Tribute to our 1973 Copa champions

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Athletic's 2-0 Copa final victory against Club Deportivo Castellón at the Vicente Calderon on June 29, 1973, Athletic Club has organised an institutional event to honour the members of that squad.

The event will take place at San Mamés on 28 June at 12:00 CEST. A delegation from the Castellón team will also be present and there will be a lunch afterwards.

The Club has contacted the members of the 1972/73 squad, either by direct invitation or, in the case of the deceased players, through their families. The event will also be an opportunity to recognise the champions and remember the seven Lions who, unfortunately, are no longer with us.

Under Serbian coach Milorad Pavic, Athletic finished ninth-place LaLiga before securing the Copa. These were the members of that team: Jose Angel Iribar, Iñaki Sáez, Felix Zubiaga, Agustín Guisasola, Daniel Astrain, Ángel María Villar, Txetxu Rojo, José Ángel Rojo II, Txema Lasa, Fidel Uriarte, Antón Arieta, Víctor Marro, Txutxi Aranguren, José Ramón Martínez Larrauri, Joseba Betzuen, Jose Mari Igartua, Rafa Viteri, Carlos Ruiz, Josu Ortuondo, Jose Mari Zuluaga, Juan Carlos Vidal, Javier Clemente, José Antonio Beitia, Ricardo Ibáñez, José Miguel Aizpuru, Nico Estéfano and Miguel Navarro.

Los Leones first faced Real Oviedo in the round of 16. After beating the Asturian side, Athletic faced Sevilla, winning the second leg 5-2 at San Mamés. In the semi-finals, Pavic's team beat CD Malaga 2-1 in Bilbao and secured their place in the final thanks to a late goal by Txema Lasa at La Rosaleda.

The final at the Vicente Calderón

On 29 June, amid huge expectation, thousands of Athletic fans travelled to Madrid. Despite the fact that the match was televised live, tickets quickly sold out with sales producing a then record intake of 17 million pesetas.

Athletic were desperate for victory. Pavic, assisted by former champions Gonzalo Beitia and Venancio Pérez, took an attacking approach to overcome a Castellon side featuring talented players like Manolo Clares, Vicente del Bosque and Juan Planelles.

The Lions started with Iribar, Sáez, Zubiaga, Guisasola, Astrain, Villar, Rojo II, Lasa, Txetxu Rojo, Uriarte and Arieta, while Aranguren and Carlos came on in the second half. Lasa opened the scoring on the half-hour mark, while Zubiaga wrapped up the final in the 54th minute. There were wild scenes at full-time, with the fans running on to the pitch to carry the champions on their shoulders.

The best was yet to come. A crowd of 25,000 people waited outside Bilbao's city hall to welcome the players. Pavic compared the crowd to that which gathered in Washington following US President Dwight Eisenhower becoming president in 1953.

A yearning for social change

With the dictatorship in its dying days, the hunger for freedom was evident throughout the celebrations. The Ikurriña, which was still banned at that time, appears in several photos of those celebrations in Bilbao and Biscay.

It was a period of change and progression, Basque was standardised in the form of Euskara Batua, the first Basque language schools were created while Basque literature and music flourished. At the same time, Athletic Club had reverted back ti its original after decades of being forced to use "Atlético de Bilbao". Society, like the television sets of the time, was eager to move from black and white to a new era of colour.

1970s were an important decade for the club in many respects. Athletic also expanded San Mames' East Stand and constructed the Lezama training centre in the early 70s.

Football was changing at a great speed and proof of this were the rumours saying LaLiga sides would be allowed to sign foreign players once more. The imminent arrivals of Johan Cruyff at FC Barcelona and Salif Keita at Valencia CF ushered in a new era for the competition.

The 1973 Copa was the icing on the cake for a new era at Athletic. It is a victory that the club wishes to remember by paying a well-deserved tribute to one of the greatest successes in the club's modern history and by remembering the champions who are no longer with us, such as Aranguren, Arieta, Beitia, Estéfano, Txetxu Rojo, Uriarte and Zubiaga, as well as members of the coaching staff such as Pavic, Venancio, Natxo Biritxinaga and Guillermo Perdiguero.

Eskerrik asko txapeldunak!