October 15, 1967: The Tragedy of Gigi Meroni

October 15, 1967: Luigi "Gigi" Meroni darts into traffic on the Corso Re Umberto in Turin, Italy, and is hit by a car. The star winger for Torino F.C. was only 24 years old, and had just played in a 4-2 win over Genoa team Sampdoria.

Known as La Farfalla Granata (the Maroon Butterfly, for the color of Torino's shirts and for his fluttering around the field) and Il Beatnik del Gol (the Beatnik of Goals, for his bohemian lifestyle), Meroni was the matinee idol of Italian soccer. He became known for his stylish play, and had appeared for Italy in its ill-fated 1966 World Cup run that was tainted by a shocking loss to North Korea.

Torino, in the shadow of neighboring Juventus since the 1949 Superga Air Disaster killed most of their team, was on the rise again, and went on to win that season's Coppa Italia (and won it again 3 years later, and reached the Final the season before that). They won the Italian league, Serie A, in 1976, and finished 2nd in 1977, by which point Meroni would have been 34 and could still have been playing. They could have won more.

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October 15, 1967 was a Sunday. There was 1 game played in the NBA: The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 107-102 at the Cow Palace in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California. The Hawks were in their last season in St. Louis. In 1968, they moved to Atlanta.

There was 1 game in the new American Basketball Association. It was the debut game of the Denver Rockets, beating the Anaheim Amigos, 110-105 at the Denver Auditorium. They renamed themselves after Denver's 1st NBA team, becoming the Denver Nuggets in 1974, and join the NBA in 1976.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-3 at the Long Beach Convention Center, outside Los Angeles. Their intended arena, The Forum in nearby Inglewood, wasn't ready, and didn't open until December 30.

In the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-27 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia

* The Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Colts played to a tie, 24-24 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins and the Atlanta Falcons played to a tie, 20-20 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).

* The Cleveland Browns beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-16 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 14-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 10-7 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* And the Dallas Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints, 14-10 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

And in the American Football League:

* The New York Jets and the Houston Oilers played to a tie, 28-28 at Shea Stadium.

* The Boston Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 41-10 at Alumni Stadium, on the campus of Boston College, just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The Pats played home games at Fenway Park from 1963 to 1968, so this was their 1st home game of the season after 4 away games and a bye, and they still couldn't use Fenway for practice because the Boston Red Sox were in the World Series, so the game was moved to B.C.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Buffalo Bills, 24-20 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 45-31 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* And the Denver Broncos had a bye week.

May 29, 1966: Estadio Azteca Opens

May 29, 1966: Estadio Azteca opens in Mexico City, about 9 miles south of downtown. Club América takes a 2-0 lead over Italian team Torino F.C., but Torino plays back to a 2-2 draw. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz of Mexico made the ceremonial first kick, and FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous attended.

The Azteca is the most famous building not just in Mexico, but in all of Central America. Named for the ancient empire that ruled Mexico, it remains the home of the national team and of Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., or simply Club América, the most-loved -- and, like the New York Yankees, the most-hated -- sports team in the country. 

It is older than every Major League Soccer stadium except Providence Park in Portland; every NFL stadium except Lambeau Field in Green Bay; every MLB stadium except Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and the 2 Los Angeles area ballparks, Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium; every NBA arena; and every NHL arena.

From a peak of 119,853 fans at a 1968 game, renovations have reduced the soccer seating capacity to an official 87,523, which still makes it larger than all but a few stadiums in the world, including most of those in the U.S. The field is a hybrid of natural grass and artificial fibers, and runs north-to-south.

Known as "El Coloso de Santa Úrsula," the Colossus of Saint Ursula (for the neighborhood it's in), along with the Maracanã in Brazil, it is 1 of 2 stadiums to have hosted 2 World Cup Finals: 1970, in which Brazil beat Italy; and 1986, in which Argentina beat West Germany.

It also hosted the 1970 Semifinal between Italy and Germany that became known as "The Game of the Century"; and the 1986 Quarterfinal between Argentina and England in which Diego Maradona scored what became known as "The Goal of the Century," only 4 minutes after his handball goal that he called "The Hand of God," the most famous cheat in the history of sports on planet Earth.

In addtion to Club América, the Azteca has been the home field for Club Necaxa, who played there from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1982 to 2003 before going back to the city of Aguascalientes; Atlante, who played there off and on from 1966 to 2007, before returning permanently to their home base in Cancún; Club de Fútbol Universidad Nacional A.C., a.k.a. Pumas de la UNAM, Pumas or UNAM from 1967 to 1969; Atlético Español from 1970 until they went out of business in 1982; and Cruz Azul (Blue Cross) from 1971 to 1996.

It's also hosted soccer for the 1968 Olympics, the 1975 Pan American Games, the 1993 and 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cups, the 1999 Confederations Cup, and the 2011 Under-17 World Cup. (Estadio Olímpico Universitario was the main stadium for the 1968 Olympics, and preceded the Azteca as the national team's stadium.)

