On This Day – 4th May
On this day back in 1949, the great Torino team all perished in an air crash on their way back from a friendly with Benfica in Lisbon.
All thirty one people on board died which included eighteen players. It remains the biggest sporting tragedy of all-time.
Sauro Toma (one of the first-team’s full-backs) and reserve goalkeeper Renato Gandolfi didn’t make the flight due to illness.
The team had won five successive Serie A league titles between 1943 and 1949. There was a two-year gap in the middle due to the league being suspended for the Second World War. Torino have only ever won the Serie A title once since the crash, in the 1975/76 season.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the entire population of Italy went into mourning. The Italian national team had, at one point, ten of the Torino side in their team! Half a million people went on to the streets of Turin on the day of the funerals to pay their respects to the players and coaches who died in the crash.
The Serie A season still had four games of the season remaining and as Torino had lost their entire first team and reserves, they had to field their youth team. The other Serie A clubs decided to field their youth teams as well.
Several of the top Serie A clubs were asked to give one of their players to Torino at the start of the following season but the fans would have to wait another 27 years to see another league title.
A year later, the Italian national team decided to travel to the World Cup Finals in Brazil by boat instead of flying. This was because they feared a repeat of the Torino tragedy.
The crash is commemorated on this day every year with a special mass at the crash site. It is always attended by the current Torino team and the families of those players who so tragically lost their lives in their prime.
About Author
