My dad celebrated his completion of 59 years of his life
today. He always joked, when someone asked him about his birth date, he would
say – “On my birthday, the entire USA and the Americans around the world from
USA celebrate”. Few smarties would pick it up right way, while others wonder
why a South Indian’s birthday would be celebrated so far away in North America.
Around four years ago, our class friends were on a visit to
the Swiss Olympic Committee. I was told by a football enthusiast at the
Committee about the stories surrounding the FIFA World Cup. I pressed for more
and he started narrating about the most famous tournament Switzerland had ever
hosted; the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
History enthusiasts like me do not like just the trivia. I
like the story with it. Facts do not excite me as much as a tale related to it.
It is even better if it is narrated. I didn’t know about that World Cup except
that West Germany was victorious. Held in Switzerland to mark 50 years of
FIFA’s existence, the 1954 World Cup was the first appearance of West Germany after
World War II as they were not allowed to take part in the 1950 World Cup.
Hungary were clear favourites to win the 1954 World Cup.
Having been undefeated for 32 games running, they looked set to lift the
prestigious Jules Rimet Trophy (a new trophy has been commissioned since 1974).
They were the reigning Olympic champions and had also won the Central European
International Cup. Such was their domination that, very few doubted about their
inability to triumph at the World Cup.
The previous edition’s finalists Uruguay (winners) and
Brazil were knocked out in semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively. Having
beaten West Germany convincingly 8-3 in the group stages, the pundits had no
doubt Hungary would repeat the feat.
Little do people know, in sports there lies a romance which
has its periodic affairs with uncertainty. It is true that results more often
than not are predictable, however one can never rule out a possibility of a
surprise. The whole process of arriving at an unexpected outcome is what that
makes people to hold on and repeatedly look forward to watching sports events.
At the end of the finals, the score line read this way. West
Germany 2 and Hungary 1 – an upset of huge proportions and there are no words
just to describe what had just occurred in Bern. The German national anthem was
played for the first time in international sporting events since 1945. The
whole event was a turnaround for the German football and quite aptly it is
labelled as ‘The
Miracle of Bern’.
To mark this special day, FIFA had few t-shirts for sale on
its merchandise shop. While at FIFA headquarters, I collected a stuffed toy of
the 2010 FIFA World Cup and a t-shirt which had the inscription of this event. 54
in bold; I knew this coincidence and was more than happy to pick up this shirt.
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| T-shirt to mark the occasion of the 1954 FIFA World Cup finals at Bern |
Couple of weeks later, we had a visit to the Wankdorf
Stadium, Bern for a lecture. I wore this shirt on purpose and visited the
stadium, now renovated, thinking back on all the events that took place exactly
in 1954 on the fourth of July. I bet my father didn’t know this fact until the
time I showed him this shirt. In his usual way, he had one good look at the
shirt and went on with his daily chores.
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| Clicked in 2009 at the renovated Wankdorf Stadium, Bern |
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