Joined
·
1,065 Posts
I'd like to post this off-topic for two reasons: one is to get people's minds off Sunday a bit and the second(and much more important) is to mark a very important event that shows that there are much worse things that can happen to your football team then a bad season.
Tommorow will be the 53rd anniversary of one of the saddest events in football history, the Superga air crash which took lives of players of propably the best football team ever to grace the green fields of Italy, Il Grande Toro.
When one who knows very little about Italian football thinks of Torino he sees the poor neighbour of Juventus, the mightiest, richest and best supported team in Italy. But those more knowledgable know that it isn't the case. The number of trophies won by Toro does look pitifull compared to those of Juve but one shouldn't be fooled by that. It could have been a lot different if only...
In 1939 Ferrucio Novo took over as Torino president and with little money and a lot of passion created a team that would become legendary. In 1943 Torino won the Double(Scudetto and Coppa Italia) becoming the first club in Italy to do that. After WW2 more success was to follow: Scudetti in '46, '47,'48 and '49 making it four in a row(5 if you count the one from '43). They demonstrated football never seen before in Italy, and naturally Torino was the backbone of Gli Azzuri(Vittorio Pozzo fielded the national team with 10 Torino players vs. Hungary in 1947).
On April 30th 1949. Torino played Inter at San Siro to decide the championship. It finished 0-0 and Toro was virtually crowned champions. In such mood they went to Lisbon to play a friendly vs. Benfica. Tired of the trip Torino lost 4-3 on May 3rd 1949. They parted home tommorow.
May 4th was a typical foggy afternoon in Turin. The plane approached the hills above the city arond 16:45. The last transmission from the plane was at 17:04. About a minute later, due to visibillity reduced by the fog, the plane crashed on the hill of Superga near a basilica that bears the same name. All 31 pasengers and crew were killed.
18 great champions were gone that day, but they'll never be forgotten. Their names: Valerio Bacigalupo, Aldo and Dino Ballarin, Emile Bongiorni, Eusebio Castigliano, Rubens Fadini, Guglielmo Gabetto, Ruggero Grava, Giuseppe Grezar, Ezio Loik, Virgilio Maroso, Danilo Martelli, Valentino Mazzola, Romeo Menti, Pietro Operto, Franco Ossola, Mario Rigamonti, Julius Schubert, their coach Lesley Lievesley and the director Egri Erbstein.
Hats off and RIP, Il Grande Toro...
Tommorow will be the 53rd anniversary of one of the saddest events in football history, the Superga air crash which took lives of players of propably the best football team ever to grace the green fields of Italy, Il Grande Toro.
When one who knows very little about Italian football thinks of Torino he sees the poor neighbour of Juventus, the mightiest, richest and best supported team in Italy. But those more knowledgable know that it isn't the case. The number of trophies won by Toro does look pitifull compared to those of Juve but one shouldn't be fooled by that. It could have been a lot different if only...
In 1939 Ferrucio Novo took over as Torino president and with little money and a lot of passion created a team that would become legendary. In 1943 Torino won the Double(Scudetto and Coppa Italia) becoming the first club in Italy to do that. After WW2 more success was to follow: Scudetti in '46, '47,'48 and '49 making it four in a row(5 if you count the one from '43). They demonstrated football never seen before in Italy, and naturally Torino was the backbone of Gli Azzuri(Vittorio Pozzo fielded the national team with 10 Torino players vs. Hungary in 1947).
On April 30th 1949. Torino played Inter at San Siro to decide the championship. It finished 0-0 and Toro was virtually crowned champions. In such mood they went to Lisbon to play a friendly vs. Benfica. Tired of the trip Torino lost 4-3 on May 3rd 1949. They parted home tommorow.
May 4th was a typical foggy afternoon in Turin. The plane approached the hills above the city arond 16:45. The last transmission from the plane was at 17:04. About a minute later, due to visibillity reduced by the fog, the plane crashed on the hill of Superga near a basilica that bears the same name. All 31 pasengers and crew were killed.
18 great champions were gone that day, but they'll never be forgotten. Their names: Valerio Bacigalupo, Aldo and Dino Ballarin, Emile Bongiorni, Eusebio Castigliano, Rubens Fadini, Guglielmo Gabetto, Ruggero Grava, Giuseppe Grezar, Ezio Loik, Virgilio Maroso, Danilo Martelli, Valentino Mazzola, Romeo Menti, Pietro Operto, Franco Ossola, Mario Rigamonti, Julius Schubert, their coach Lesley Lievesley and the director Egri Erbstein.
Hats off and RIP, Il Grande Toro...
