History of Manchester United F.C. (1945–1969)

Preceding article: History of Manchester United F.C. (1878-1945)

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Succeeding article: History of Manchester United F.C. (1969-1986)

The arrival of Matt Busby

In 1945, Matt Busby was appointed manager aged only 36, having just finished his playing career which had seen him turn out for Manchester City and Liverpool as well as the Scottish national side. He was ahead of his time, and is thought to have been the first manager to go out on the field with his players during training. A series of astute signings such as the former Celtic player Jimmy Delaney added to the nucleus of the squad, and he began the youth system that would later pay big-time dividends.

League football resumed for the 1946-47 season and United finished second with the likes of Jack Rowley, Charlie Mitten and John Aston. They would repeat this twice, and though disappointed by this failure, they did deliver the FA Cup in 1948, beating Blackpool 4-2. It was the first of many trophies to come. United's stadium Old Trafford had been largely destroyed by German bombs in the Second World War, so they played their home fixtures at Manchester City's ground Maine Road between 1945 and 1949.

After a 41 year wait, league success finally came in 1952, with United, led by Johnny Carey, demolishing second-placed Arsenal 6–1 on the final day of the season to finish four points ahead of Arsenal and Tottenham. However, the side captained by Johnny Carey was beginning to show its age and a new set of players had to be found.

The Busby Babes

Matt Busby took a radically different direction to other clubs when rebuilding his ageing team. Rather than spend large sums of money on world renowned players, he recruited teenagers who had just left school. In the space of five years, he only made two major signings - winger Johnny Berry from Birmingham and striker Tommy Taylor from Barnsley.

The 1952-53 season saw the retirement of Johnny Carey yet it also saw the introduction of the Busby Babes as the Championship team began to lose steam. David Pegg, Dennis Viollet, Duncan Edwards, and Bill Foulkes all made their first appearances in the 1952-53 season. Many of the players at this time were a tribute to the scouting skills of Chief Scout Joe Armstrong (assigned the duty of finding talent in the North of England), Bob Bishop (Belfast), Billy Behan (Dublin) and Bob Harper, underpinned by United's innovative youth policy under Matt Busby. United finished eighth in 1954 and fifth in 1955 before winning the league by an 11 point margin in 1955-56 with Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet leading the line for a side which had an average age of only 22. Only two players in the 1956 team, Roger Byrne and Johnny Berry, had played in the first Championship four years earlier. Against the Football League's wishes, they became England's first representatives in the European Cup.

One of the stars of the team was Duncan Edwards, who set the record as the youngest player ever to be capped for England when he played against Scotland at the age of 17 and 8 months. The record stood for almost 50 years before being broken in 1998 by Michael Owen. His legendary status is demonstrated by the fact that he placed sixth in a 1999 poll of Manchester United fans, asking them to name the top 50 United players of all time.

The Championship was defended successfully in 1957, with Taylor scoring 22 goals, Liam Whelan getting 26 and a young Bobby Charlton grabbing 10 goals. United reached the FA Cup final that year, but played without their goalkeeper Ray Wood for much of the game, eventually losing 2–1 to Aston Villa.

United's first European match was a 2–0 win away to the Belgian champions Anderlecht. The return leg was played at Maine Road as Old Trafford did not have any floodlights, and United won 10–0. This is still their record victory in a European match.

United then knocked out Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao having come back from two goals behind against Bilbao, before losing to Real Madrid in the semi-final.

Munich air disaster

Main article: Munich air disaster

The Busby Babes seemed destined to dominate the soccer world for time to come and had captured the imagination of the fans; already they had proved themselves both at home and in Europe. The 1957/58 season opened with talk of a treble - The League, the FA Cup, and the European Cup. But fate had decided it was not to be. On 6 February, 1958 the Airspeed Ambassador plane carrying them home from Belgrade crashed on takeoff, killing eight United's players.

United arrived in Yugoslavia to meet Red Star Belgrade in the second leg of the quarter finals. The first leg in Manchester had ended in a 2-1 win for United. United scored three goals quickly, but by the end Red Star managed to claw back to level it 3-3 after 90 minutes. The Reds went through to the semi-final 5-4 on aggregate.

The plane, a chartered aircraft owned by British European Airways, left Belgrade and stopped at Munich to refuel. Takeoff had to be aborted twice because of boost surging, a common problem in the "Elizabethan". The problem was caused by too rich a fuel mixture, which caused the engines to over-accelerate. The problem was exacerbated by the altitude of the Munich airport.

The pilots were able to control the surging on the third takeoff attempt, but as they reached the V1 "decision speed" (after which it is unsafe to abort takeoff), the airspeed suddenly dropped. The aircraft left the runway, crashed through a fence and into a house. The left wing and the tail were ripped off and the starboard side of the fuselage hit a fuel tank and exploded.

Officially, the cause of the accident was build-up of snow on the runway which had caused the aircraft to lose speed and crash.

