"Don't tell me what can't be done. When Matt
Busby brought me here they told me we'd never make a go of it, that it couldn't
be done. That Manchester United would never make a success. Told us we couldn't
win the league, playing kids. Told us we couldn't match the best teams in
Europe. And every bloody time we proved them wrong, so with respect sir, it can
be done, it will be done, I'll make sure of it." Jimmy
Murphy
The
first time I heard the song The Greatest by multiple Grammy
award winners Sia and rapper Kendrick Lamar
I felt a connect with the song. Sia’s songs gets you enamoured with her, just
as it energizes you to push through whatever life throws at you and achieve
your dreams and set goals.
In
the song Never Give up she tells of a personal resilience to achieve
greatness despite the defeats and disappointments of a distant past. Positivism
starts from within; no matter the loss of the past. There future gains to be
amassed only if we stay focused and see the loss for what it is, an opportunity
to launch even further.
Abraham H. Maslow once said *“Life is an ongoing process of
choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the
sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a
day."*
Yesterday
marked the 60th anniversary of the Munich
air disaster which occurred on 6 February 1958 when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take
off from a slush-covered
runway at Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany. On the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes", along with
supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 on the aircraft died at the scene.
The injured, some unconscious, were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich where three more died, resulting in 23
fatalities with 21 survivors.
The Man United team were returning from a European Cup
quarter-final game against Red Star Belgrade in what was then Yugoslavia.
United won the tie 5-4 on aggregate after drawing 3-3 in Belgrade thanks
to a goal from Dennis Viollet and a Bobby Charlton double, thus booking
their place in the semi-final of the competition.
Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David
Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam Whelan all died at the scene. United player Duncan
Edwards and co-pilot captain Rayment were retrieved from the wreckage alive but
later died in hospital as a result of their injuries.
Despite the disaster, Man United played
a match in the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday later that month, winning
3-0. The cover of the matchday programme read 'United will go on'.
At
that time it was thought that the “Busby babes” as they were then nicknamed
were depleted and crushed. It was one of the darkest era I the life of
Manchester United for they did lose a generation of one of Europe’s finest
footballers.
At
a ceremony to mark the 60th Anniversary in Old traaford yesterday, Michael Edelson, a non-executive
director at the club, read from Ecclesiastes 9 and 12: “No man knows when their hour will
come: as fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare.”
The club’s former manager Sir Alex Ferguson read from Psalm 103: “The
life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the
wind blows over it and it is gone.”
In his words, the club’s chaplain, the
Rev John Boyers said When Munich happened a wave of grief and
anguish swept this nation and in Manchester it impacted all. Here grief and
anguish hit both United and City supporters alike. It mattered not whether you
were red or blue; both sets of supporters stood together, wept together,
mourned together. They all knew, together, that a remarkable team was no more.”
The crowd of over 4, 500 strong supporters sang
the Flowers of Manchester, a song written in tribute to those who died in the
crash, containing the lines: “Oh, England’s finest football team its
record truly great, its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate. Eight
men will never play again, who met destruction there, the flowers of English
football, the flowers of Manchester.”
Jimmy
Murphy never gave up! The support was strong and like the phoenix rising from
its ashes, Manchester United became not just a football club but an
institution. This is because they never gave up. Despite the darkness of the
past, they looked forward towards the brightness of the future. This is what it
means to never give up if you must be the greatest.
60
years, we remember them. We are Manchester United, we are great; We'll Never Die!
OjisiEmezie
0 comments