Today’s example features Stal Rzeszów, perhaps one of the more obscure clubs to feature in the football pin badge collection.
For the past few seasons inhabiting the middle regions of the Polish second division, Stal Rzeszow came to my attention in 1975-76 as a result of being drawn to play Wrexham in the second round of that season’s Cup-Winners’ Cup, at what was in effect the zenith of their profile (the one trophy success in their history being the 1975 Polish Cup which qualified them for that one & only entry into European competition) then to disappear completely from the radar during their subsequent descent down the Polish league structure (the end of that season saw them relegated from a single-season sojourn in the top flight - where they’d also spent a more sustained period from 1962-72, having gradually risen from the lower reaches - to be followed a year later by another demotion to the third tier, & bar one term spent even further down at the fourth level, the second & third divisions are where the club’s time has been divided since).
Whatever the ups & downs of those imposters success & failure, however, the name of Stal Rzeszow remained in the memory, & the striking design of the club’s crest as represented on & shaping the form of the little badge made the latter an object of desire upon encounter with it, a necessary & welcome addition to the collection.
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