It was a very painful week. In a family environment, we lost a friend, Carmita Jaramillo from Barrionuevo, with whom we were united by more than 60 years of beautiful brotherhood. The same with her husband, my fellow Vincentian Ney Barrionueva, and her children, my children’s brothers in heart. Carmita was an enthusiastic reader of this column. He told me that he enjoyed reading yesterday’s sports, because he became a football fan since he saw his uncle Vicente Pereira, a right forward in Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Guayaquil, play in the first division, along with Carlos Montevideo, Manuel Vargas, Pepe Merino and José Morillo, who, coincidentally, also formed Vicente Rocafuerte’s front line in 1950. I will miss her cheerful comments and the lessons she gave us about what she was essentially: mother, friend and teacher.

Felipe Landázuri, a left-sided striker, who rose to Aduana Portuario and signed with Emelec in 1962, has passed away. Like all right-backs, he was technical and solid at the same time, a trademark registered since the time of Juan Baboon Benitez; Luis Child Jurado, Benítez’s successor; Ezio Martínez, from Patria, and the king of kings: Alfonso Quijano, who one day out ran the Argentine Juan Carlos Pichino Carone, from Vélez Sarsfield, who tried to make a tunnel for him. He waited for him and when he came back he shook him nicely. Carone finished at the Modelo velodrome.

In 1963, Landázuri had his own high-risk assignment: marking Devil Tyriza. The Brazilian left a memory that will never be extinguished: he was a dribbling wizard and had a cannon in his left boot. Today, when no one dribbles and the last pass is used as the only resource, Tiriz’s feints and tricks are part of an unforgettable film that remains in the memory. He passed all the traffic lights, except for Felipe Landázuri. I’m not saying the Guayaquil man undid him, but he fought him as an equal. He always came out with an electric bias and Emelec paid him as they have done many times with their best players: they bought the Uruguayan José Romanelly for his position and sent Landázuri to the bench. It was always a source of pride for him – and he always told me this -: “I was the only one who stopped Devil Tyriza.”

Life has its compensations. I have countless books, magazines, papers, briefcases and covers full of documents. On Thursday I took one of them and found a treasure: a dozen copies of the magazine that occupied my childhood and youth: Sports news (someone gave them to me, but unfortunately I don’t remember who). There are not many people left from my generation, those who filled the old Capwell stadium, those who saw the birth of the idolatry of Barcelona and the first Ballet Azul of the Chilean Renato Panay in 1954; those who saw the Everest of Pedro Gand, Albert Spencer and Gerard Layedra; to the homeland of Oswaldo Fortunata Sierra, Jaime Galarza, Jorge Carita Izaguirre, Carlos Gambina, Mario Saeteros and Enrique Maestrito Raymondi.

Also for Unión Deportiva Valdez Alfredo Bonnard, Honorato Mariscal Gonzabay, Julio Caisaguano, Carlos Titan Altamirano and Juventino Tapia, and many other teams and figures. They were not the winners of the World Cup because the conditions were significantly different from today’s, but they left us with the stamp of a brave football team; defense of colors from the heart; qualities in soccer players who would be crack today, but who earned minimum wages in sucres that they returned tenfold in love for their currencies. They are all very different from this present of listless professionals who care little for the history of a currency they don’t feel and have no respect for the public who pay to see them on the field.

An old newspaper from Guayaquil, Noticario Deportivo, with Joffre Paredes and Carlos Romero in its pages. Photo: Courtesy

Those from my generation will remember Sports news. It was a journal in the form of a notebook, small, with twelve flat pages in two colors. It was worth no less than 40 centavos (four reales, for my contemporaries). It was edited and managed by an old and respected journalist, Don Juan E. Garibaldi H., and had its writing and composition office in José Mascote in 1428 between 10 de Agost and Clemente Ballén. Don Juan’s two sons helped to compile, advertise sales and collections: Pepe, who was my partner at Diario EL UNIVERSO, and Chinese Luis, who went to the Olympic pool with us and one day we persuaded him to go to the swimming referee course.

It was a simple magazine, published in 5000 copies, but Don Juan Garibaldi excelled with luxurious editors. IN Sports news The written column “Sports Cocktail” by Manuel was born chicken Palacios, when he was already a radio star. The editorials were written by Miguel Roque Salcedo, who also wrote the page entitled “Personality of the Week”, or Ricardo Chacón García, two eminences of true journalism, and, a revelation: the remembered Arístides Castro Rodríguez made his debut in this magazine in 1957. Arcas, who would later leave in the newspaper The TelegraphSPACE and radio Watchtower, CRE, Super K 800 and several television channels. Arcas’ column was called “From the board to the field”.

In 1958, Leonardo Montoya Almendáriz, Leomón, joined his appearance, which later shone in the pages of EL UNIVERSO. Sports news He published not only lucid comments and criticisms, but also added quality photos of the master of the camera: Miguel Jordán Proaño. I always remember that when we got to Capwell we looked for the little vendor who always sold it to us. Just one for the whole party; Our economy was not enough.

Noticiario Deportivo highlights Jaime Galarza and Rómulo Gómez on their website. Photo: Courtesy

The first thing we devoured was the “Character of the Week”. In issue 68 of the magazine appeared a photo of Rómulo Gómez, about whom it was said: “The man who stole the public’s attention, who forced the applause, who surpassed his followers was Gómez, that spied and tough young man who clarifies his football every day conditions, summed up in his demeanor and well-preserved athletic condition, in the natural sense of the game, in his good behavior on and off the field.”

Another player with excellent characteristics that was mentioned in the magazine column is Carlos Titan Altamirano, Valdez’s left midfielder: “Altamirano has a defined personality within club football, and perhaps through national professionalism: he is complete in the game, brave, strong, skilled, technical and knows how to use his head. He never gives up in front of his opponents, no matter how difficult they are, and in the most difficult moments he acts calmly and decisively.”

At the professional tournament in 1958, Patria showed great strength in its middle sector. This is what the magazine said: “The average line of patricians is higher than Valdez’s, showing a decline. (Jaime) Galarza is arguably the best of the two due to his unbeatable tagging and easy takedowns; for his powerful and well-directed shot. (Oswaldo Fortunato, Argentinian) Sierra stands out for its good positioning, resistance to withstand 90 minutes in a series of well-executed actions.”

I’ve run out of space, but we’re continuing very soon with the much-anticipated magazine from the old days of the George Capwell Stadium: Remembered Sports news. (OR)