Busby, Sir Matthew

Sir Matthew Busby, (born May 26, 1909, Orbiston, Lanarkshire, Scotland—died January 20, 1994, Manchester, England), British football (soccer) player who achieved acclaim as manager (1945–71), director (1971–82), and president (1980) of the Manchester United football team.

Busby enjoyed a fine career as a midfielder with Manchester City (1926–36) and Liverpool (1936–39), reaching the Football Association (FA) Cup final twice (1933 and 1934), but it was as manager of Manchester United that he made his mark. He guided the team to five championships in the first division of the English Football League (1952, 1956, 1957, 1965, and 1967), two victories in the FA Challenge Cup finals (1948 and 1963), and one triumph, the first for an English club, in the European Champions Clubs’ Cup finals (1968). As manager of Manchester United, he successfully introduced a style of attacking play that depended on a highly mobile centre forward. He was also noted for developing many talented young players, including Jackie Blanchflower, Duncan Edwards, and Bobby Charlton, who collectively became known as “Busby Babes.”

On February 6, 1958, an airliner carrying the Manchester United team crashed near Munich, West Germany, killing eight first-string players. Busby, who survived, then performed what was probably his greatest coaching feat by guiding a patchwork team to the FA Cup final match. (They lost to the Bolton Wanderers.) He was knighted in 1968.