I think that the problem with the original article was that the word appallingly was used. For me, it's far too harsh given the circumstances. Shabbily may have been an easier word to use.
I am putting this article below to try and help a lot of our youngser fans (in a nice way) to really understand the importance of Jimmy Murphy and his role during his time at Old Trafford. The original piece was penned back in 2008 by my very dear friend Barney Chilton from Red News. I have taken liberty to add a few things, and a few more eulogies from other people.
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If you take your memories back to the 50th Ainniversary Commemorative Service held at Old Trafford, on 6th February 2008, (and you can still see the clips on YouTube) it may well surprise a lot of people, that of all the tributes that day, the most heartening was those that were given in respect of Jimmy Murphy.
He received more mentions, and accolades, from his peers, and the media than have been heard before, or since, at any anniversary of the Munich tragedy. As I mentioned earlier, there is a bust of him in the museum, and kudos to the club for that, but I do feel that where Jimmy is concerned, there should be a much more tangible recognition for him, than a bust in a museum where people have to pay to get in to see it.
At that commemorative service, Jimmy’s son, Jimmy Junior, gave a terrific eulogy about his father, and his father’s record of quite remarkable achievements in 1958, and also of those before, and after. For the younger members of this forum, read up as much as you can about Jimmy, and get to know just how important he was to the survival, and revival, of the club.
It is probably hard today for a lot of people to understand that we who knew Jimmy through what, and who he was, consider that there has never been enough recognition of his work, and influence, alongside Sir Matt, during their stewardship.
We, and by that I mean United as a club, and us as fans, were so very lucky that Jimmy was not on that fateful flight back in February 1958. Fate decreed that he would be in Cardiff managing the Welsh team in their World Cup qualifier against Israel. As those terrible, terrible, events unfolded in Munich, it meant that there was somebody left behind to grasp the reins and the metal, to keep the club going.
Jimmy was integral to United, not only at the time of Munich, but also before that when he was very instrumental in bringing all those wonderful young lads through the United system who became known as the ‘Busby Babes’. That wasn’t just the first team, but the teams below them as well. He was also an integral cog in the successes after Munich as well, which culminated in that never to be forgotten night at Wembley, in May 1968, when the European cup was won by United for the very first time in their history.
If any of you good people ever have the chance to talk to any of the older former players, you will find that they had nothing but praise for him. Many would tell you that he was a very hard taskmaster, and thought that he could be particularly tough on young players. But if, and when, you do talk to those ex-players, you will find out that there is nothing but tremendous respect, and admiration from them, for the work that Jimmy did at the club.
Jimmy’s work at the club spanned an incredible 35 years – a tremendous achievement in itself. Sir Matt gets all the plaudits, but without doubt, without Jimmy by his side, he would never, ever, have been able to achieve what he did at during his tenure at Old Trafford. David Sadler, when talking to Red News a few years ago was to say:
“Certainly, Jimmy Murphy was the one we saw a lot more of in the normal footballing week, than we did Matt, who we only got to see very occasionally between matches.”
Jimmy was a tough bastard, and didn’t suffer any kind of fool in the football world. But if you look back to those accolades that were given out in that service in February 2008, it became more than abundantly clear that Jimmy Murphy had one love, one passion, and that was Manchester United, even to the detriment of his family. Jimmy Junior said that day that his Dad had no hobbies, and that his job when he got up in the morning was to go down to Old Trafford and produce football players. He was a totally blinkered, and driven man even before Munich.
David Sadler will tell you that there were two definitive sides to Jimmy. The very hard, tough, shouting, cursing one, and on the other side, the softer, gentler, quiet spoken Welshman. Bobby Charlton recalled at the memorial service;
“I was sorry for Jimmy when the accident happened. He always figured himself as a Number two, and then suddenly, he had to make a whole lot of important decisions, and he did a marvelous job. He was in love with the game more than he loved anything else, and that’s a very difficult thing to say when his family are here present. He knew exactly how to make you a better player. I became a professional from an amateur, and that was down purely to Jimmy."
