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How Unlucky Can You Be? This is the story of a former original Busby Babe - Paddy Kennedy, whose career was dogged by injury at vital times.
The number of players who have crossed the Irish Sea and arrived at Old Trafford to play for Manchester United is too numerous to mention one by one, but included in these were footballers who reached the highest level of the game.
Paddy Kennedy was one of these men but sadly injury jinxed his career and eventually cut it short ... this is his story.
Bibliographical note: The cover has a slightly different sub-title, 'The story of Paddy Kennedy an original Busby Babe', but on the title page this is replaced by that more verbose one correctly catalogued above.
Paddy Kennedy was one of these men but sadly injury jinxed his career and eventually cut it short ... this is his story.
Bibliographical note: The cover has a slightly different sub-title, 'The story of Paddy Kennedy an original Busby Babe', but on the title page this is replaced by that more verbose one correctly catalogued above.
51 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2024
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October 23, 2024
Manchester United's Matt Busby was well known in the early 1950s for unearthing young talent to begin his team of youngsters that became known as the Busby Babes. One of his recruiting grounds was Ireland, north or south. And when he got word of a star centre half who had on occasion captained the Eire Schoolboys side, he decided that here was a boy ripe for development as one of his Babes. His view was strengthened when Paddy Kennedy starred for Eire Schoolboys as they sensationally defeated England Schoolboys 8-4 at Liverpool's Anfield ground in May 1951.
In July of that year young Paddy was signed as an amateur by United and he appeared for the first time in a United shirt in the pre-season practice game at Old Trafford in August. As an amateur he was given a job at the Metro Vicks factory at Trafford Park but this did not prevent him playing for the junior and Colts sides at United throughout the 1951/52 season.
Paddy had established himself at United and along with other youngsters, such as Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Billy Wheland and others, who would become an integral part of the Busby Babes he graduated to the more senior sides, beginning the season in the 'A' team. But he was still young enough to appear in a new competition that began that season. It was the FA Youth Cup, which was to restore Busby's faith in his young starlets as they won the competition with relative ease and Paddy played in all nine games in which they took part. In the final they defeated the other strong First Division youth team, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Now signed as a professional Paddy continued to impress and moved up the ranks to the reserve side who played in the Central League so he was on the verge of a call-up for the First Division side. It was towards the end of the 1953/54 season that he made his debut at reserve level in a 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa on 17 April 1954 but, now playing at full back, he did well enough to suggest that he had a future at that level.
And so it proved as the following season he played 37 out of the 42 games that the reserve side played and not only that he made two appearances for the first team. The first was in a friendly game at Scottish club Clyde who won 4-2 and the second was on the following Saturday when he faced Wolverhampton Wanderers at their Molineux ground. Despite Wolves winning 4-2, Paddy acquitted himself well enough but with four regulars returning for the next game he returned to reserve team football.
The 1955/56 season was to be Paddy's push for a regular first team place but a pre-season cartilage injury kept him out until November by which time the United first team had a settled side with many of the youngsters beginning to make their mark. Paddy had to settle for reserve team football but at least he was part of the side that won the Central League title that year.
Injuries behind him he began the 1956/57 season with high hopes but in September, with United now having an abundance of talent at their disposal, Busby called him in to tell him that the club had accepted an offer from Blackburn Rovers for him to join the Ewood Park club. Leaving with a £500 bonus, Paddy duly made his League debut for Rovers early in the season against Barnsley and he was the local press man of the match who described his performance as 'a revelation' in a 2-0 victory. But, with manager Johnny Carey informing him that he would probably be in the Irish side for an upcoming World Cup qualifying game, he suffered injury in only his third game, all three of which Rovers had won.
The injury was difficult to shake off and he eventually missed the whole of the 1958/59 season and, after agreeing to join non-league Bangor City, he eventually found himself at Third Division Southampton who had made a late bid for him. He played two League games for the club but realised that his injury was still affecting him and after a further four reserve games he and manager Ted Bates reluctantly agreed that he should return home to his wife and family, his Football League career over.
Oldham Athletic did sign him but he never made the League side although he did play a significant part as the Oldham representative at the Professional Footballers Association meeting at the Grand Hotel in Manchester when the agreement was made to abolish the maximum wage.
