Dennis Viollet, the former Manchester United and England footballer, who has died of a brain tumour at the age of 65, was one of the `Busby Babes' who survived the Munich air crash in which so many of his team-mates died. On February 6, 1958, the plane with the Manchester United team on crashed on take-off at Munich following a refuelling stop on the way home from a European Cup tie against Red Star in Belgrade. Eight players died along with 14 other passengers. Viollet suffered head injuries which prevented him from playing until two league games near the end of the season as a warm-up for the FA Cup Final against Bolton.
His escape did nothing to blunt a sharp sense of humour and a jaunty approach to life. As a fellow `Busby Babe', John Doherty, who grew up with Viollet at Old Trafford, put it: `The effect of Munich on his life was that he mustn't waste a minute of what was left.' One can never be certain if Munich took anything away from Viollet as a player. A mere two England caps suggest he did not fulfil his early promise as a schoolboy international and captain of Manchester Boys. He had certainly made a dashing start in senior football with United, as partner to Tommy Taylor in the swashbuckling forward line of the mid-1950s which won successive championships and was making a big impact in Europe.
Viollet's silky, sharp and stealthy approach made him a perfect foil for Taylor: two seasons after Munich he scored 32 league goals from just 36 appearances - a club record which stands today.
Viollet lived life with a boldness which occasionally had embarrassing results, as I discovered to my cost when writing a weekly column with him for the Manchester Evening News. Between us we ventured to suggest that it was a shame Wolves had won the championship in 1959 rather than Manchester United, `because it meant English football would be represented in Europe by a primitive, long-ball game.' The following day we were summoned to Sir Matt Busby's office -where we expected to be congratulated on our perceptive article - only to be handed the phone to listen in turn to an irate Stan Cullis bellowing down the line from Molineux. Dennis took it in his stride. `Thanks very much for that, Scoop,' he said, with a smile.
In league and cup competitions Viollet made 291 appearances for United and scored 178 goals. He had grown up in Moss Side in the shadow of Manchester City. Indeed, it was no secret that as a boy he had been a City supporter, but that did not prevent him giving Busby excellent service as well as a few headaches.
After leaving Old Trafford he played nearly 200 more games at Stoke City, had a spell with Linfield, and played for Ken Barnes when his great Manchester City friend was manager of non-league Witton Albion. He enjoyed brief coaching spells at Preston and Crewe before joining in the fashionable exodus to America, and settled in Florida. He returned to Germany last May as a guest of UEFA.
Ironically, it was on his way back to America from Munich that he first had intimations of the disease which, despite two operations, led eventually to his death.
He is survived by four children from his first marriage, and by his second wife, Helen, and their daughter Rachel, a Junior Wimbledon tennis player. (Dennis Viollet, footballer, born September 20th, 1933; died March 6th, 1999)
