Munich Anniversary

1984 in school sat next to a Liverpool supporting lad that had a full repertoire of Munich songs that he spent teaching City supporting me. 14 year old me thought they were funny as fook.

Fast forward a number of decades and I find them distasteful...and the lad is now a fucking Rag with a deep undying love for King Eric.

as Morpheus said "Time it seems as a sense of irony"
 
An excellent article which really is an accurate reconstruction of the attitudes and feelings of those desperately dark days. I was at school in the mid- and late fifties, but I remember vividly the pride felt by Mancunians when both the Cup and League were brought home to the city by City and United in 1956. There was, it seems, a civic pride which transcended local rivalries and, indeed, united the two. The tragedy of Munich was, therefore, far more than uniquely a football disaster. There were personal connections and links everywhere; my uncle (a lifelong city fan) knew the Colemans well, my mother worked with Matt Busby's daughter (Sheena?) at Kendalls and all over the city and conurbation people had a very personal involvement beyond the sympathy which such a dreadful event arouses. The loss of "Big Swiftie" was obviously one I felt, though not as much as my dad and uncles did. I was also upset greatly by the death of Henry Rose, because he had been just about the only journalist to take City to beat Birmingham in the 1956 final. Such are the feelings of schoolboys!

I remember going to the Birmingham match, the rain, the pitch under at least 2 inches of water and Birmingham taking the lead when a back pass just stopped on the surface of the lake and a Brummie simple lobbed the advancing "Trautie". I don't remember our equaliser, but I remember well the rendition of Abide with me though I never knew, until today, the name of the soloist. Thank you for letting us know, Gary. We took two United supporters to that match and I remember when United played in the cup one of them brought the programme - it was their first match after the crash - round to our house. One of the most poignant memories was the page for the United team - all blank spaces filled in in juvenile writing and him saying, pathetically, "they're all dead". Something I shall never forget.
 
talkativesprout said:
1984 in school sat next to a Liverpool supporting lad that had a full repertoire of Munich songs that he spent teaching City supporting me. 14 year old me thought they were funny as fook.

Fast forward a number of decades and I find them distasteful...and the lad is now a fucking Rag with a deep undying love for King Eric.

as Morpheus said "Time it seems as a sense of irony"
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I know one lad I went to school with in the 70s and 80s, a full-on “die hard” Liverpool fan , he used to get battered at least once per each half term off Utd or City lads as he couldn’t stop taking the piss.

We left school in the late 80s and I didn’t see him for donkey’s years. I bumped into him just after the takeover in the Trafford centre and to my surprise he was decked out in a lovely new united shirt. He even called me a “plastic” on account of the takeover. Being a grown up these days I resisted the urge to leather him (doubt I could have anyway, he was a big unit), and settled for laughing at him “see you’re still a knobhead Mitch”.

He’s probably a blue nowadays. So Mitch, if you’re on here, you’re a dickhead mate.
 
I had one personal contact with the Munich Air Crash.

A few years after we go a new part-time PE teacher at school: Ray Wood.

He had been United's number one goalkeeper through their League Championship wins in 1955-56 and 1956-57. When Harry Gregg arrived in a world record fee for a goalkeeper in December 1957, Wood found his first team opportunities limited. He was on the flight back from the match against Red Star Belgrade which crashed at Munich.

Wood suffered minor injuries but was soon sold to Second Division Hudderfield where he stayed for seven seasons. Back then many players even those in the top two divisions often had 'day jobs'. City goalkeeper Harry Dowd worked as a plumber as did Preston legend Tom Finney. Ray Wood worked as a PE teacher at our school alongside Stockport County's Trevor Porteous.
 
Kazzydeyna said:
R.I.P to all who perished.

My dad was as passionate a blue as you could ever meet, he lived and breathed City all his life. Didn’t stop him getting emotional whenever the subject of Munich came up. He described it as like the entire city being hit by a sledgehammer. I think that’s why he could never bring himself to hate United. He didn’t see the ugly behemoth we see today , he only ever saw a collection of bright young lives snuffed out all too early.

One of the very few times he ever really bollocked me was for calling them “Munichs” when I was a teenager. It disgusted him. As I’ve grown it disgusts me as well.

I don’t give a shite who they played for, or how the club treated their families afterwards, today is a day for remembering a collection of lives, young and older, that were taken far too soon, in a Very traumatic devastating manner.

God bless them all, and their families.
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Thanks for posting this, you've put into words better than I would be able to what was really lost that day. My dad was a friend of Billy Whelan and used to watch United one week, City the next and like you I remember him absolutely taking me to task when I was too young and dumb to understand what an idiot I was for singing the runway song.
 
Gary James said:
So much has been written about Munich that it’s easy to get lost and confused by its actual significance to us all. I’ve posted this lengthy piece recalling what it meant to Manchester in 1958 and the years since, paying quite a bit of attention to MCFC of course: https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/02/05/the-munich-air-disaster-a-long-read/

I’ve seen a lot of wild exaggerations and myths but hopefully the facts in that piece and the memories of Steve Fleet and others will be of interest. Thanks
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That's a fine article, so well researched and written. Many thanks. Takes me back to when Manchester folk had a stronger & closer sense of local identity than in today's globalized world. Although i'd been a City supporter for a few years by then I thought and still think Duncan Edwards was the best English player i've seen. Munich affected me greatly, remember hearing about the United fan who went to the first game after the crash, against Sheff. Wednesday, wearing a scarf with the players' names sewn into it and a small black cross next to those who had died. When they scored direct from a corner she said "perhaps one of them gave it a push." Then staying up late to listen on the wireless to their Cup game v. West Brom when Colin Webtser (?) scored a late winner. And from reports of the crash itself it touched me hearing that Billy Whelan, a devout Catholic, called out at the last minute "If this is death I am ready for it." R.I.P. always to the Busby Babes.
 
Very sad event at the time it happened which they dealt with in a shocking manner afterwards. It only became an annual event when their commercial department realised they could milk it for all it was worth. A complete bunch of hypocrites!
 
Truth be told I sang the song as many of us did.. were we bad individuals then, and good individuals now because we dont sing it any more ? you can not say boo to a goose now..hate this woke culture.. I would guess that many of these morally correct individuals say different things to their mates down the pub than they ever dare post online. In ten years we will all be singing Agadoo or other such tripe.
 
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