HARRY GREGG-HERO

It's been an emotional 24 hours or so, as I came across the obituary of Pearl Carr, aged 98. Some of you will have not been moved by that. Teddy died in 2018
Pearl was the singing partner and wife of Teddy Johnson, a duo who won the "national competition"to represent the UK in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest with a charming little ditty "Sing Little Birdie". They were voted into second place during the main final second to the Dutch!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
Worth looking at this lot to see how our "stars" have fared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWCocfbZOOs
Nothing much to do with football of course, but on top of this shock, Harry Gregg's life story has been published along with his obituary. Harry died on February 16th aged 87.

Having played for Linfield Reserves in Northern Ireland he moved the Doncaster Rovers in 1952 playing 94 games. For £23,500, at the time a World record for a goalkeeper, he was transferred to Manchester United in 1957 appearing over 210 games. In 1966, next came Stoke City for a year and two matches before he went on to manage at Shrewsbury 1968, Swansea 1972, Crewe 1975 and Carlisle in 1986-7.
His Northern Ireland career  from 1954-63 winning 25 caps including being voted best goalkeeper in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

The Munich Air Disaster is a major event in Gregg's life and I am not going to document what he did to save people, pulling colleagues and a pregnant mother (Vera Lukic) and her 2 year old baby from the wreckage. He returned several times to drag Bobby Charlton, Jackie Blanchflower, Albert Scanlon and Dennis Violet from the burning plane.
Matt Busby put together a new young side known as the "Busby Babes".

Within a couple of weeks from the crash (13 days) he was playing for United against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup 5th Round victory 3-0, helping his team to reach the Final, despite finding out afterwards that he had a fractured skull.
In the Final, he was bundle unceremoniously into the goal by Bolton's old fashioned centre-forward Nat Lofthouse. United lost 2-0 at Wembley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HbX9DYy7dc  Gregg didn't need this!
On their way to Wembley United played away in Rd 3 at Workington 0-3, Rd 4 Ipswich 2-0, then Rd 5 Wednesday 3-0, Rd 6 WBA 2-2, 1-0 at home, S-Final Fulham 2-2, 5-3 at Highbury and then Bolton.

He was awarded the MBE in 1995 and OBE in 2019.