The Red Devils Through The Ages - A Brief History of Manchester Utd

Through The Ages Podcast
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There is a statue outside Old Trafford of three men: George Best, Denis Law, and Bobby Charlton. The Holy Trinity, as Manchester supporters call them. It is a good statue. But it does not tell you about the railway workers who founded the club in 1878 and played in green and gold on a patch of ground near the depot. It does not tell you about Major, the St Bernard dog who wandered from a fundraising bazaar into the home of a Manchester brewer — and whose journey saved the club from bankruptcy and set in motion the chain of events that produced the name Manchester United. It does not tell you about the 23 people who died at Munich-Riem Airport on 6 February 1958, or about Matt Busby receiving the Last Rites twice and coming back to build a team that won the European Cup ten years later. It does not tell you about the 26 years of Alex Ferguson — the most sustained period of dominance in the history of English football — or about the twelve years since his retirement, with their parade of managers and broken promises and the deepening question of what Manchester United actually is, now that the man who defined it for a generation is gone. Manchester United Through the Ages tells the complete story: ten episodes, thirty minutes each, covering every era from Newton Heath to the present day. Each episode places the club in its historical context — the city, the country, the era — and chooses one player whose story illuminates the period. This is not a highlights package. It is a narrative — careful, specific, emotionally honest about both the triumphs and the failures. For supporters who lived through these years and for anyone who has ever wondered what it is about this particular club, in this particular city, that has made it what it is. Come on, United.

Episodes

  1. 8h ago

    Episode 5 : The Babes Two Titles, Europe, and the Runway at Munich (1953–1958)

    They were, for a few short years, the most beautiful football team England had ever produced. Discovered by Joe Armstrong on schoolboy pitches from Dudley to Belfast, coached by Jimmy Murphy on the training ground at The Cliff, and unleashed by Matt Busby into the First Division while most of them were barely out of their teens. Episode Five is the story of the Busby Babes. We follow them from Duncan Edwards's debut at the age of sixteen years and one hundred and eighty-five days in April 1953, through the two league titles of 1955-56 and 1956-57 — won by teams whose average age was twenty-two, then twenty-one — into the club's first European Cup campaign against the opposition of the Football League. The 10-0 win against Anderlecht at Maine Road. The quarter-final comeback against Athletic Bilbao. The semi-final against Real Madrid at the first attempt. We follow them through the 1957 FA Cup Final where Ray Wood's fractured cheekbone cost the club the double, and into the 1957-58 season that produced two of the greatest matches ever played by an English football team — Manchester United 5, Arsenal 4 at Highbury on 1 February, and Red Star Belgrade 3, Manchester United 3 four days later to reach a second consecutive European Cup semi-final. The episode ends on the runway at Munich, on the third attempt at takeoff, on the afternoon of 6 February 1958. What happens next is Episode Six. Player of the Era: Duncan Edwards — the Dudley schoolboy who became the youngest player in First Division history at sixteen, the youngest post-war England international at eighteen, and the finest young footballer, by consensus of everyone who ever watched him or played beside him, that England has ever produced. Research Sources Wikipedia: Busby Babes — average age of 21 (1955-56) and 22 (1956-57), Tom Jackson of the Manchester Evening News as the coiner of the nickname, five consecutive FA Youth Cup wins 1953-57, Joe Armstrong as chief scout Wikipedia / ManUtd.com: 1955-56 season — 11-point margin over Blackpool, 25 wins, 83 goals, unbeaten home record, youngest champions in English top flight history Wikipedia: 1956-57 season — 8-point margin over Tottenham, 103 goals scored, Tommy Taylor 34 goals in all competitions, Bill Whelan 26 league goals Wikipedia / Manchester United official history: European Cup 1956-57 — first English club, Football League opposition, Stanley Rous support at the FA, 10-0 vs Anderlecht at Maine Road (Old Trafford had no floodlights), quarter-final vs Bilbao, semi-final loss to Real Madrid Wikipedia: 1957 FA Cup Final — 4 May 1957, 99,225 attendance, 6th-minute collision between Peter McParland and Ray Wood, Wood's fractured cheekbone, Blanchflower in goal, McParland's two goals, Taylor's consolation, Villa 2-1 ManUtd.com / Arsenal.com: 1 February 1958 vs Arsenal at Highbury — 5-4 result, 63,578 attendance, Edwards 10 mins, Charlton 34, Taylor 43, Herd 58, Bloomfield 60 and 61, Viollet 65, Taylor 72, Tapscott 77 Wikipedia / thebusbybabes.com: 5 February 1958 vs Red Star Belgrade — 3-3 draw, 5-4 aggregate, Viollet and Charlton twice as scorers, semi-final vs AC Milan Wikipedia: Duncan Edwards — birth 1 October 1936 Dudley, debut 4 April 1953 vs Cardiff at age 16 years 185 days, England debut 18 years 183 days, 177 first-team appearances, 18 England caps, death 21 February 1958, Molly Leach fiancée, Rechts der Isar hospital, 15-day fight for life National Football Museum / ManUtd.com: Jack O'Brien's letter to Busby — "I have seen a boy who merits your attention. His name is Duncan Edwards of Dudley." Busby's "we looked at Duncan and gave up trying to spot flaws" quote. Bill Foulkes on Edwards at Belgrade. Research Sources Spartacus Educational — detailed early Newton Heath history including the Three Crowns pub changing room and North Road ground Manchester United Investor Relations History Page — founding date, league entry in 1892-93, Old Trafford move in 1910 American Red Devils / Manchester United History: Heathens Era (1878–1902) — the John Henry Davies / Major the dog story in detail Football and the First World War — detailed account of Newton Heath's progression through the Combination and Football Alliance Britannica: Manchester United — confirmed founding year, first league title, Old Trafford Key Dates for This Episode 1878 — Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded by Carriage and Wagon department of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway November 20, 1880 — First recorded match: Newton Heath 0, Bolton Wanderers reserves 6 1883–84 — First entry to Lancashire Cup; lost 7-2 to Blackburn Olympic reserves 1885 — Lancashire Cup won: beat Manchester FC 2-1 in front of 8,000 1886 — First FA Cup entry; knocked out in first round by Fleetwood Rangers 1888 — Football League application rejected; joined The Combination as founding member 1892 — Elected to Football League First Division when Alliance merged with Football League 1893 — Relegated from First Division after Test Match defeat 1894 — Drop "LYR" suffix; also sign Billy Meredith from ...

