United's second European campaign saw them
stride over Irish champions Shamrock Rovers before beating Dukla Prague
3:1 on aggregate to reach the quarter-final against Red Star. The
Yugoslavs came to Manchester on 14 January 1958, and played a United side
which smarting from a 1:1 draw at Elland Road against Leeds United, who
had been beaten 5:0 at Old Trafford earlier in the season.</font>
</p>
<p align="left">
<font face="Arial" size="2">Bobby Charlton and Eddie Colman scored the
goals that gave United the edge in a 2:1 first leg victory over Red Star,
but it would be close in Belgrade. The run-up to the second leg was
encouraging. A 7:2 win over Bolton, with goals from Bobby Charlton (3),
Dennis Viollet (2), Duncan Edwards and Albert Scanlon, was just the
result United needed before visiting Highbury, then leaving on the tiring
journey behind the Iron Curtain.</font>
</p>
<p>
<font face="Arial" size="2">All texts and pictures have been taken
without permission from <i>The Hamlyn illustarted History of Manchester
United</i></font>