One of the original Busby Babes
Only three players played more games for Manchester United than Bill Foulkes — Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton and Paul Scholes. Bill racked up an enormously impressive 688 appearances.
Born 25 miles from Old Trafford, he spent time working in a coal mine, Lea Green Colliery, before he joined United in 1950 as a full-back, later converting into a strong, dominant, central defender. He soon earned the nickname “Cowboy”, given to him because of his very prominent bandy legs.
Bill’s father and grandfather had been Rugby League players with the famous St Helens club.
It was said of Bill that he was one of the pillars on which Matt Busby and Jimmy Murphy built Manchester United’s great sides of the 1950s and 1960s.
Bill had been one of the 44 passengers in the chartered BEA plane that crashed in Munich in February 1958, killing seven of his teammates, and 14 other people. It had hit the airport boundary fence, and then smashed into a house. Foulkes found himself sitting in his seat with his feet in the snow! He ran 50 yards before turning back to see, appalled, the plane broken in half and on fire. He went immediately and helped with the rescue attempts.
Bill himself had survived the crash, but ever afterwards felt angry about the decision that was made, after two aborted attempts at take-off, a third was attempted.
He took over the club captaincy after the crash, and by the time he finally retired, he had spent 25 years of unbroken service at United.
He then spent more than 20 years working as coach and manager in England, and overseas. He’d been capped by England just once — in 1955.
My meeting with him came at the 25th anniversary of United’s European Cup win in 1967. We had just received full planning permission for the World International Museum in Galway. It was tremendous and exciting news, and I filled Bill in on our plans and hopes and expectations. He was, as they say, “all ears.”
The players were then summoned into a private room to have photographs taken for publication. Only the press were allowed into the room with them. But, giving me an unmistakeable wink, Bill said, “Bring your camera.” Which I did, and got some terrific exclusive pictures during the short time I was with Bill. I’ve never forgotten his warmth and his caring and his kindness.
