The struggles suffered this season by Torino at the bottom of the Serie A standings is hardly new, but relegation would be especially difficult this year.
Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the Superga air tragedy — the day Turin and Italy lost a team remembered as one of the country’s greatest.
At 5:05 p.m. on May 4, 1949, the plane carrying the team back home from an exhibition in Lisbon crashed in foggy conditions into Superga Basilica on a hill overlooking Turin. All 31 people on board were killed, including all 18 players. The club has never again reached the heights of the “Grande Torino.” And this season is an example of the struggles the club has had to endure over the past six decades.
The city was devastated following the tragedy with more than 500,000 people lining the streets on the day of the funerals. At the time, Torino was ahead in the standings and on the verge of a fifth straight title.
Captain and midfielder Valentino Mazzola was the heart ans soul of the team and, despite dying in the crash, his legacy lived on. His son Sandro led Inter to two European Cups in 1964 and 1965 and was part of the Italy team that reached the 1970 World Cup final that lost to Brazil 4-1.
“When I started with Torino in the youth team we trained in Grande Torino’s stadium and we heard the stories of the great team that fell in 1949. That was 14 or 15 years afterward so the memories were still fresh,” Renato Zaccarelli, who became team captain, told The Associated Press.
“There was one kit man who told us stories of Bacigalupo and Mazzola and this continued the tradition of ‘Il Grande Torino.’ You felt it at training and in the changing rooms. You had to walk through their tunnel and train on the field where they used to play.”
After the crash, the league awarded Torino the Serie A title and the club’s youth team played the final four matches. It wasn’t until 1976 that Torino — captained by Zaccarelli — lifted the league title again (a lone bright spot on the club’s blemished record), a success that led to an emotional response from the club’s fans.
“The day after the [final] match there was a massive march when all the fans walked to Superga. It was all spontaneous and the team tried to go up to it, but there was such a line of people,” said Zaccarelli.
Torino is currently fourth from the bottom at 30 points — just one point above another storied club, Bologna, in the fight to avoid the drop this spring.
