Today’s pair of related exhibits from the European football club pin badge collection again features a Hungarian club, although on this occasion moving out from concentration on Budapest to the provinces, & specifically Győr, a city whose team has undergone many a name change over the years since its formation in 1904.
Hence, these rather lovely vintage objects represent, respectively, Vasas ETO, as they were known from 1957 – 65, & then Raba ETO, from 1965 – 85, during which latter period they won, consecutively in 1982 & ‘83, two of the four Hungarian championships to the club’s name: it would have been at this time that Raba would have come to my attention, courtesy of the discovery of & a subscription to World Soccer magazine, as something of an exotic name to be admired & supported, aided by the team’s sporting of green & white colours, which invariably helps in aesthetic terms.
The internet discovery & subsequent ‘must-have’ acquisition of the Raba badge, indeed, has proved to be the catalyst for the collection itself, so it occupies a special position all of its own in this regard, as the striking Art Deco-esque design of its form & typography marks it out as something particularly fine & glamorously different.
Delving back into history, the club’s first championship was achieved in 1964, thus under the Vasas banner, who subsequently reached the semi-finals of the European Cup the following spring, unfortunately to succumb to Benfica: had Vasas prevailed, as in an ideal world they should, what a fantasy final it would have constituted, versus our beloved Internazionale.
Coming up to date, the presently &, alas, more prosaically-named Győri ETO (although they’ll always remain ‘Raba’ here at TOoT) are Hungary’s reigning champions, although currently somewhat off the pace in the defence of their title, a situation compounded by last weekend’s surprising 0 – 3 defeat at then second-bottom Mezőkövesdi (which, new to the scene, is another in the seemingly endless supply of wonderful Hungarian names), which result enabled the victors to leapfrog MTK in the league table (see Monday's #14).
Stop the Presses,
for an announcement has been made concerning the coming availability of a new Moon Wiring Club musical release, entitled 'A Fondness for Fancy Hats', in both CD & tape cassette form.
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