'The Hero of Munich' - Harry Gregg memorabilia collection to go under the hammer

A collection of footballing history once owned by the ‘hero of Munich’ goalkeeper Harry Gregg is to go under the hammer with renowned sports auction house, Budds.

The Harry Gregg Collection – which is estimated at a value between £60,000 and £80,000 – will be offered in Budds Sporting Legends: Past & Present auction on February 11.

Gregg, who was born in Tobermore in 1932 but grew up in Coleraine, has been described as a ‘colossus of a man both on the pitch and away from football’.

A former goal keeper for Manchester United and Northern Ireland, Mr Gregg was part of the famous ‘Busby Babes’ squad who played under Sir Matt Busby.

He joined United in December 1957 for a fee of around £23,000, which at the time made him the most expensive goalkeeper in the world.

He played 25 times for his country and was voted best goalkeeper at the 1958 World Cup tournament where Northern Ireland reached the quarter-finals.

In February 1958, a British European Airways Flight 609 crashed at Munich-Riem Airport with the Manchester United team known as the Busby Babes, along with supporters and journalists, onboard.

Harry pulled some of his team-mates from the burning plane, including Bobby Charlton, Jackie Blanchflower and Dennis Viollet, as well as his badly injured manager Sir Matt Busby. He also helped Vera Lukic, the pregnant wife of a Yugoslav diplomat, and her daughter Vesna (aged two).

Harry Gregg was appointed an MBE by the late Queen Elizabeth in 1995 for services to football, and was then made an OBE in 2019, also for services to football.

Now a collection of his footballing memorabilia, direct from the Gregg family, will be auctioned.

The headline piece in the auction will be the 1958 FA Cup final shirt – which is estimated to fetch between £15,00-£20,000.

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Ten red shirts were prepared for that final. Only one was made in green, leaving a single surviving example from one of the most significant matches in the club’s history.

Peter Kenny Jones, the Football Historian writes: “The Harry Gregg Collection arrives at a moment when the sports memorabilia market is more informed, more discerning and more global than ever before.

"Collectors are no longer simply acquiring objects; they are acquiring stories, context and cultural significance. This collection offers all three.

"From the singular green shirt worn at Wembley in 1958, to European Cup exchanges with Real Madrid and Benfica, these items represent the intersections of sport, history and human resilience. They tell a story that transcends club rivalries and national borders.”

The collection also includes match-worn and swapped shirts from domestic and European fixtures, reflecting Gregg’s standing in the game.

Highlights include a green Real Madrid goalkeeper shirt worn by Rogelio Domínguez in 1959 and acquired by Gregg following a post-match swap, as well as a black number one Benfica shirt worn by Costa Pereira during the European Cup quarter-final second leg against Manchester United in 1966.

That match, played in Lisbon and won 5-1 by United, is remembered as the occasion on which George Best was famously dubbed “El Beatle”.