Busby Babes

The Busby Babes were a group of Manchester United players, recruited and trained by the club's assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of the eponymous Matt Busby.

The Busby Babes were notable not only for being young and gifted, but for being developed by the club itself, rather than bought from other clubs, which was customary then, as now. The term, supposedly coined by Manchester Evening News journalist Tom Jackson, usually refers to the players who won the league championship in seasons 1955-56 and 1956-57 with an average age of 21 and 22 respectively.

Eight of the Busby Babes died in the Munich air disaster in 1958 including Duncan Edwards, who was regarded as potentially being the greatest of them all. The last remaining player from the pre-Munich side, Bobby Charlton, retired from playing in 1975; though he had left Manchester United two years earlier, he had continued playing as player-manager of Preston North End.

See also

• Manchester United F.C.
• Munich air disaster
• Fergie's Fledglings