It's hosted our football 8 times. The 1st was on August 15, 1994, in a preseason game in which the Houston Oilers beat the Dallas Cowboys 6-0, in front of the largest crowd in NFL history, 112,376. It's hosted 4 regular-season games, with a 5th set for the 2022 season.

On February 20, 1993, the stadium's all-time attendance record was set, as 132,247 people saw Mexico's greatest-ever boxer, Julio César Chávez, knock Greg Haugen out to retain the Light Welterweight Championship of the World. The stadium has also hosted concerts, including by Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and U2; and religious convocations, including the funeral of Chesperito, a legendary Mexican comedian who was a Club América fan.

Mexico City's combination of desert and mountains -- its elevation is higher than that of Denver, "the Mile High City" -- makes for a climate difficult for visiting teams, especially from outside Mexico. It took the U.S. national team 12 tries, until 2012, to get their 1st win over Mexico at the Azteca, and that was in a friendly: As of May 29, 2022, they're still looking for their 1st competitive win there.

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May 29, 1966 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium. Future Yankee Tommy John outpitched Bob Friend, allowing only 3 hits, all singles, to Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Joe Pepitone.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Dodgers thought they had the game won with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, including an inside-the-park home run by Jim Lefebvre. But the Mets scored 3 in the top of the 9th, with Roy McMillan singling Robert "Hawk" Taylor home with the winning run.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 and 1-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-5 with 2 walks over the 2 games. Jim "Mudcat" Grant pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Luis Tiant.

* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ron Santo won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Ernie Banks did not play. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4. Eddie Mathews hit his 470th career home run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at the brand-new Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Ted Davidson issued a leadoff walk to Bobby Tolan. Curt Flood bunted, grounding back to Davidson, who threw the ball away, and Tolan came all the way around to score the winning run. Pete Rose went 0-for-5.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4. Jim "Catfish" Hunter outpitched Jim Palmer. Both Jims were only 20 years old, but both were on their way to the Hall of Fame.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Jim Gentile won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell each went 1-for-5, with Clemente adding an RBI.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ollie Brown singled Jim Ray Hart home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Hart and Willie Mays hit home runs.

May 4, 1949: The Superga Air Disaster

May 4, 1949: A plane crash wipes out what might have been the best soccer team in the world at the time.

Torino Football Club, based in the Northern Italian city that the English language calls Turin, had dominated Serie A, Italy's football league. They had won Serie A in 1928, and Italy's version of the FA Cup, the Coppa Italia, in 1936.

Ferrucio Novo, who had played for Torino as a defender, had gotten rich in the leather industry -- possibly appropriate, given the team's symbol, also the city's symbol, a bull. (And the team was known as Il Toro, The Bull.) In 1939, he became the team's president and its manager. In modern sports, this might seem like a bad idea. But in Italy, during World War II, at the end of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship, it worked like a charm.

In 1942, it all came together. Upon the recommendation of forward Felice Borel, they adopted what Italy called la sistema (The System), known in English football by its shape as the W-M formation: Goalkeeper, 3 fullbacks, 2 halfbacks, 2 midfielders, 3 forwards.

They finished 2nd in Serie A that season, and then won it in 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949, becoming known as Il Grande Torino. They also won the Coppa Italia in 1943, becoming the 1st Italian team to, as they say in England, "do The Double."

This was the usual lineup:

1 Goalkeeper, Valerio Bacigalupo

2 Right Fullback, Mario Rigamonti

3 Left Fullback, Virgilo Maroso

4 Right Halfback, Aldo Ballarin

5 Centre Fullback, Eusebio Castigliano

6 Left Halfback, Danilo Martelli

7 Outside Right, Ezio Loik

8 Inside Right, Guglielmo Gabetto

9 Centre Forward, Romeo Menti

10 Inside Left, Valentino Mazzola

11 Inside Forward, Franco Ossola

In a land beset by conservative Catholicism, terrorized by organized crime, benighted by poverty, and devastated by a war on which it had chosen the wrong side, this team lifted people up, and provided them with thrills they enjoyed, even if far from Turin, even when it sent their local side down to defeat.

On May 3, 1949, the Torino team were in Lisbon, Portugal, playing Sport Lisboa e Benfica at the Stadio do Luz (Stadium of Light). Benfica were already known as Portugal's greatest sports team, and the game was a testimonial in honor of their Captain, midfielder Francisco Ferreira. He had already led Benfica to 3 titles in the Portuguese league, and 4 Portuguese Cups. He had also previously won a league title with F.C. Porto.

