Three weeks after the Munich air crash, with 23 lives lost and some of the injured still in hospital in Germany, a telephone rang in Bishop Auckland.
The call was from Manchester, from Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby's assistant. The man picking up was Bob Hardisty, who was asked if he could join Manchester United.
Given that Hardisty was nearly 37 and had retired from playing nine months earlier, he may have been forgiven for thinking Murphy had got the wrong number. But Murphy — and Busby — knew Hardisty well.
They were not asking a boy to do a man's job, they were asking a man to shepherd boys.