On September 12, 1948, the Tomelloso Municipal Sports Stadium was inaugurated. The previous field of the Paseo de Circunvalación de Educación y Descanso, also called Los Espinosas, was abandoned, not far from the new one, located between the area where the current streets of Orense and Lugo were later laid out; It was played there for eight years. Even further behind in time was the San Isidro field, close to the Railway Station, where the pioneers of local soccer played from the 1920s until the end of the civil war.
For the premiere of the new field, one of the historic soccer teams in our country came to play, the Unión Deportiva Salamanca, which won 1-2 against that legendary Tomelloso CF of the forties that fielded Orencio, Goyo, Fernández, Manchado, García , Sabater, Berrocal, Arjona, Escobar, Jaro and Andreu. The first goal was scored by Loren from Salamanca, Urre increased the difference for the visitors and Escobar was the scorer of the local goal.
Blessing and hymn. The chronicles say that the priest, Juan Nuñez Cacho, blessed the installation in the center of the field and immediately the Music Band sang the chords of the national anthem. The stands were filled and an emotional memory was dedicated to the mayor, Abelardo Contento, who had died a few months earlier. And in strictly football terms, excitement in abundance. Jaro hit the crossbar and Manchado, injured, played the entire second half as a winger, as a decorative figure, looking for that heroic goal from the lame man that would not come.
Municipal would witness unforgettable rivalry matches with Manchego, Ferroviario de Ciudad Real, Calvo Sotelo, Alcázar, Manzanares, Socuéllamos, Herencia, La Solana, Criptanense, Pedro Muñoz, Villarrobledo, Almagro, Santa Cruz or Daimiel and would see teams of the level and prestige of Granada, Rayo Vallecano, Plus Ultra, Imperial de Murcia, Alicante, Talavera, Gimnástica Segoviana, Badajoz, Cacereño, Diter Zafra, Iliturgi, Cuatro Caminos, Plasencia, Toledo, Recreativo de Huelva, Castellón, Lugo, Ávila, Conquense, Tenerife or Real Murcia, among others. There were also years of coexistence and healthy rivalry between two local clubs: Tomelloso and Atlética Castellana,
Visit of the big clubs of the capital of Spain. On November 2, 1949, Atlético de Madrid visited in a match in which the local goalkeeper, Orencio, was honored. The rojiblancos, who only five months later would win the Spanish League, showed up with a good part of their luxury squad and won 1-3. Fans were able to see legendary players such as Ben Barek, Miguel, Cobo, Hernández and Estruch. A year later, a team from Plus Ultra and Real Madrid visited the Tomellos field with the legendary Zárraga and Molowny forming the meringues’ eleven.
The man after whom the Stadium is named, Paco Gálvez, played for Tomelloso in the fifties and sixties and came to play with Mozota and Miguelín, members of one of the most remembered lineups, which formed: Ramirez, Neftali, Patiño, Vicente, Ramoni, Seage, Tomaseli, Garrido, Miguelín, Mozota and Tomasito. A legendary eleven that played in the final of the Spanish Amateur Cup against FC Barcelona in Mestalla. The road to the final was beautiful. Tomelloso won qualifying rounds against Alcázar, Atlética Castellana, Criptana and Renfe in the provincial phase; Carabanchel in the regional phase and knocked down Salmantino, Kimber de Utrera and Lugo in the national phase.
The appearance of Atlético Tomelloso and more derbies. Later would come the time of the Reinoso, Antequera, Segovia, Juan Antonio, Puche, Jaime, the Sornichero brothers, Candela who kept Tomelloso for several years in a demanding third division, until relegation in the 1969-70 season. After years without a first team, the quarry teams represented by the OJE and Educación y Descanso took center stage, later merged into the Tomelloso Sports Center where Gálvez continued training the local quarry and José Andrés López Vázquez multiplied with an enormous job in the offices .
Senior football would return with Francisco Soria’s Tomelloso CF and Alejandro Carretero’s Atlético Tomelloso, who faced each other in several derbies. In the eighties, local fans would see a succession of promotions in regional categories, two promotions to the third division, one of them with that good football machine that Emilio Cruz built. Municipal would also see two promotions to second B, the first in the 87-88 season after becoming third division champion and the second, in 2003, after winning that decisive match against Don Benito before some 4,000 spectators in the stands, a of the biggest entrances in memory at the stadium. In 2004, a Federation Cup final against Avilés was also seen with a large audience.