  2. Jul 27

    Episode 4 : The Busby Era Begins Carey, the 1948 Cup Final, and the End of the Wilderness Duration (1945–1952)

    In October 1945, Matt Busby walked into a football club that had no home, no money, and no manager. He walked out of it, seven years later, with the FA Cup and the League Championship — and the first great Manchester United side of the modern era. Episode Four is the story of how it happened. Busby's unprecedented contract with chairman James Gibson: full control over recruitment, selection, training and tactics — sovereignty of a kind no English manager had ever been granted. The chance meeting in Bari, Italy, with a fiery Welsh sergeant-major called Jimmy Murphy — a handshake that produced one of the great partnerships in the history of English football. And the slow, patient building of a team that would finish second in the First Division four times in five seasons before finally getting over the line. We follow the club through the great 1948 FA Cup Final at Wembley — Manchester United 4, Blackpool 2, in one of the finest cup finals since the war — the reopening of Old Trafford in August 1949 after eight years of exile at Maine Road, the death of James W. Gibson in September 1951, and the 6-1 demolition of Arsenal on the final day of the 1951-52 season that gave Manchester United their first league title in forty-one years. Player of the Era: Johnny Carey — "Gentleman Johnny," the pipe-smoking Dubliner Matt Busby compared with Bobby Charlton and George Best. Footballer of the Year 1949. The first non-British captain ever to lift the FA Cup at Wembley and the Football League championship. Research Sources Wikipedia: Matt Busby — birth May 1909 Orbiston, Manchester City and Liverpool playing career, 19 February 1945 contract signing, 1 October 1945 official start, Bari meeting with Murphy ManUtd.com: Sir Matt Busby and his incredible legacy — Murphy partnership narrative, "team with no ground and no money" description All For United: Matt Busby — Rocca's recruitment role, path through Manchester City and Liverpool, verbal offer to Murphy in Bari Bleacher Report: Manchester United 1945-1957 — Delaney as first signing, Carey as post-war captain, four runners-up finishes, 1948 FA Cup Final 4-2 vs Blackpool, Gibson death September 1951, 1952 title Wikipedia: 1951-52 Manchester United season — final-day 6-1 vs Arsenal, chairman transition from Gibson to Harold Hardman, Rowley's 30 league goals Wikipedia: 1948 FA Cup Final — 24 April 1948, 99,842 attendance, Shimwell's 12th-minute penalty, Rowley 28 and 70, Pearson 80, Anderson 82, Mortensen 35 for Blackpool Wikipedia / Dictionary of Irish Biography: Johnny Carey — birth 23 February 1919 Dublin, Home Farm and Westland Row CBS, £250 fee from St James's Gate, debut 23 September 1937 vs Southampton, army service in Italy and Middle East, "Cario" nickname, captaincy from October 1945, FWA Footballer of the Year 1949, 1949 win over England at Goodison, "Gentleman Johnny" nickname, post-playing managerial career, "Taxi for..." coda Vital Football: Old Trafford Reopening — 24 August 1949, 3-1 vs Bolton, attendance 41,748 Research Sources Spartacus Educational — detailed early Newton Heath history including the Three Crowns pub changing room and North Road ground Manchester United Investor Relations History Page — founding date, league entry in 1892-93, Old Trafford move in 1910 American Red Devils / Manchester United History: Heathens Era (1878–1902) — the John Henry Davies / Major the dog story in detail Football and the First World War — detailed account of Newton Heath's progression through the Combination and Football Alliance Britannica: Manchester United — confirmed founding year, first league title, Old Trafford Key Dates for This Episode 1878 — Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded by Carriage and Wagon department of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway November 20, 1880 — First recorded match: Newton Heath 0, Bolton Wanderers reserves 6 1883–84 — First entry to Lancashire Cup; lost 7-2 to Blackburn Olympic reserves 1885 — Lancashire Cup won: beat Manchester FC 2-1 in front of 8,000 1886 — First FA Cup entry; knocked out in first round by Fleetwood Rangers 1888 — Football League application rejected; joined The Combination as founding member 1892 — Elected to Football League First Division when Alliance merged with Football League 1893 — Relegated from First Division after Test Match defeat 1894 — Drop "LYR" suffix; also sign Billy Meredith from ...

