I know exactly where I was when I heard of the Munich air disaster 50 years ago today. I was in Johannesburg, staying with family friends, the Caplans, in their flat in Hillbrow. It was the eve of the second Test match I ever saw, one between South Africa and Australia, the fourth Test of the 1957-58 series. (I've written about it here.) I took no interest in football in those days, and the only English team I was aware of was Arsenal. We were standing about in the kitchen and Herman came in and told us there'd been this terrible accident.
There's a service at Old Trafford today:
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the crash, Manchester United has scheduled a memorial service at Old Trafford to begin Wednesday at 3:04 p.m., local time, the time of the crash. The club has also established a permanent exhibition at the stadium, renaming the tunnel under the South Stand the Munich tunnel.How the news was received in Manchester on the day of the disaster. There are pictures here. Some of the others who died:
While Old Trafford mourned its eight players and three staff members, the hub of the newspaper industry in Manchester grieved for the football journalists killed in the crash.The 'other Fleet Street' in Manchester - from Withy Grove to Deansgate via Cross Street - lost eight colleagues.