AND today is a historic date for the city of Foggia: sixty years ago the city celebrated its first historic promotion to the Serie A football championship. It was 14 June 1964 when the president’s Rossoneri Mimì Pink Rose and the coach Oronzo Pugliese they landed in football paradise: that Sunday Foggia lost in Varese but that defeat – due to Padova’s concomitant home defeat against Monza – still gave the Rossoneri team the pass for their first historic arrival in the top flight. There are few survivors of that team, among them Ciccio Patino.
June 14, 1964 still remains well imprinted in the mind of those in the city who experienced that celebration. Those were the times when there were no TVs that broadcast matches and that day Foggia fans gathered in the center where some loudspeakers were installed for radio updates of the results. At the end of 90 minutes, the discouragement for the dream that seemed to have vanished soon gave way to an explosion of joy: upon learning of Padova’s home defeat, the city kicked off an unforgettable celebration which, 60 years later, still remains alive and clear in the memories of those who lived it. A few months later another historic victory arrived: on 31 January 1965 Foggia beat Inter on the then dusty Zaccheria pitch. Helenio Herrera. Anecdotes tell of a visit by the Nerazzurri team to Padre Pio in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo, the day before the match. And on that occasion, the then friar – now a Saint with the stigmata – announced defeat to Herrera and his friends, reassuring them that from then on they would win everything. Which promptly happened. (Handle)
