On this day ............50 years ago.....
A slightly "down memory lane" article.
This is Matt Busby, known later as "Sir" Matt Busby, and known eternally as the maker of "Busby Babes" the name given to the Football (Soccer) team he put together in the '50s. Made up of mainly young and relatively unexperienced players, whose transfer price and wages, annually, would not nowadays equal the price of the transfer fee demanded and paid for one player by many Clubs!
Do you remember 50 years ago this week? What were YOU doing? It's similar to assassination of President Kennedy, everybody recalls, even if vaguely, where and how they received the news of the "Munich Disaster" in that dreary, rainy day in February 1958.
The "babes" had been off to play in Europe, and on their return flight crashed at Munich.
I recall that I had never heard of Munich at the time (something I made up for in later life), and I recall that We heard the news, partly, on one of those popular Radios of the times, BBC "Home" News. Problem was that the Radio itself was one of those "valve" affairs (remember them - took around 10 minutes to warm up, just in time for you to hear the last few sentences or words of what you wanted to hear). You can pick up one of the things nowadays very cheaply, I heard of them going at around $4,000, in perfect shape - what a bargain.
Anyway, We were living (as I vaguely trcall) in a place called Bolton, in Lancashire, England - quite close actually to Manchester, where the Busby Babes
had their Club grounds.
We were on the brink of moving, following "God's calling" given apparantly to our parents, to the Grande Metropole of London, so it was a little bit of a miracle, in it's own way., that we even heard the sad news.
In a blizzard, the plane carrying the most popular and most successful Soccer team that Britain had ever known, had crashed at Munich.
We had to wait another few hours for the full report, because our radio was so long at warming up, that we only caught the last few words of the report, and had to wait until the infamous "6-o'clock news" which we were allowed to listen to - even on a Sunday- and which carried the full reports of everything (at least I beleived that, in those days - but then, I was and still am, quite naive in many things) that had happened on the Planet. Unfortunately we did not have mobile (handy-cellular) phones, with CNN or Sky News installed to blast our ears off when the latest news is available!
Then we heard it, plane crashed, in a blizzard, over, or at, Munich, Germany (and I heard muted mutterings about Germany and Germans), dead players, as I recall 8 in total, and stories started about Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, even Matt Busby himself - struggling to live in a hospital at Munich, Germany. It just didn't seem right at all.
These people who had risked life and limb, every week, playing on cloggy, muddy pitches, with clogged up muddy, leather footballs with laces made to cut your forehead open, if ever you dared to head the thing, risking concussion and a coma, playing in the mist and rain and snow and everything else, had died, or were dying because their plane had not flown, but crashed, 1000's of miles away from their cherished Old Trafford Park.
It turned out that one of the survivors, the now Sir Bobby Charlton, amongst the youngest of the "Busby Babes", was so badly injured that they doubted he would ever play football or soccer again. He ended up getting his revenge against the Germans some 8 years later, in 1966, in the Wembley World Cup Final. This the man himself, in later life, and I find it astounding how much he resembles his Boss - Sir Matt!
Maybe we all look similar from a certain age onwards!
Anyway - today is the 50th Anniversary of this tragic event, and even the German TV recalls it! CNN amazingly enough, full of traditional Soccer history, even had a little article about it, but I WAS THERE! Avidly awaiting the valves to warm up - and then it was teatime- a boiled egg and bread awaited me!
The egg got cold, the bread turned up it's edges, just like a British Railway sandwich - but I heard the news!
Where were you? The open for "comments" link allows you to let everyone know!
Many soccer matches have been played since, and many other tragic events have followed, but - today - this one sticks in my mind.
Vauvert, France. 7 February 2008 (iwmpop) mr le Marquis.
This is Matt Busby, known later as "Sir" Matt Busby, and known eternally as the maker of "Busby Babes" the name given to the Football (Soccer) team he put together in the '50s. Made up of mainly young and relatively unexperienced players, whose transfer price and wages, annually, would not nowadays equal the price of the transfer fee demanded and paid for one player by many Clubs!
Do you remember 50 years ago this week? What were YOU doing? It's similar to assassination of President Kennedy, everybody recalls, even if vaguely, where and how they received the news of the "Munich Disaster" in that dreary, rainy day in February 1958.
The "babes" had been off to play in Europe, and on their return flight crashed at Munich.
I recall that I had never heard of Munich at the time (something I made up for in later life), and I recall that We heard the news, partly, on one of those popular Radios of the times, BBC "Home" News. Problem was that the Radio itself was one of those "valve" affairs (remember them - took around 10 minutes to warm up, just in time for you to hear the last few sentences or words of what you wanted to hear). You can pick up one of the things nowadays very cheaply, I heard of them going at around $4,000, in perfect shape - what a bargain.
Anyway, We were living (as I vaguely trcall) in a place called Bolton, in Lancashire, England - quite close actually to Manchester, where the Busby Babes
had their Club grounds.We were on the brink of moving, following "God's calling" given apparantly to our parents, to the Grande Metropole of London, so it was a little bit of a miracle, in it's own way., that we even heard the sad news.
In a blizzard, the plane carrying the most popular and most successful Soccer team that Britain had ever known, had crashed at Munich.
We had to wait another few hours for the full report, because our radio was so long at warming up, that we only caught the last few words of the report, and had to wait until the infamous "6-o'clock news" which we were allowed to listen to - even on a Sunday- and which carried the full reports of everything (at least I beleived that, in those days - but then, I was and still am, quite naive in many things) that had happened on the Planet. Unfortunately we did not have mobile (handy-cellular) phones, with CNN or Sky News installed to blast our ears off when the latest news is available!
Then we heard it, plane crashed, in a blizzard, over, or at, Munich, Germany (and I heard muted mutterings about Germany and Germans), dead players, as I recall 8 in total, and stories started about Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, even Matt Busby himself - struggling to live in a hospital at Munich, Germany. It just didn't seem right at all.
These people who had risked life and limb, every week, playing on cloggy, muddy pitches, with clogged up muddy, leather footballs with laces made to cut your forehead open, if ever you dared to head the thing, risking concussion and a coma, playing in the mist and rain and snow and everything else, had died, or were dying because their plane had not flown, but crashed, 1000's of miles away from their cherished Old Trafford Park.
It turned out that one of the survivors, the now Sir Bobby Charlton, amongst the youngest of the "Busby Babes", was so badly injured that they doubted he would ever play football or soccer again. He ended up getting his revenge against the Germans some 8 years later, in 1966, in the Wembley World Cup Final. This the man himself, in later life, and I find it astounding how much he resembles his Boss - Sir Matt!
Maybe we all look similar from a certain age onwards!Anyway - today is the 50th Anniversary of this tragic event, and even the German TV recalls it! CNN amazingly enough, full of traditional Soccer history, even had a little article about it, but I WAS THERE! Avidly awaiting the valves to warm up - and then it was teatime- a boiled egg and bread awaited me!
The egg got cold, the bread turned up it's edges, just like a British Railway sandwich - but I heard the news!
Where were you? The open for "comments" link allows you to let everyone know!
Many soccer matches have been played since, and many other tragic events have followed, but - today - this one sticks in my mind.
Vauvert, France. 7 February 2008 (iwmpop) mr le Marquis.
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