In a lot of ways, that drive, that commitment is obviously something which we can relate to today with Sir Alex, but there are so many stages of United’s history under Matt, and Jimmy, that it is difficult to know where to start. Of course, the immediate aftermath of Munich is what will always be brought up first whenever Jimmy is mentioned, and one should look at the huge task that he had.
In the immediacy, he had to try and find a team to put together, and play well enough to keep United in the First Division. Remember, only two players came back from Munich fit enough to play – Harry Gregg, and Bill Foulkes. Others returned in the following weeks and months – Bobby Charlton, Kenny Morgans, and Dennis Viollet, but he had to make and mend with kids from the Reserve and A team, as well as two quick signings. He had to find time to see the families of those that lost their loved ones, and also those that were seriously injured. He had to find time to attend funerals of boys who had been so close to him. He found time to go over to Munich to see how those still injured were progressing.
One of the saddest things that happened, wass with all this going on around him, Jimmy was ‘tapped up’ by some of the leading clubs in the First Division to leave United and join them. How easy it would have been for him to just walk away from all the carnage going on around him? How reprehensible of those other clubs to make their approaches at such a time? But just like today, there was a lot of jealousy in the game, and there was more than a few club chairmen who would have been more than happy to see the demise of Manchester United – two in particular – one in Lancashire, and one in London.
This was a man who had just seen eight of his young players lose their lives, and three of his best friends (Bert Whalley, Tom Curry, and Walter Crikmer) lose theirs, and of course his boss was lying in the hospital critically injured. This is what Jimmy felt, and in his own words;
“To the generation which has grown up since then, those players, and friends, may be just names. But to me they were Matt’s boys. My boys! I had seen them come to Old Trafford as part of Matt’s master plan to build the greatest team in Europe….. and now they were gone. Seven of the greatest players ever assembled in one club wiped out, and the greatest of them all, Duncan Edwards, fighting for his life. I was like a man living through a nightmare waiting to wake up. I locked the door, put my head on the desk, and wept like a child. Only last Monday I had waved cheerio to them: “See you on Thursday lads….. see you do a good job.” They did. They had won through to the semi-final of the European Cup. Now they were gone. At the very moment when they had the world of soccer at their feet."
Jimmy learned of the accident at 4p.m. on the Thursday afternoon when he arrived back from Cardiff and had gone straight to Old Trafford. His secretary Alma George broke the news to him upon his arrival at the ground. Jimmy never could recall what happened during the next twelve hours. It was 4a.m. the following morning when he decided to go home. All he knew was that there had been a bottle of Scotch in his office cabinet, and when he went back the following morning, it was on his desk – empty.
That same morning he flew to Munich with the families of those lost and injured. As they landed they had to endure the sight of the shattered remains of the stricken BEA aircraft lying beyond the airport perimeter fence. It must have been heart rendering. Again, Jimmy recalled:
“I went to the hospital and Harry Gregg, Bill Foulkes, and Bobby Charlton, kept chattering non-stop about everything and anything that had happened. But what they were saying made no impact upon my brain. At any moment I expected to see Tommy Taylor’s beaming face coming through the door; or Big Dunc creeping up behind me and giving me thwack in the back with a “Hya! Jimmy…..
Matt had been given the last rites, and close by lay the best player we ever had at Old Trafford, Duncan Edwards. Duncan’s left thigh was a mess, and he had severe kidney damage, and had he lived, it was doubtful that he would have ever have played again. He lay dying, but nothing could ever quench the the great spirit and courageous heart of this young boy.”
The following story is often regarded as myth, or even urban legend, but I can assure you that it is not. Again, these are Jimmy’s own words:
“But I knew. In one of his conscious moments the Boss waved a feeble hand for me to come to his side. I had to bend low over his bed to catch his words as his hand gripped my hand: “Keep the flag flying Jimmy” he whispered. “Keep things going tillI get back.
