Manchester United was formed in 1878. Once again a spin-off from a cricket club, the Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Cricket and Football Club. Cricketers would get bored rigid in the winter, so would play football, and the more sensible of these would turn to football full time. NHLYRCFC was in 1891, abbreviated to Newton Heath FC, the cricketers soon going their own way. They started off playing each other’s railway departments. Then in 1888, the Football League was formed, but Newton Heath did not think they were good enough to join, after all, they would be playing alongside giants of the game like Preston North End. How times change, and indeed they did, as in 1892 they deemed themselves more than capable and joined the League. Due to money problems Newton Heath nearly went belly up until John Henry Davies, a brewery owner obviously more than capable of organising a drink at work stepped in, and invested in the club. This led to a change in the name. Manchester Central and Manchester Celtic were rejected, and Manchester United wasn’t, so in May 1902, Man Utd as we know them was born. An early nickname was Heathen, but this fell away with the name change. Heathen was derived from the Heath in Newton Heath, and a heathen is someone opposed to God, so is it just an evil coincidence they were to become “The Red Devils” in a later life? You decide.
In the 1950s after the inclusion of a few youngsters into the team, they became known as the Busby Babes after manager Matt Busby. Matt became manager of United in 1945 and remained until his retirement in 1969. Sadly the Babes suffered tragically on February 6th 1958, after bad weather caused their plane to crash in Munich after a European match. The crash resulted in the death of eight of the squad and injured others. Although badly injured, Matt made a remarkable recovery and led his team to be champions again within seven years. A clock frozen at the exact time of four minutes past three stands in tribute on the south-east corner of Old Trafford. (PIC 1) Sir Matt was knighted in 1968, and today you can walk down Sir Matt Busby Way to a statue of him outside the ground, a fitting tribute to a hero and legend at a club where heroes and legends are plentiful. (PIC 2) The statue was erected in 1996 and stands outside the East Stand of Old Trafford. Sir Matt was not keen on the nickname Busby Babes, so would have been glad of the other nickname at the time, that prevails to this day. Neighbouring Salford’s Rugby League Club on a tour of France in 1934 went unbeaten for all of the tour, and Le French press was so impressed by the team’s skills they dubbed them “LES DIABLES ROUGES” or as we say in Engerland, The Red Devil’s. Like the Salford Rugby League team, Man Utd also played in red, and the local supporters adopted the nickname used by the French. So Man Utd became the Red Devils and eventually the devil appeared on the club badge.
The original club badge was a variation of the city arms. (PIC 3) See the Manchester City page for a breakdown of the arms and meaning of the name Manchester. In the late 1960s, and early 1970s along with many other clubs Man Utd were having trouble with pirated goods bearing the club’s crests so the football authorities advised clubs to copyright their badges. Since Man Utd were using a variation of the city arms they could not copyright the crest, as that belonged to the people of the city, therefore, it had to be changed. (PIC 4) The ship represents the industry of the city being shipped worldwide while the three bars symbolise the three rivers in Manchester. The roses are those of the House of Lancaster. Slowly the badge morphed into what it is today. First the Lancastrian roses were replaced with a pair of footballs, giving a more modern look. (PIC 5) That was replaced by the more familiar design. The ship remained but the stripes got the boot and were replaced with a red devil. (PIC 6) This badge was adopted for the 1969/70 season. At the time the badge was only worn for Cup Finals and European Champion matches. The 1972/73 season saw the badge worn regularly on the players’ famous red shirts. There were some minor alterations made to the badge during the 1980s, and the Adidas sponsorship deal, like the addition of a pair of football boots to the upper ribbon. After the Adidas deal the club reverted back to the 69/70 badge. In January 1998, the new and present badge was introduced. (PIC 7) The words Football Club were dropped and this was because once again, United were suffering pirated goods, a big problem for the world’s biggest club. This badge was first used on the club shirts in the 1998/99 season. Variations in colour to this badge are used on kits and merchandise. It is a shame that a lot of other clubs cannot put their history into the new logo when rebranding. The dull business-like logo used a lot today, takes more than it gives to the game.
Many thanks, go to Mark Wylie for replying to my plea for information, and supplying me with plenty of info to work with. Mark is the Curator of the museum and tour centre at Old Trafford. The first game to be played at Old Trafford was on February 19th 1910, and old rivals Liverpool were the opposition. John Henry Davies, the brewer mentioned earlier, paid for the building work, and the capacity was an incredible 80,000. Nicknamed the Theatre of Dreams by Legend Bobby Charlton, it still holds a hefty 74,879 today. United’s rivals apart from Liverpool are local derby side Manchester City. For more on “The Red Devils” go to hell, or if you prefer www.manutd.com
