The crash shattered a moment of high spirits for the team and for England: Manchester United had just advanced in the European Cup tournament. And it left Britons stunned and grief-stricken.  Less than two weeks later, after the funerals, the surviving team members took the field and beat Sheffield Wednesday, 3-0, to advance in another tournament, Englandâs F.A. Cup. They also advanced in the European Cup before losing to A.C. Milan in the semifinals.  Their pluck moved a nation and made the team instantly famous.  âIt was not the fact that United suffered such a disaster as Munich that brought them a worldwide following, which latterly has been parlayed into huge corporate profit,â the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph said this week. âNobody chooses a football club out of sympathy.â  Bill Foulkes, who died at 81 on Monday in Manchester, epitomized the teamâs grit. He sustained only minor injuries in the crash, and was the new team captain when United took the field against Sheffield Wednesday. âIt was the best thing to do,â Foulkes, a taciturn, bull-strong center back, said of the decision to play.  But it was not the easy thing to do. He had not been able to sleep or eat. His head throbbed, and would continue to ache for years. And he could not stop thinking that United âwould have developed into one of the great teams of all time,â The Daily Mail, another British paper, quoted him as saying in its obituary.  To working-class fans, Foulkes was one of them. At 14, he went to work in the coal mines of his native Lancashire, and even after his first two years with United, he still got up before dawn to work the 5:30-to-2:30 shift. Then he would report for practices and games, arriving covered with coal dust. When asked why he kept working, he said his family needed the money.  His job on the field was to stop others from scoring, brutally if necessary. Though only three other players had more appearances for the club in its 135-year history â his total was 688 â he scored only nine goals in his almost 17 years with United.  But one was among the most important in club history. In April 1968, in a semifinal European Cup match against Real Madrid, George Best, a great United player, hit Foulkes with a pass near the goal. Foulkes side-footed it into the net. It made for a 4-3 victory (on aggregate after two games) that propelled United into the final, in which it beat Benfica of Lisbon.  A decade after the Munich crash undid Unitedâs campaign to win its first European Cup, a rare but timely Foulkes goal had finally accomplished the feat.  William Anthony Foulkes was born in St. Helens, England, on Jan. 5, 1932. Manchester United discovered him when he played for a local boys club in 1950, and at 20 he made his debut in a First Division match against rival Liverpool.  Foulkes played right back as United pursued its first European Cup in 1958. In February, playing in Yugoslavia, United drew, 3-3, with the Belgrade team Red Star, a result that let it advance in the tournament (by 5-4 on aggregate). After the match, the British Embassy honored the team at a reception, giving each member a bottle of gin.  On the way back to England from Belgrade, the plane stopped in Munich to refuel. There were also mechanical problems. Two takeoff attempts were aborted. Foulkes grew nervous, he said, and on a hunch he changed seats, a move that probably saved his life but later saddled him with guilt.  On a third attempt, the plane left the runway but slammed into a fence. Foulkes felt something hit him on the head â his bottle of gin. When he came to, he saw a gaping hole in front of him and climbed out the back of the plane, then ran as fast as he could. When he saw that the plane was not going to explode, he raced back to try to help the wounded.  The next day he visited his teammates in the hospital, he recalled in an interview in 2006, and quickly realized that many were missing. He asked a nurse where they were. âEverybody has died,â she said.  He returned to the field, switching to center back in 1960, but he said it took five years before he could feel truly comfortable playing again.  He went on to coach the Chicago Sting, the Tulsa Roughnecks and the San Jose Earthquakes in the North American Soccer League, as well as teams in Norway and Japan.  Manchester United announced Foulkesâs death without giving a cause. He is survived by his wife, Teresa; his daughter, Amanda; and his sons, Stephen and Geoffrey.  In 1993, he auctioned his medals, including one for the 1968 European Cup, his jersey and other memorabilia, because he needed the money.  âThey meant a lot to me,â he said, âbut I still have the memories.â
The rugged defender Foulkes sustained minor injuries in the crash in Munich in February 1958 that killed eight starting players, and went on to help Manchester United rebuild.