At that moment Matt didn’t even know how many of his boys had been killed. I did. I stumbled out of the hospital into the snow which still lay as thick as a carpet over the city of Munich, I was in tears.
“Yes….. I’ll keep things going Matt …..but where am I going to find the players…..? Where am I going to find the players?”
“I traveled back with Foulkes and Gregg, and amid all the tragedy and sorrow, I had to get a team together from somewhere…..My heart ached for these two players ….. I don’t mind admitting, I felt like crying …. Ten years of hard work and planning had been wiped out in a flash.”
However did Jimmy Murphy cope in that first week after the tragedy – it does not bear thinking about the pressures that he must have felt and been under.
“How can I describe what it was like? I was completely alone, isolated. There was no Matt Busby, no Bert Whalley. No one I could talk with on my level as far as the team was concerned. Then the coffins started to arrive at the ground. We put them in the old gymnasium. And there were all the funerals. And all the time I was wondering where I could get players. The League game against Wolves had been postponed, but things had to be done quickly. No one knows what I went through during that time.”
But not only had Matt asked him to keep the red flag, and club, going, but Director, Harold Hardman spoke to him on his return:
“You have got to keep it going, Jimmy. Manchester United is bigger than you...bigger than me...bigger than Matt Busby. It is bigger than anybody. The club must go on”.
It is sad I feel, that the club are remiss for not recognising Jimmy in the way that he should be. It was sad what happened to him. He retired in 1971 when the Club pensioned him off when Busby stood down. Nick Murphy (Jimmy’s son) explains that he still went down there every day:
“It was his whole life. Manchester United was his whole life. He loved the place, loved going there, he couldn't keep away”.
In his book ‘A Strange Kind of Glory’, former United reserve team player Eamon Dunphy, now an accredited journalist and author was to say:
“Once Busby retired and Frank O’Farrell took over, jimmy’s role at united was clarified. After a long wait he was given 25,000 pounds as a retirement settlement, and a scouting job at 25pounds a week. The scouting job was really a sinecure during the Busby/McGuinness era. In football terms he’d been pushed to the margins of the club he loved. He was almost a non-person. This uncomfortable existence was made worse by the decisions taken by the Board which Jimmy knew was really Sir Matt.. He’d never driven a car. For several years he’d made the journey from Whalley range to Old Trafford in a black cab provided at the club’s expense. The fare was 3pounds each way. Jimmy received a letter from Les Olive informing him that the arrangement was being discontinued, Hw as also informed that united would no longer pay his telephone bills.”
Nicky Murphy recalls his father’s hurt:
“My dad was never interested in money, but the football side of things meant everything to him. He never ever said anything against Sir Matt or the club, but he was very hurt. He couldn’t understand it. He had a lot to contribute. He turned to British rail, and it was funny really. I know that it sounds unbelievable, but for years afterwards, when Dad made the journey by rail, he’d make the journey without a ticket. The railway guards knew him so they never ever asked to see his ticket. He’d just wave and walk through the barrier!”
After Frank O’Farrell’s acrimonious departure, Tommy Docherty did bring jimmy back into the fold. He scouted for Docherty and it’s a little known fact about what Jimmy achieved in those last years. He found that classic pair of wingers Steve Coppell, and Gordon Hill. He spotted Peter Beardsley playing for Carlisle. He also spotted Paul Parker (who eventually joined United). Stuart ‘Pancho’ Pearson, Gary McAllister, and Ray Houghton who went to play for other clubs. Tommy Doc will tell you – he never even saw Coppell play before he signed him. He just took Jimmy's advice. Sadly the jewel that United missed was a young reserve team striker at Leicester City. Jimmy advised United to sign him at the earliest opportunity, but his advice was ignored. The player in question was a young Gary Linneker.
