TomClare

I can still recall with great clarity that late Thursday afternoon in Manchester when the news began filtering through that there had been an accident at Munich. That memory never leaves me. The news that there had been fatalities was when I experienced for the very first time in my life, that awful, gut wrenching, churning feeling of loss. For me, one who was still so young, it was so incomprehensible that I would never again see the young boys and young men who had become my idols. The sense of shock and loss is just so hard to describe. It has stayed with me throughout my life time and I would imagine it is the same for my contemporaries. Even now as I have entered my old age, I still get so emotional about those dear young people. I have suffered loss and also tragedy in my lifetime, and I’ve been able to cope with it. However, the loss that was suffered at Munich is still there, it never goes. That sad gut wrenching feeling whenever I think back to that sad day will never go away.

In my possession here at home I have a video about the lives and careers of the “Busby Babes”. There are often times, now that I am in the twilight of my life, especially when I am on my own, when I’ll sit down and watch it in quiet reflection. It takes me back to those days and years of such carefree happiness. There are some wonderful moments in it that bring the memories flooding back. Memories of a wonderful set of young people who had time for everybody. Players who caught the bus on match day and would happily sit there joining in the banter with the same fans that were going to watch them. Players who gave their time and their energies willingly to the community. Players who always remembered from where they had come from. Players who never became detached from who they were and where they came from. Players who just loved the game of football and would have played every day if they could have. No moans about tiredness or fatigue or the number of games that they had to play – they just wanted to get out there and perform.

Sir Bobby Charlton tells of his time as a young boy when he was just starting out in the game, and how he was embraced in friendship by Tommy Taylor and David Pegg. Those two were already big stars by then, but the three of them were inseparable. Bob tells the story of how they would walk from their "digs" in Stretford, and on into Manchester city centre, to go and catch a movie at the cinema. They walked into town because as Bobby described it; "we found it boring to go on the bus." Can you imagine the pampered star players doing that today? Charlton also tells about the very first time that he accompanied them on one of these trips. "I thought that I'd better behave like a professional player. As we got to the cinema kiosk, I pushed forward and said "I'll get these lads - where are we sitting?" Tommy Taylor just grinned and said "just get three in the best Bob" which I did - only to find that practically all my first week's wages had disappeared!"

There is some footage showing Eddie Colman, Wilf McGuinness, and Bob Charlton leaving the old Players Entrance at Old Trafford. Wilf reflects as he goes onto say; “We were just ordinary, everyday fun loving lads who played football. Yes, we were the "Busby Babes" but to us, it wasn't like that at all - we didn't feel like "Busby Babes." We were just a team of pals who shared a great love of life, and football." He tells of how Eddie Colman was the fashionable, cheeky one and that he was the first of the players to wear "drainpipe trousers" and "winkle picker" shoes which were all the rage in men’s fashion wear at that time.

Dear Marjorie English, who was Eddie Colman's girlfriend, tells of how they would all gather around the piano in The Bridge, on Dane Road, on some Saturday evenings. Eddie used to have a favourite song – Frank Sinatra’s "Pennies from Heaven" - and he really fancied himself as a pianist/crooner. He adored Sinatra. The guy with the singer's voice, from what Marjorie says, was none other than Bobby Charlton! There is a lovely picture somewhere out there of Eddie at the piano, surrounded by Duncan, Bobby, Tommy, David, Wilf, Billy - all the single lads! A pint, and a sing-song, with their girlfriends, after a hard Saturday game. Superstars, certainly, but with their feet firmly on the ground!

The guy who was Eddie's closest friend recalls nights out with Eddie, and how, when Eddie was asked by girls what he did for a living, he would just tell them that he worked in Trafford Park, that he was a Docker, or his favourite line; "I'm a painter and decorator!" He really was a little imp and he had a devilish sense of humour which at times tested the patience of both Roger Byrne and Jimmy Murphy.

Brian Hughes MBE (who has written some wonderful biographies of some
of the "Babes") and is a really down to earth Collyhurst lad, tells of the atmosphere that abounded throughout the city in those heady days. As he said, some people used to say it was down to religion. Nothing of the sort - it was a religion alright - but the Manchester United religion. As he said, in those days you didn't need drugs – the biggest narcotic that you could get was "the Babes" - the city, and to some extent, the whole British sporting public, fed off them. He recalls a place that used to be in Livesey Street, Collyhurst, named "Harry's Barbers." This barber used to have pictures of all the United players up on the wall, and people would walk in and ask for a "David Pegg" or a "Tommy Taylor." They would then have their hair done in the same style as the named players.

Jimmy Saville makes an appearance in the first part of the programme, and passes opinions about "the Babes." He applauds himself for being the first to realize that the United lads were the first megastars outside of pop. I actually take issue with this, because I am more than certain that although Jimmy Saville was around in Manchester during that era, and was certainly the D.J. at the old Plaza Ballroom on Oxford Street, I am more than certain that he had little or no direct connection whatsoever with those lads.

Part Two of the video concentrates on United's first entry into Europe, and it's interesting to listen to Bill Foulkes, Bobby Charlton, Wilf McGuinness, and the late Ray Wood, talk about how it was perceived by the players at that time. They said that there was always excitement at the thought of playing against the foreign teams. Bill Foulkes makes some good points by pointing out that up to and including the first European experience, most of those foreign clubs were just names to the players. Just like the majority of the fans, they knew very little or nothing about them at all and never ever saw any of the teams play before they actually stepped out onto the field to compete against them. In the middle fifties, there was very little coverage at all of foreign football. Travel was very limited - people from Manchester traveled great distances to Blackpool, Morecambe, Southport, Rhyl etc for their holidays! Package holidays were unheard of in those days, and Spain was some hot country a long, long, way away!

Wilf tells of the day they traveled to Bilbao, in northern Spain for the first leg of that famous quarter final tie. The flight over to Bilbao on was horrendous. Bill Foulkes had been sat with his feet up pressing against a bulkhead in front of him. Unknown to him, his foot had hit a handle that regulated the passenger cabin heating and had switched it down to the lowest level. The Chairman, dear old Harold Hardman almost froze. Both Duncan Edwards and David Pegg who hated flying, sat for most of the journey with their heads buried in a sick bag! All of them had been expecting to deplane from the aircraft and step into blistering sunshine, but when they arrived it was throwing it down with snow and was bitterly cold. Eddie Colman stepped through the doors of the aircraft and on seeing the dark grey scene that lay before him immediately uttered the words; "Caramba! Just like Salford!" The morning after the game, they had arrived back at Bilbao Airport to find the aircraft covered in ice and snow. Together with the crew and the Press lads, they pitched in, took a hold on brooms and shovels, and cleared the ice and snow from the wings and fuselage of the aircraft. How ironic when you consider what just a year on in time would bring.