At the time of the crash, the Busby Babes were the most exciting team England had ever seen and had been champions of England for two years running.
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Busby had defied the conservative English FA by taking his side into the European Cup in 1956 and they had done well to reach the semi-finals before losing to Real Madrid.
In 1957-58 they were back in the European Cup, winning through to the quarter-finals. On Jan. 14 they beat Red Star Belgrade 2-1 at home and drew 3-3 in the second leg on Feb. 5. It was the last match the Babes played.
After a period of intense grief when Busby fought for life in hospital and his assistant Jimmy Murphy took over running the club, a very different looking United team met Sheffield Wednesday in an FA Cup fifth round game in front of almost 60,000 fans on Feb. 19.
Munich survivors Bill Foulkes and goalkeeper Harry Gregg were in the side that won 3-0 to begin an improbable journey to the FA Cup final at Wembley in May but there was no fairytale ending as Bolton Wanderers beat them 2-0.
Photograph: A general view of the site at Old Trafford, Manchester comemerating the deaths of many of the Manchester United soccer and coaching team in the Munich air disaster in 1958/ Getty Images
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