After professional football he assisted clubs with coaching as he worked at Massey Ferguson and became a well respected pillar of the local community. He died on 18 March 2007, survived by his devoted wife Bridget, his four children, Anthony, John, Theresa and Anne, his 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
And it is these members of his family, excepting Theresa who sadly passed away in 2022, who finish the book by paying loving tributes to him, expressing their love and devotion and recalling many happy memories of their times with him.
Finally, as a book, it could have done with a little bit closer editing to eradicate some of the annoying errors that occur and the photographs could have been better presented to give more prominence to Paddy's footballing achievements; the images are so small that detail (players and their names in particular) cannot be picked out, especially the two championship sides, the FA Youth Cup winners and the Central League champions.
In July of that year young Paddy was signed as an amateur by United and he appeared for the first time in a United shirt in the pre-season practice game at Old Trafford in August. As an amateur he was given a job at the Metro Vicks factory at Trafford Park but this did not prevent him playing for the junior and Colts sides at United throughout the 1951/52 season.
Paddy had established himself at United and along with other youngsters, such as Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Billy Wheland and others, who would become an integral part of the Busby Babes he graduated to the more senior sides, beginning the season in the 'A' team. But he was still young enough to appear in a new competition that began that season. It was the FA Youth Cup, which was to restore Busby's faith in his young starlets as they won the competition with relative ease and Paddy played in all nine games in which they took part. In the final they defeated the other strong First Division youth team, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Now signed as a professional Paddy continued to impress and moved up the ranks to the reserve side who played in the Central League so he was on the verge of a call-up for the First Division side. It was towards the end of the 1953/54 season that he made his debut at reserve level in a 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa on 17 April 1954 but, now playing at full back, he did well enough to suggest that he had a future at that level.
And so it proved as the following season he played 37 out of the 42 games that the reserve side played and not only that he made two appearances for the first team. The first was in a friendly game at Scottish club Clyde who won 4-2 and the second was on the following Saturday when he faced Wolverhampton Wanderers at their Molineux ground. Despite Wolves winning 4-2, Paddy acquitted himself well enough but with four regulars returning for the next game he returned to reserve team football.
The 1955/56 season was to be Paddy's push for a regular first team place but a pre-season cartilage injury kept him out until November by which time the United first team had a settled side with many of the youngsters beginning to make their mark. Paddy had to settle for reserve team football but at least he was part of the side that won the Central League title that year.
Injuries behind him he began the 1956/57 season with high hopes but in September, with United now having an abundance of talent at their disposal, Busby called him in to tell him that the club had accepted an offer from Blackburn Rovers for him to join the Ewood Park club. Leaving with a £500 bonus, Paddy duly made his League debut for Rovers early in the season against Barnsley and he was the local press man of the match who described his performance as 'a revelation' in a 2-0 victory. But, with manager Johnny Carey informing him that he would probably be in the Irish side for an upcoming World Cup qualifying game, he suffered injury in only his third game, all three of which Rovers had won.
The injury was difficult to shake off and he eventually missed the whole of the 1958/59 season and, after agreeing to join non-league Bangor City, he eventually found himself at Third Division Southampton who had made a late bid for him. He played two League games for the club but realised that his injury was still affecting him and after a further four reserve games he and manager Ted Bates reluctantly agreed that he should return home to his wife and family, his Football League career over.
Oldham Athletic did sign him but he never made the League side although he did play a significant part as the Oldham representative at the Professional Footballers Association meeting at the Grand Hotel in Manchester when the agreement was made to abolish the maximum wage.
After professional football he assisted clubs with coaching as he worked at Massey Ferguson and became a well respected pillar of the local community. He died on 18 March 2007, survived by his devoted wife Bridget, his four children, Anthony, John, Theresa and Anne, his 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
And it is these members of his family, excepting Theresa who sadly passed away in 2022, who finish the book by paying loving tributes to him, expressing their love and devotion and recalling many happy memories of their times with him.
Finally, as a book, it could have done with a little bit closer editing to eradicate some of the annoying errors that occur and the photographs could have been better presented to give more prominence to Paddy's footballing achievements; the images are so small that detail (players and their names in particular) cannot be picked out, especially the two championship sides, the FA Youth Cup winners and the Central League champions.
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