Eighty years ago, the world of sports looked a lot different. Football, while certainly popular, hadn’t quite grabbed the spotlight the way it dominates our screens today. Back then, on this very day in 1945, a major Portuguese Cup final had just wrapped up.
The big game was held at Campo das Salésias. Sporting faced off against Olhanense in a battle for the trophy. When the newspaper A BOLA hit the stands, it dedicated the top right corner of its front page to Sporting, the victors. The “valiant Olhanense group” got the bottom left spot. Both teams had photos with captions. You could tell Sporting had won, but the exact score? That was a secret the front page kept to itself. Talk about leaving readers in suspense!
But the real estate on the front page, the prime spot, wasn’t about football at all. No, that honor went to a track and field story. This wasn’t just any race; it was a big deal with a strong political undercurrent. Spanish athletes had been expected to show up for the first “Lisbon-Madrid” event. But they didn’t. This no-show drama took center stage, pushing the football results to the sidelines.
The paper also carried other news from around the sports world. Casa Pia was celebrating its 25th anniversary. There were scattered reports about football matches from other countries. Swimming, Olympism, and boxing also found their way into the pages. Oh, and about that Cup final score? Sporting won that match by a single goal. The final tally was 1-0.