  3. Jul 22

    Episode 3 : The Long Wilderness - Relegations, Rescue, and the Bombing of Old Trafford Duration (1922–1945)

    The first golden era is over. Ernest Mangnall is gone. Sandy Turnbull lies in an unmarked field in France. And Manchester United, relegated in 1922, are about to spend twenty-three years finding out what it means to be a great club that isn't great anymore. Episode Three tells the story of the wilderness years: two more relegations, the death of John Henry Davies in 1927, and the December 1931 morning that Walter Crickmer walked into a Manchester bank and was told there was no money to pay the players' wages. What saved the club was a chance dinner-party introduction to a Salford-born uniform manufacturer named James W. Gibson — the man who wrote a cheque for two thousand pounds and then kept saving Manchester United, year after year, for the next two decades. We follow the club from the empty terraces of the Depression, through the final-day escape at The Den in 1934 that kept United out of the Third Division, to the night of 11 March 1941 — when a Luftwaffe bomb aimed at Trafford Park destroyed the main stand at Old Trafford and left the club homeless for eight years. And we close with the arrival, in October 1945, of a thirty-six-year-old Scotsman called Matt Busby. Player of the Era: Joe Spence — "Mr. Soccer," the Northumberland miner's son who made 510 appearances and scored 168 goals, and to whom the Old Trafford crowd directed the most touching terrace chant in the club's history: "Give it to Joe." Come on, United. Research Sources Wikipedia: Manchester United F.C. — relegation years, Davies death, Gibson's investment, 1933-34 finish, 1941 bombing Wikipedia: James W. Gibson — £2,000 Gibson Guarantee, sustained investment, 19 December 1931 takeover, uniform trade background ManUtd.com: Remembering James W Gibson 90 years on — 3,507 attendance figure, Crickmer's bank visit, Stacey Lintott's role, Christmas turkey detail CNN: James Gibson, the man who saved Manchester United twice — Alan Embling's testimony, bombing details, Maine Road arrangement Wikipedia: 1933-34 Manchester United F.C. season — 5 May 1934 final day at The Den, Tom Manley and Jack Cape as goalscorers Gary James Football Archive: Bombing of Old Trafford — bombing date, Manchester City's Maine Road offer Wikipedia / ManUtd.com: Joe Spence — 510 appearances, 168 goals, "Give it to Joe" chant, Throckley origins, army service, return as coach under Busby in 1945 Research Sources Spartacus Educational — detailed early Newton Heath history including the Three Crowns pub changing room and North Road ground Manchester United Investor Relations History Page — founding date, league entry in 1892-93, Old Trafford move in 1910 American Red Devils / Manchester United History: Heathens Era (1878–1902) — the John Henry Davies / Major the dog story in detail Football and the First World War — detailed account of Newton Heath's progression through the Combination and Football Alliance Britannica: Manchester United — confirmed founding year, first league title, Old Trafford Key Dates for This Episode 1878 — Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded by Carriage and Wagon department of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway November 20, 1880 — First recorded match: Newton Heath 0, Bolton Wanderers reserves 6 1883–84 — First entry to Lancashire Cup; lost 7-2 to Blackburn Olympic reserves 1885 — Lancashire Cup won: beat Manchester FC 2-1 in front of 8,000 1886 — First FA Cup entry; knocked out in first round by Fleetwood Rangers 1888 — Football League application rejected; joined The Combination as founding member 1892 — Elected to Football League First Division when Alliance merged with Football League 1893 — Relegated from First Division after Test Match defeat 1894 — Drop "LYR" suffix; also sign Billy Meredith from ...