Mark Jones, David Pegg, Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, Liam Whelan, and Tommy Taylor were killed instantly. Club secretary Walter Crickmer, and coaches Tom Curry and Bert Whalley were also killed. Duncan Edwards, Matt Busby, and Johnny Berry were critically injured, and Duncan Edwards died three weeks later. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower survived but never played again. Four other passengers and two of the crew were also killed, as were eight sportswriters travelling with the team, including former England goalkeeper Frank Swift. It was the most tragic day English football had ever seen. Other sadly tragic days in world football are the Superga air disaster in 1949 which killed the entire Torino team, the air disaster in 1987 in Lima, Peru that killed 43 passengers including the whole Alianza Lima squad, plus members of the cheer squad and the coaching staff, and a 1993 crash that killed the entire Zambia national team.

Rebuilding

Jackie Blanchflower and Johnny Berry were injured to such an extent that their playing careers were over. Matt Busby himself was in hospital for two months recovering from multiple injuries. Initially his chances of surviving were thought to be no better than 50-50.

While Busby recovered in hospital, his assistant Jimmy Murphy took temporary charge of team affairs. United struggled in the League after Munich, winning only one of their last 14 matches and finishing in ninth place. However, they performed well in the FA Cup matches and made it to the final, but lost to Bolton 2-0. At the end of the season, UEFA offered The FA the opportunity to submit both United and the eventual champions Wolves for the 1958-59 European Cup, an unprecedented move, as a tribute to the victims, but the FA declined.

A period of rebuilding followed with several significant signings, including Albert Quixall, Maurice Setters, Denis Law, Pat Crerand, and Noel Cantwell. Although they were sound long-term investments, the arrival of fresh blood failed to give the club an immediate leg-up in the league. The team's form was inconsistent, but despite a poor 19th place in the 1962-63 season, United managed to beat Leicester City 3-1 at Wembley to win the FA Cup.

After the crash, Busby's Babes seemed inappropriate so a new name was sought. English rugby club Salford had toured France in the 1930s wearing red shirts and became known as "The Red Devils". Busby liked the sound of it, thinking a devil was more intimidating to opponents than angelic babes. He declared Manchester United should also be known as the "The Red Devils" and soon the club began incorporating the devil logo into match programs and scarves. In 1970 the club badge was redesigned, but now with a devil in the centre holding a pitch-fork.

The mid-Sixties

1963 also saw the debut of George Best, completing the trio of Charlton, Law and Best that would power Manchester United to the triumphant heights of the 1960s. Law amazed fans in 1963-64 by scoring 46 goals in all competitions. United finished second that season, then won the League in 1964-65 by goal average over Leeds. That season saw United go on a run of 13 wins in 15 games from September-December 1964. The rebuilding was complete: Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were the only Munich survivors in that team.

That season was significant in other ways too, as England were hosting the 1966 World Cup and Old Trafford was among the stadia to be upgraded at the government's expense. United's players Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles played for England in the final, beating West Germany 4–2. United won another league title in 1966-67, going unbeaten in their last 20 games and making sure of top spot by winning 6-1 over West Ham qualifying them for the European Cup the next season and laying the groundwork for the climatic triumph of that era.

Champions of Europe (1967-68)

The run to the European Cup began easily enough, and the Reds cruised past the Maltese team Hibernians for a 4-0 win on aggregate. A tough, physical series against Sarajevo was next, followed by Gornik Zabrze from Poland. United won 2-1 on aggregate and then came the semi-final - two matches against the mighty Real Madrid. Real played a defensive game in the first leg at Old Trafford, stifling the offensive magic of the Reds. United managed a 1-0 victory, but it was a very small advantage to take into the Bernabéu.

Denis Law was suffering from a knee injury, so Busby decided instead to call up the veteran defender Bill Foulkes. The game started badly for United as Real Madrid ran circles around them, leading 3–1 at half-time, 3–2 on aggregate. United came back strongly after the break and pounded the Real defence to no avail for half an hour until David Sadler levelled the aggregate score. Then Bill Foulkes played the hero as he buried a pass from George Best into the goal. It was the only goal he ever scored in European competition.

United were through to the final and faced Benfica at Wembley. In many ways it was an emotional day, Matt Busby's journey finally coming full circle after the tragically aborted promise of the Busby Babes. It was also a testament to Busby's skill in judging talent, as the club had only paid transfer fees for two of that day's players.

Bobby Charlton opened the scoring for United, then Jaime Graça equalised. Benfica piled on the pressure in the dying minutes and it took a brilliant save from Alex Stepney to deny Eusébio the winning goal. United managed to hold out until extra time, then George Best finally broke free of the stifiling marking of the Benfica defence and scored. Benfica were reeling and Brian Kidd, celebrating his 19th birthday, scored a header. Bobby Charlton finished off Benfica with a high shot for a 4–1 victory and United became the first English team to win the European Cup.

Matt Busby would later be knighted for his accomplishments, as well as being awarded the Freedom of Manchester.

End of an era (1968-69)

An ugly season that started badly with the infamous World Club Championship matches against the South American champions Estudiantes, which were marked by violence on the pitch. United also disappointed in the league, finishing 11th. The season ended with Busby moving to become General Manager.