The feat of the Copa del Rey and rivals from all over the country. We will remember that Copa del Rey tie in 1991, in which Atlético Tomelloso eliminated Celta de Vigo, then coached by Chechu Rojo. Treviño was decisive with his goals at Municipal and Balaidos.
From the second B era, the visits of great clubs such as Granada, Getafe, Villarreal, Leganés, Toledo, Compostela, Albacete, Hércules, Real Jaén, Córdoba, Real Ávila, Pontevedra, Racing de Ferrol, Ponferradina, Orense, will remain to be remembered. Elche, Levante, Cartagena, Alcoyano, Hospitalet, Eldense, Mérida, Linares, Ceuta, Maspalomas, Alcalá, Pegaso or the subsidiaries of Spanish football greats such as Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Betis, Real Zaragoza, Celta , Real Oviedo, Mallorca or Sporting de Gijón.
A curious fact is that visit of Barcelona B at the 91 fair with Busquet, Geli, Pinilla and a certain Pep Guardiola. He would become European champion just nine months later at Wembley in that final against Sampdoria.
An international match and several finals. The Municipal also hosted, at the end of the seventies, a university world cup match between Denmark and Yugoslavia, as well as the visit of a Mexican team that faced Atlético Tomelloso in a friendly duel. It would also host matches from the different women’s teams in the city such as Tomelloso CF, which had some senior internationals in its ranks, Sporting, Atlético Tomelloso and the current Unión, in addition to a final of the Copa de la Reina, a final of the Spanish Championship of Regional Youth Teams between Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha in which Trashorras, Pablo Ibañez, Arteta and Lorenzo Ginel from Tomellos played. In its most domestic life, the field witnessed numerous clashes between amateur teams and, of course, the future of youth clubs that also filled important pages in the history of local football.
In the most recent period, the Stadium would witness two other promotions to the third division: in the 2015-16 season and in the 2021-22 season, both starring the refounded Atlético Tomelloso. The first promotion was direct after being group champion and the second came after winning the promotion playoff against Cazalegas. Another memorable success at Municipal was the promotion of Tomelloso CF Juvenil to the honor division in the 2010-2011 season. A generation of magnificent footballers whose only exponent in the city’s first team currently is José Luis Morales.
Great cycling afternoons. The other great tenant of the Municipal has been cycling. Great figures of national and international cycling demonstrated their class on the track to the delight of the fans who filled the stands. From the great Fausto Coppi to Marino Lejarreta passing through Bahamontes, Miguel María Lasa, Elorriaga, Perurena, Torres, Oliva, the Manzaneque brothers, Anguita, Beltrán, Cerezo, Yañez, Ruiz Cabestany, Óscar Sevilla and another winner of the Tour, Carlos Sastre, another winner of the Tour, in addition to other good professionals who offered a great show in those elimination and scoring tests that made the fans vibrate. They almost always came from the hand of that great promoter of cycling who was Pedro Marquina. From the famous charcoal track they moved to the current one and there took their first steps from Tomellos cyclists who would later reach the elite such as Pedro Antonio Marquina, Francisco Cerezo or Ramón García España.
More disciplines. And many other disciplines were hosted by the so-called Municipal Paco Gálvez since 2016: indoor soccer, tennis, handball, basketball, clay pigeon and clay pigeon shooting, athletics, archery and even some motor exhibitions. This is how the old course has written its history as it has undergone improvements in its facilities. One of the most striking was the construction of the new grandstand, with capacity for 1,800 spectators, which replaced the original one, much smaller and more uncomfortable; the installation of natural grass first and then artificial grass, the construction of offices for Tomelloso CF that Atlético and Unión now share, the installation of the large floodlight towers, the arrangement of the accesses, the construction of more changing rooms, the enabling of a concert area behind the grandstand, the new electronic scoreboard and the remodeling of the old scoreboard’s turret, the most unique and characteristic aspect of the field, next to the pinnacles at the entrance. Many of these renovations are recent and have given the old course a healthy and rejuvenated appearance. Let it be for 75 more years.
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