Harry Gregg: A Night For A Hero

Before setting off for their summer holidays, Sir Alex Ferguson and his players will travel to Belfast on Tuesday night for a testimonial match in honour of former Red Harry Gregg.

Gregg, 80, is widely regarded as United's first truly great goalkeeper and, inevitably, will forever be associated with the Munich air disaster. His part in pulling survivors from the wreckage of the aircraft, including a baby and her mother, earned him the nickname ‘the Hero of Munich’.

Tickets for the game -which will be shown live on MUTV - between United and an Irish League select XI, managed by Martin O’Neill, at Windsor Park sold out fast meaning a full house will be get to pay tribute to a fine international goalkeeper (he won 25 caps for Northern Ireland), a member of the Busby Babes and a man whose football career extended in his late 1970s. United Review editor Paul Davies spoke to an ‘honoured’ Harry ahead of his big night…

Is it true that you only found out about your Testimonial after it had been organised?
I found out a few months ago when this man, John White, who’d I’d only met six months earlier at a talk I gave at a dinner for the [George Best] Carryduff Manchester United supporters club. He told me he’d been in contact with Old Trafford about a Testimonial, which was news to me but a pleasant surprise. Since then I’ve been a bit embarrassed about it because I had my time a long time ago and I’ve always believed that I had my day and when I packed up with football – playing and coaching – then it was time to step back and let younger people have their time.

How will you feel on the night?
I’ll be embarrassed and I’ll be shy, believe it or not. There’s a time to rattle, and I can rattle with the best of them, and there’s a time to shut up. This is a time for me to shut up. As a player and as a coach I had some wonderful times and I had some sad times as well. But when it was my time to give up it was time to step back and let other people come on the scene. I’ve only actually been out of football two or three years. I was coaching at Coleraine FC with their manager Marty Quinn, and we went to two Cup finals, one semi-final and we won the Irish Cup. I was doing that for pleasure, I didn’t take money for that; my payment was the pleasure it gave me to be involved. That’s not because I’m a nice person, that’s because I was still in love with football.

United will be travelling to Belfast to honour your career in football, and inevitably your name will forever be linked with Munich and the Busby Babes…
My time at United was a long time ago. It was a tragic and yet wonderful time. As far as I’m concerned I was part of something that was on the point of developing into greatness. I was a very small part of that, but I’m very proud of that small part. I don’t live in the world of fairytales. We had qualified for the semi-final of the European Cup and had done well against Red Star both home and away. We had the possibility of becoming, for the first time, European champions. For such a wonderful young side that would have been an incredible feat. The Babes… it was the finest thing that ever happened to English football. When you stop and think about it, it was the beginning, and the end for the Babes, of what was to become the great Manchester United.

Is there ever a day that goes by where you don’t think about the Babes?
Of course there is. You don’t live your life that way. You can’t. You’d finish up a loony. Honestly, I’m not given to emotion - I hide my emotions. I am, repeat, very proud to have been a small part of something that was the Busby Babes.

Did the crash change your attitude to football?
Had it not been for football I could possibly have lost my sanity. It’s easy to talk in memory now but at the time I didn’t and would never discuss it. I didn’t talk about it for maybe 40-odd years. I’ll tell you why football saved my sanity… if I had had to sit in a house after what had happened I’d have gone crazy. I’d seen so much, I’d seen things I regretted seeing. After the crash we trained at White City, behind closed doors, and I kicked lumps out of everybody. I mean that in the nicest possible way. If I had had to sit in the house with those things in my head… football saved my sanity. Therefore, I think it saved my life.

Sir Alex has said he’ll be honouring your unique contribution to the club by bringing over a strong squad…
From what I’ve heard, and been told by my son and the people running it, also from Sir Alex and the chairman, they’ve been more than complimentary and have pledged as best they can to have a good team coming over. That’s important because I don’t want it to be something where Joe Public felt let down. But the club will not let them down – I know they won’t.