Sir Matt Busby

Lore & Background

Before going into management, Busby was a player for two of Manchester United's greatest rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool. During his time at City, Busby played in two FA Cup Finals, winning one of them. After his playing career was interrupted by the Second World War, Busby was offered the job of assistant coach at Liverpool, but they were unwilling to give him the control that he wanted over the first team. As a result, he took the vacant manager's job at Manchester United instead, where he built the famous Busby Babes team that won successive Football League First Division titles and challenged for the European Cup. Eight of these players died in the Munich air disaster, but Busby rebuilt the team and won two more First Division titles as well as other domestic cups before he took United to European Cup glory a decade later. In his 25 years with Manchester United, Busby won five league championships, two FA Cups and the European Cup. He was among the inaugural inductees into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

In Their Own Story

The dressing room at Old Trafford, late 1957. The air smells of liniment and damp wool. Busby stands before the mirror, not looking at his reflection but at the young faces watching him. He does not shout. He never really did. He simply says, slowly, as though testing the words: "We are not here to be safe. We are here to be remembered." A half-smile crosses his face. He turns, picks up a ball, and starts passing it back and forth with the full-backs, his touch soft, his eyes already a mile ahead, already seeing the shape of a team that does not yet exist. Outside, the January rain taps the windows. Inside, something is being born.

Reader's Guide

Busby was born to Alexander and Helen 'Nellie' (née Greer) Busby in a two-roomed pitman's cottage in the mining village of Orbiston, Bellshill, Lanarkshire. He was raised Catholic. He made only one official international appearance for Scotland, playing in a 3–2 British Home Championship defeat to Wales on 4 October 1933. He also made seven appearances for Scotland against England during the Second World War, but these are considered unofficial.

Did You Know?

• Busby was the first manager of an English team to win the European Cup.
• He was appointed Knight Bachelor in 1968 and made a Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope Paul VI in 1972.
• Busby's father was killed by a sniper's bullet on 23 April 1917 at the Battle of Arras.