  4. Jul 13

    Episode 2: The Red Devils Are Born - Ernest Mangnall, Old Trafford, and the First Golden Age (1902–1922)

    A new name does not automatically produce a new club. But a new manager, sometimes, does. Ernest Mangnall arrived at Manchester United in 1903 and proceeded to build the first great team in the club's history: a side that won the First Division title in 1908 and again in 1911, that moved into the magnificent new Old Trafford stadium in February 1910, and that — for the first time — gave Mancunians something to genuinely boast about. And then, in 1912, Mangnall walked across Manchester and took the job at Manchester City. The first betrayal. The beginning of a pattern. This episode covers the club's first golden era and its abrupt end — and introduces Sandy Turnbull, the man who scored the first goal at Old Trafford and died at the Battle of Arras in 1917, whose story connects the club's greatest early achievement to the catastrophe of the First World War. Duration: 30 minutes. Research Sources Wikipedia: Ernest Mangnall — full managerial record, confirmed Queen's Hotel auction details, the 1912 departure to City Spartacus Educational: Ernest Mangnall — detailed 1908 championship squad breakdown, the title-winning scorelines, the Old Trafford opening-day crowd figures Stretty News: United Stories — Ernest Mangnall — narrative detail on Mangnall's character, his departure, the significance of the debt from Old Trafford The 1888 Letter: The Opening of Old Trafford — confirmed 45-50,000 crowd for the Liverpool opening game; the Manchester Guardian quote about the pitch; Turnbull scoring the first goal Spartacus Educational: Sandy Turnbull — career statistics, Queen's Hotel auction, FA Cup final goal, the 1915 match-fixing scandal The National News: Armistice Day, remembering Sandy Turnbull — Stretford cenotaph detail, Turnbull's home address, his scoring record, the 27 goals in 25 games in 1907-08 Commonwealth War Graves Foundation: Lance Sergeant Alexander Turnbull — confirmed Battle of Arras detail, the assault on Cherisy, no known grave, Arras Memorial Western Front Association: The Manchester United v Liverpool match-fixing scandal of 1915 — confirmed the Good Friday 1915 fixture, the bets, the lifelong bans Football and the First World War: Manchester United history — confirmed promotion to First Division, the trajectory after Mangnall's departure Research Sources Spartacus Educational — detailed early Newton Heath history including the Three Crowns pub changing room and North Road ground Manchester United Investor Relations History Page — founding date, league entry in 1892-93, Old Trafford move in 1910 American Red Devils / Manchester United History: Heathens Era (1878–1902) — the John Henry Davies / Major the dog story in detail Football and the First World War — detailed account of Newton Heath's progression through the Combination and Football Alliance Britannica: Manchester United — confirmed founding year, first league title, Old Trafford Key Dates for This Episode 1878 — Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded by Carriage and Wagon department of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway November 20, 1880 — First recorded match: Newton Heath 0, Bolton Wanderers reserves 6 1883–84 — First entry to Lancashire Cup; lost 7-2 to Blackburn Olympic reserves 1885 — Lancashire Cup won: beat Manchester FC 2-1 in front of 8,000 1886 — First FA Cup entry; knocked out in first round by Fleetwood Rangers 1888 — Football League application rejected; joined The Combination as founding member 1892 — Elected to Football League First Division when Alliance merged with Football League 1893 — Relegated from First Division after Test Match defeat 1894 — Drop "LYR" suffix; also sign Billy Meredith from ...

