Sir Walter Winterbottom CBE (31 January 1913 – 16 February 2002) was the first manager of the England football team, serving from 1946 until 1962.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Winterbottom's first career choice was to be a teacher. He trained at Chester Diocesan Training College (now the University of Chester) and qualified as a physical education instructor in 1933. While teaching he also played amateur football for local teams and was soon signed up to Manchester United as a professional, playing his first game in 1936 and being part of the team that won promotion to the First Division in 1938. He appeared in twenty six first team games before a spinal ailment curtailed his career.

During World War II, Winterbottom served as an officer in the Royal Air Force.

The Football Association (FA) appointed Winterbottom as England's national director of coaching and first manager of the national team in 1946. Winterbottom is the only England manager to have had no prior managerial experience in professional football. His duties included not only managing the national team but also developing the overall standard of coaching in England. David Goldblatt writes: "That a single post could be responsible for such a massive workload suggests either naivety of lack of interest on the part of the FA". Winterbottom did not, however, have the power to pick the England squad: that remained with the FA's selection committee. His first game was a 7-2 victory over Ireland in September 1946.

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.

Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. Matthews' nicknames included "The Wizard of the Dribble" and "The Magician".

A near-vegetarian teetotaller, he kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old. He was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent the country. He played his final competitive game in 1985, at the age of 70. Matthews was also an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 to honour his contribution to the English game.

He spent nineteen years with Stoke City, playing for the "Potters" from 1932 to 1947, and again from 1961 to 1965. He helped Stoke to the Second Division title in 1932–33 and 1962–63. In between his two spells at Stoke he spent fourteen years with Blackpool; where he became an FA Cup winner in 1953 (known as the Matthews Final), after he was on the losing side in the 1948 and 1951 finals. Between 1937 and 1957 he won 54 caps for England, playing in the FIFA World Cup in 1950 and 1954, and winning nine British Home Championship titles.