6 February, 1958.

[mancityvstoke]

Being in a plane crash is most peoples worst nightmare

RIP to all of those people - some tragically young.

 

[RayCTID]

RIP to all

 

[The blue phantom]

terrible waste

It most certainly was.

R.I.P.

 

[Henkeman]

I didn't know UEFA had tried to get City to take over United's European Cup place after the tragedy. Even taking into account the closer relationship between the clubs back then, what a dreadful thing to propose - City were quite right to reject it.

 

[paulchapo]

Being in a plane crash is most peoples worst nightmare

RIP to all of those people - some tragically young.

Correct and I think it was the third attempt that it crashed making it even more nerve wracking. I think today the flight would have been cancelled in such conditions. My auntie told me the whole of Manchester red and blue stood united when they brought the bodies back.

 

[ahoyhoy]

All my family are Blues with my Dad being a massive City fan. He didn't like utd but he always said Duncan Edwards was the best footballer he'd ever seen. He was destined to be an absolute legend
Remember Harry Gregg too. He carried others out of the wreck & ran back into the plane to rescue a kid. Thats a man to admire whatever colour the shirt

 

[Bill]

All my family are Blues with my Dad being a massive City fan. He didn't like utd but he always said Duncan Edwards was the best footballer he'd ever seen. He was destined to be an absolute legend
Remember Harry Gregg too. He carried others out of the wreck & ran back into the plane to rescue a kid. Thats a man to admire whatever colour the shirt

Spot on. Well said mate.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Didn't play as many games as Oakes due to the war years, but nobody has been a City player longer than Frank Swift 1933-1949

 

[Gary James]

I didn't know UEFA had tried to get City to take over United's European Cup place after the tragedy. Even taking into account the closer relationship between the clubs back then, what a dreadful thing to propose - City were quite right to reject it.

The FA went crazy with UEFA but not because of the suggestion because they (the FA) said they were the only people who would decide who would replace MUFC. The FA said Wolves would be the team!

Sadly, about 20 years ago I read a piece by a Utd journalist who had seen some of the newspaper cuttings from the time and he completely misrepresented the story saying that City had asked if the could replace Utd! That's why I included the story on my writing. On my Facebook and twitter I've included articles that I did for the MUFC prog in 2008 and the MEN that year too. I've also posted the entire chapter I wrote in Manchester A Football History about the disaster and the emotional game at Maine Road (the first Manchester home game after Munich - again often overlooked) on my twitter https://twitter.com/GaryJamesWriter and it will appear on my Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4/ later today, so please watch out for it.

No one should ever forget the disaster. It affected all of Manchester and many in Germany too (I still wonder about the girl who lost her sight who lived in the house the plane hit).

 

[Gary James]

Didn't play as many games as Oakes due to the war years, but nobody has been a City player longer than Frank Swift 1933-1949

Sorry, Alan Oakes was with City from 8 Apr 1958 until 17 July 1976, while Swift was with City from 16 Nov 1932 until 9 Sept 1949. Having said that City kept hold of Swift's registration for several years, refusing to let him sign for United when Matt Busby asked him if he'd help out the Reds.

I was supposed to be publishing a book on Swift a few years back - he has a fascinating life. I'd agreed with his daughter to do it but sadly one or two things got in the way. I ended up writing 60,000 words of a proposed 100,000 and it was to be of the same standard and quality as my Mercer biography. Unfortunately, his daughter died by the time I was to pick it up again and shortly afterwards someone else announced he was writing a book. I won't go into details about what followed but let's just say my book became shelved, and will probably never be published now. It's a shame because Swift was such an important figure that he deserves to be written about extensively but no publisher would touch it now, regardless of quality.