  5. May 27

    Episode 1: The Heathens - Railway Men, Green and Gold, and the Dog That Saved the Club (1878–1902)

    There's a story that almost no one knows, and it goes like this: in 1901, a Saint Bernard dog named Major escaped from a fundraising bazaar at St James's Hall in Manchester. He wandered across the city, ended up at the home of a wealthy brewer named John Henry Davies, and his daughter refused to give him back. When Davies traced the dog to its owner — Harry Stafford, captain of a nearly bankrupt football club — he made a decision that changed the history of sport. He would save the club. That club was Newton Heath LYR Football Club, founded in 1878 by workers from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot. They played in green and gold. They changed in a pub half a mile from the pitch. They had been relegated, nearly dissolved, and left to fend for themselves by the railway company that created them. And yet they survived — until April 24, 1902, when they stopped being Newton Heath and became Manchester United Football Club, in red and white, with a new chairman, new money, and something that had not existed in the Heathens years: the beginnings of ambition. This episode tells the full story of Manchester United's origins. Our Player of the Era is Billy Meredith — the Welsh wizard who arrived from a coalmine, played with a toothpick in his mouth, and continued playing at the highest level until he was forty-six years old. Duration: 30 minutes. Research Sources Spartacus Educational — detailed early Newton Heath history including the Three Crowns pub changing room and North Road ground Manchester United Investor Relations History Page — founding date, league entry in 1892-93, Old Trafford move in 1910 American Red Devils / Manchester United History: Heathens Era (1878–1902) — the John Henry Davies / Major the dog story in detail Football and the First World War — detailed account of Newton Heath's progression through the Combination and Football Alliance Britannica: Manchester United — confirmed founding year, first league title, Old Trafford Key Dates for This Episode 1878 — Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded by Carriage and Wagon department of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway November 20, 1880 — First recorded match: Newton Heath 0, Bolton Wanderers reserves 6 1883–84 — First entry to Lancashire Cup; lost 7-2 to Blackburn Olympic reserves 1885 — Lancashire Cup won: beat Manchester FC 2-1 in front of 8,000 1886 — First FA Cup entry; knocked out in first round by Fleetwood Rangers 1888 — Football League application rejected; joined The Combination as founding member 1892 — Elected to Football League First Division when Alliance merged with Football League 1893 — Relegated from First Division after Test Match defeat 1894 — Drop "LYR" suffix; also sign Billy Meredith from ...

  • 5 Episodes

About

There is a statue outside Old Trafford of three men: George Best, Denis Law, and Bobby Charlton. The Holy Trinity, as Manchester supporters call them. It is a good statue. But it does not tell you about the railway workers who founded the club in 1878 and played in green and gold on a patch of ground near the depot. It does not tell you about Major, the St Bernard dog who wandered from a fundraising bazaar into the home of a Manchester brewer — and whose journey saved the club from bankruptcy and set in motion the chain of events that produced the name Manchester United. It does not tell you about the 23 people who died at Munich-Riem Airport on 6 February 1958, or about Matt Busby receiving the Last Rites twice and coming back to build a team that won the European Cup ten years later. It does not tell you about the 26 years of Alex Ferguson — the most sustained period of dominance in the history of English football — or about the twelve years since his retirement, with their parade of managers and broken promises and the deepening question of what Manchester United actually is, now that the man who defined it for a generation is gone. Manchester United Through the Ages tells the complete story: ten episodes, thirty minutes each, covering every era from Newton Heath to the present day. Each episode places the club in its historical context — the city, the country, the era — and chooses one player whose story illuminates the period. This is not a highlights package. It is a narrative — careful, specific, emotionally honest about both the triumphs and the failures. For supporters who lived through these years and for anyone who has ever wondered what it is about this particular club, in this particular city, that has made it what it is. Come on, United.

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