According to distributors COMAG Specialist: The modern-day success of Manchester United can be attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson, but where would the club be without his pioneering, trailblazing forerunner… Sir Matt Busby?
After his career as a player was largely ended by WWII, Busby served as a football coach in the Army Physical Training Corp during the war, before taking on his first managerial role, joining Manchester United in 1945, with Old Trafford in ruins due to a wartime bombing raid.
Manchester United under Busby won the league title in 1952, the club’s first major trophy since 1911 and it is with this youthful team of the 1950s (the so-called ‘Busby Babes’), that the manager is most remembered, winning the league twice more before tragedy struck.
Flying home from a European Cup game in Yugoslavia in February 1958, Manchester United’s airplane crashed on the runway at Munich-Reim Airport, killing 23 people in total, including seven players and three club officials, injuring many more, including Busby.
The recovery from the Munich Air Disaster was long and painful and Manchester United’s next trophy was the FA Cup in 1963, which was followed by the league titles in 1965 and 1967. Busby’s career at the club culminated in the European Cup in 1968, with Manchester United becoming the first English team to lift football’s greatest club prize.
Taking in the triumph and the tragedy of his 24 years at the club, Sir Matt Busby: The Father Of Manchester United will be a 100-page glossy souvenir magazine with features and photos taken from the archives of the Daily Mirror.
An official title, sure to be a must-have purchase for any United fan, Sir Matt Busby: The Father Of Manchester United will also have many previous unseen images, exclusive input from club legends and reflections from some of today’s first-team stars.
