1903.
Ford Motor Company was founded (Henry Ford was not the first president?!), the first Tour de France was raced (did they even have roads?), Orville Wright flew a plane, and I am pretty sure our great-grandparents were banging pots and pans and plucking at string calling it music or something. Imagine they had Instagram?
Also, am I actually, really starting this article, this site’s first article, on a cliché?
Bing Crosby, Lou Gehrig, George Orwell, and King Clancy were born. And somehow some British guy (Sir William Randal Cremer-link) won the Nobel Peace Prize the same year Queen Elizabeth II’s gramps, Edward VII, added some foreign jewels to the Crown, taking over India and the Fulani Empire. Good on him, I suppose. More impressively, Marie Curie won her first (first!) Nobel Prize in Physics, the first woman to win such an award, and the first and only person to win two Nobel Prizes in different science categories.
OK – cliché out of the way. I will try to never list off how life was in a specific time period ever again. I hate that cliché. It is a cop out to figuring out a good introduction. But I am re-finding my writing voice. Give me a minute – let’s enjoy the ride together.
Coraje y Corazón.
That’s the foundation, the root, established in 1903.
So much of what defines Atlético Madrid is that they are not Real Madrid. And they are perfectly content being the underdogs. There is a genuineness and a gravity or force that encapsulates being an Atlético Madrid fan. Winning isn’t everything and although it is important, what’s more is the Coraje y Corazón that gives sense to something deeper and more meaningful. Also, did you know ‘coraje’ in some Spanish dialects, like El Salvadoran, means anger instead of courage? With all these final losses I am going to tell you about, maybe it should mean anger!
OK – so what? Should we be excited for owners that are okay with losing? If that’s what you gathered, then you’re missing the point. The culture with this club is deeper. In ways, we can see the parallels closer to home with the Ottawa Senators. A team and city with a hockey history so deep, being an original dynasty and birthplace of the Stanley Cup, but went into purgatory for decades and currently being held hostage by Melnyk. Further, the Sens are often overshadowed by bigger clubs down the highway in Toronto (Leafs suck!) and Montreal (Habs suck!). We don’t mind being the underdog, even when the Sens have been objectively better than the two over the last 20 years, there’s something better (or masochistic) about being a Sens fan. But you didn’t come here to talk about the Sens, enough ink has been spilt on them in this city. The point is as a city, collectively, we can learn how to be overshadowed but still be a powerhouse like Atlético Madrid.
First was the shadow cast in 1903. Athletic Madrid (originally Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid) was founded by three Basque students living in Madrid, as a youth branch to their hometown team in Bilbao. Until 1921, Athletic Bilbao would borrow players from the youth squad, most notably winning five Copa Del Reys between 1910 and 1916.
After becoming independent from the Basque team in 1921, Madrid started to be competitive in their own right, instantly becoming finalists in the Copa Del Rey losing to Athletic Bilbao. Mommy and daddy weren’t ready for Madrid to grow up, at least not so quickly. A few years later, a new shadow was cast, as Barcelona beat them in the final of the same competition in 1926.
Their respectable performance during this decade earned them an inaugural spot in the first La Liga season in 1929, but were relegated after two seasons, and relegated again in 1936. However, this time they were “saved” by the Civil War. We all know saved is a bad word to use in this context – because along with the war being devastating to the country and its citizens, Real Oviedo could not compete in the first division since their stadium was destroyed in bombings. Athletic Madrid was no exception to this devastation, as eight players were lost in the war.
Athletic Madrid and a newly founded team, Athletic Aviación de Madrid, merged, and immediately made an impact. Using the latter as their team name, they won the La Liga title in 1939 and 1941. During that same year, the team changed the name from Athletic to Atlético due to Franco’s language politics, banning non-Spanish languages, and in 1947 they dropped Aviación, becoming what we know them as today.
Their new identity brought success, defeating Real Madrid 5-0, which is to date, their biggest victory against their derby rivals; kickstarting their Golden Age Era.
Atlético won and defended the La Liga trophy in 1950 and 1951 and battled Athletic Bilbao for third best in Spain for the rest of the 1950s. They battled Barcelona for second best in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s, adding to their La Liga trophy cabinet in 1966, 1970, 1973, and 1977. Along the way they finally won the Copa Del Rey in 1960, 1961, 1965, 1972, and 1976, their first victory coming nearly 40 years after their first finals appearance. At this time, they began to make noise in Europe, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a tournament that was played between winners of all of Europe’s domestic league cups. This era climaxed in a finals appearance in the 1974 European Cup (now Champions League) losing to a Beckenbauer and Müller led Bayern Munich in a heartbreaking fashion. Till this day, this is the only European cup final to have been replayed, after the first game finished as a 1-1 tie.
Although Atlético won La Liga in 1996 and Copa Del Rey in 1985, 1991, 1992, and 1996, with runner-up finishes two and three times respectively, these finishes were aberrations, as they often struggled to even secure third. Eventually they were relegated in 2000, playing two full seasons in the Ségunda Division.
2003 was the beginning of Atlético’s ascension in Spain, Europe and the world as one of the premier clubs. The team became notable for developing many young talents, like Fernando Torres, that would go on to mark their influence with the team and other clubs globally.