Duncan Edwards

Edwards began his Manchester United career in the youth team and made several appearances for the team that won the first ever FA Youth Cup in 1953, but by the time of the final had already made his debut for the first team. On 4 April 1953 he played in a Football League First Division match against Cardiff City, which United lost 4–1, aged just 16 years and 185 days. Mindful of the fact that his team contained a large number of ageing players, Busby was keen to bring new young players through the ranks. Edwards, along with the likes of Dennis Viollet and Jackie Blanchflower, was among a number of youngsters introduced to the team that season, and the new group of players came to be known collectively as the Busby Babes. Reviewing his performance on his first-team debut the Manchester Guardian newspaper commented that "he showed promise of fine ability in passing and shooting, but will have to move faster as a wing half". The 1953–54 season saw Edwards emerge as a semi-regular player in the United first team. After impressing in a friendly against Kilmarnock he replaced the injured Henry Cockburn for the away match against Huddersfield Town on 31 October 1953, and went on to appear in 24 league matches as well as United's FA Cup defeat to Burnley. Nonetheless he was also still an active part of the youth squad and played in the team which won the Youth Cup for the second consecutive season. He made his first appearance for the national under-23 team on 20 January 1954 in…

Although he is primarily remembered as a defensive midfielder, Edwards is said to have been able to operate in any outfield position. His versatility was such that on one occasion he started the match playing as an emergency striker in place of one injured player before being switched to central defence in place of another. His greatest assets were his physical strength and his level of authority on the pitch, which was said to be remarkable for such a young player, and he was particularly noted for his high level of stamina. Stanley Matthews described him as being "like a rock in a raging sea", and Bobby Moore likened him to the Rock of Gibraltar when defending but also noted that he was "dynamic coming forward". His imposing physique earned him the nicknames "Big Dunc" and "The Tank", and he has been ranked amongst the toughest players of all time. Edwards was noted for the power and timing of his tackles and for his ability to pass and shoot equally well with both feet. He was known for his surging runs up the pitch and was equally skilled at heading the ball and at striking fierce long-range shots. After scoring a goal on 26 May 1956, in a 3–1 friendly win against West Germany, he was given the nickname "Boom Boom" by the local press because of "the Big Bertha shot in his boots".

Duncan Edwards was born on 1 October 1936 at 23 Malvern Crescent in the Woodside district of Dudley. He was the first child of Gladstone and Sarah Ann Edwards and their only child to survive to adulthood, his younger sister Carol Anne dying in 1947 at the age of 14 weeks. His cousin, three years his senior, was Dennis Stevens, who also went on to become a professional footballer. Another cousin was Ray Westwood. Soon after Edwards was born, his family moved to 31 Elm Road on the Priory Estate, also in Dudley. Edwards attended Priory Infant and Junior Schools from 1941 to 1948, and Wolverhampton Street Secondary School from 1948 to 1952. He played football for his school as well as for Dudley Schools, Worcestershire and Birmingham and District teams, and also represented his school at morris dancing. He was selected to compete in the National Morris and Sword Dancing Festival, but was also offered a trial for the English Schools Football Association's under-14 team, which fell on the same day, and opted to attend the latter. Edwards impressed the selectors and was chosen to play for the English Schools XI, making his debut against the equivalent team from Wales at Wembley Stadium on 1 April 1950. He was soon appointed captain of the team, a position he held for two seasons. By this stage, he had already attracted the attention of major clubs, with Manchester United scout Jack O'Brien reporting back to manager Matt Busby in 1948 that he had "today seen a 12-year-old schoolboy…

Edwards has been commemorated in a number of ways in his home town of Dudley. A stained-glass window depicting Edwards, designed by Francis Skeat and paid for with donations from Football League clubs Brentford and Crystal Palace, was unveiled in St Francis's Church, the parish church for the Priory Estate, by Matt Busby in 1961, and a statue of Edwards unveiled in the centre of the town in October 1999 by his mother and his former team-mate Bobby Charlton. In 1993, a cul-de-sac of housing association homes near to the cemetery in which he is buried was named "Duncan Edwards Close". The Wren's Nest pub on the Priory Estate, near where he grew up, was renamed "The Duncan Edwards" in honour of him in 2001, but it closed within five years and was subsequently destroyed by arsonists before being demolished. In 2006, a £100,000 games facility was opened in Priory Park, where Edwards often played as a boy, in his memory. It was unveiled by Sir Bobby Charlton. In 2008, Dudley's southern bypass was renamed 'Duncan Edwards Way' in his memory—this road had coincidentally opened to traffic nearly a decade earlier on the same day that his statue was unveiled. Until its closure in 2016, Dudley Museum and Art Gallery hosted an exhibition of memorabilia devoted to his career, including his England caps. This collection had originally been displayed at Dudley Leisure Centre in 1986, again with his mother and Bobby Charlton in attendance. A housing complex called Duncan Edwards Court exists…