Sir Alexander Matthew "Matt" Busby, CBE, KCSG (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–1971 season. His manager records and longevity at the helm of Manchester United are only surpassed by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Before going into management, Busby was a player for two of Manchester United's greatest rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool. During his time at City, Busby played in two FA Cup Finals, winning one of them. After his playing career was interrupted by the Second World War, Busby was offered the job of assistant coach at Liverpool, but they were unwilling to give him the control over the team that he wanted and he took the vacant manager's job at Manchester United instead.

Born to Alexander and Nellie Busby in a two-roomed pitman's cottage in the mining village of Orbiston, Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Busby was raised a practising Roman Catholic of Lithuanian ancestry. When he was born, Busby's mother was told by the doctor "A footballer has come into this house today". Busby's father – a miner – was killed by a German sniper during the First World War at the Battle of the Somme, while three of his uncles were killed in France with the Cameron Highlanders.

Wilfred "Wilf" McGuinness (born 25 October 1937 in Manchester, England) is a former English football player and manager, who played twice for England. He is best known for taking over from Matt Busby as manager of Manchester United. His son, Paul, is currently Manchester United's U-18 team manager and assistant director of their youth academy for 17- to 21-year-olds.

As a player he captained Manchester, Lancashire and England at schoolboy level, and signed for Manchester United in January 1953. He played his first first-team match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 8 October 1955, 17 days before his 18th birthday. Competition for places was fierce but he played in enough matches to qualify for a medal when United won the league in 1956.

He was still a United player at the time of the Munich air disaster in 1958, but an injury had prevented him from playing so he was not on the plane that crashed. A broken leg finished his playing career when he was only 22.

He continued to be involved at United and was promoted from reserve team coach to first team coach when Matt Busby retired at the end of the 1968–69 season. Appointed as Busby's successor in June 1969 at the age of 31, at a time when the Manchester United side was in transition and Busby had moved upstairs to become General Manager, McGuinness's reign as Manchester United manager was not as successful as United had hoped. But McGuinness did lead United to 3 cup semi finals during his reign, one in the FA Cup and two in the League Cup.

Duncan Edwards (1 October 1936 – 21 February 1958) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid 1950s, and one of eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster.

Born in Dudley, Edwards signed for Manchester United as a teenager and went on to become the youngest player to play in the Football League First Division and the then youngest England player since the Second World War. In a professional career of less than five years he helped United to win two Football League championships and reach the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Edwards was born on 1 October 1936 at a house on Malvern Crescent in the Woodside district of Dudley, which at the time was part of the county of Worcestershire. He was the first child of Gladstone and Sarah Anne Edwards and their only child to survive to adulthood, his younger sister Carol Anne dying in 1947 at the age of 14 weeks. The family later moved to 31 Elm Road on the Priory Estate, also in Dudley. Edwards attended Priory Primary School 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.

William "Bill" Shankly, OBE (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager.

As a player, Shankly was a ball-winning right half who represented Scotland twelve times, including seven wartime internationals. He made 312 appearances in The Football League for Carlisle United and Preston North End between 1932 and 1949, losing the peak years of his career to the Second World War when competitive football was suspended. He became a manager when his playing career ended in 1949 and worked for Carlisle United, Grimsby Town, Workington and Huddersfield Town before accepting the job as team manager of Liverpool in December 1959.

Shankly is best remembered for his management of Liverpool and is widely regarded as one of football's most successful and respected managers. He took charge of Liverpool when they were in the Second Division and rebuilt the team into a major force in English football. Liverpool won the Second Division Championship to gain promotion to the top flight First Division in 1962 and then won three League Championship titles, two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup before Shankly announced his surprise retirement from football a few weeks after Liverpool won the 1974 FA Cup Final, having managed the club for 15 years. He died seven years later at the age of 68.

Barry George Davies MBE (born 24 October 1937 in London, England) is a British sports commentator and television presenter. He has covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC.

Although best-known for his football commentary, Davies has commentated on numerous other sports, including badminton, beach volleyball, cycling, ice hockey, ice skating, tennis, gymnastics, hockey and athletics, and primarily in the BBC's Olympics coverage, where he twice (Sydney 2000 & Athens 2004) commentated on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games. He was also the 'Voice of the Boat Race' in years between 1993 and 2004, until the BBC lost the rights to cover the event, and the presenter of Maestro in the 1980s, a series of interviews with retired sporting legends.