Novo had seen him play for Portugal against an Italy team with some of his Torino players. Although Italy won the game 4-1, Novo was very impressed with Ferreira, and arranged the special match. He did not make the trip, though, as he was ill with the flu. So his assistant, Ernő Egri Erbstein, a Hungarian Jew who had played in Italy and later escaped from the Nazis, took charge for the game. Benfica won, 4-3. Matches like this would help inspire the European Cup, which began in the 1955-56 season, and is now known as the UEFA Champions League.

The next day, May 4, the Torino team boarded their Avio Linee Italiane Fiat G.212CP for the flight home. It took off at 9:40 AM local time (Portugal is in the same time zone as Britain, an hour behind most of Europe, including Italy), and landed in Barcelona, Spain to refuel at 1:00 PM. At the Barcelona airport, the Torino players met with those of AC Milan, who were on their way to play a friendly against Real Madrid.

At 2:50, the plane took off again, flying over the French Riviera and the French and Italian Alps. But at 4:55, the pilot got a message that the weather in Turin was bad: Clouds almost touching the ground, and strong southwest wind gusts.

At 4:59, the control tower heard the pilot say he was 9 miles away, approaching the airport from the west (even though he had been flying east from Lisbon and Barcelona), and would use the Basilica of Superga, just past the eastern city limits of Turin, as his sign to turn toward the airport. At 5:03, he made his turn to the left. But he was too low -- a recent theory is that his altimeter had malfunctioned and locked, leading him to think he was higher than he was -- and the plane crashed into the back of the Basilica.

All 31 people on board the plane died, including the entire usual starting lineup. There were 7 other players on board who died, including Dino Ballarin, backup goalkeeper and brother of Aldo Ballarin. Assistant manager Egri Erbstein also died.

A memorial to the victims at the Basilica

There were still 4 games left in Serie A play. An agreement was reached that Torino would be declared league champions, and that all teams would play their youth teams in the remaining games. Torino won all 4 remaining games, and won the league by 5 points over Internazionale Milano (a.k.a. "Inter").

On May 26, a benefit match for the families of the victims was played at the Stadio Comunale in Turin. A group of 11 players donated from other clubs wore the maroon of Torino against visiting Argentine champions River Plate, including Alfredo Di Stéfano, already considered the best player in South America, who would later star for Real Madrid. The match ended 2-2.

The crash changed the course of Italian soccer history. Gabetto was 33 years old, Mazzola 30, Loik and Mento 29, Castigliano 28, Ossola and Aldo Ballarin 27, Rigamonti 26, Baciagalupo 25, Maroso and Dino Ballarin 23, Martelli just short of turning 22. Some of these men could have continued Torino's domination of Serie A, and been major forces for Italy in the World Cups of 1950, 1954, maybe even 1958. It was as devastating to their country as the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, killing 8 Manchester United players, was to England.

Translation: Superga, 4th of May 1949.

Raise your head great people,

You cannot forget the scream of faith.

Turn your gaze to the future

certain to be worthy of the glorious past. 

With Torino having supplied the bulk of the Italian national team, it was decided that Novo should rebuild that as well, and he managed them into the 1950 World Cup. (Italy had won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938, but the 1942 and 1946 editions were canceled due to the effects of World War II.) He took no chances: He had them travel to Brazil by ship, not plane. The long sea voyage may have taken a lot out of them: They beat Paraguay, but lost to Sweden, and did not advance to the knockout round. He remained in charge of Torino until 1953, and died in 1974.

For the 1949-50 season, the other teams in Serie A were each asked to donate a player to Torino. Essentially, it was what we in North American sports would call an expansion draft. But the team never really recovered. They didn't win another notable trophy until the 1968 Coppa Italia. Since then, they have won the Coppa again in 1971 and 1993, and Serie A in 1976. But, ever since, crosstown Juventus F.C. have dominated not just the city, but, often, the country.

The legacy of Valentino Mazzola, Captain of club and country, continued. His son, Sandro Mazzola, starred for the next Italian team to be known as "Grande," the Inter team of the 1960s.

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May 4, 1949 was a Wednesday. American football was out of season. Basketball and hockey had wrapped their seasons up the month before. These games were played in what we would now call Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 10-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Phil Rizzuto and Jerry Coleman each went 3-for-5 in support of Vic Raschi. Rizzuto also had 4 RBIs, including a home run. Joe DiMaggio was injured, and did not play.

Rizzuto loved being Italian, but I don't know if he knew anything about Italian soccer, or "calcio," as it's known over there. His parents were from Calabria, "the toe in the boot of Italy," at the other end of the country. Unless it was covered in Life magazine or movie newsreels, he may never have known about Il Grande Torino or the Superga crash.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-1 at Ebbets Field. Gene Hermanski hit a home run in support of Joe Hatten. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI double.

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-4 at the Polo Grounds. Sid Gordon, Johnny Mize and Bobby Thomson hit home runs in support of Larry Jansen.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-1 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Ted Williams went 2-for-4, including a solo home run.

* And the Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-7 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.