Football Team Gets White Calf as Prize for Winning!

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 15

Football Team Gets White Calf as Prize for Winning!

REVIVAL OF A NCIEN’T GAME

Picturesque ceremonies accompanied the revival at Florence (Italy*), early this month, of the historic game of calcio, which the Italians claim was the forerunner of the modern football game.

It is believed that the game originated in Graeco-Roman times, and was Popular in the Renaissance period. Young Florentines stage a display during the siege of the city by the Prince of Orange, in 1529, in defiance of the enemy, who bombarded the players with cannon shots, fortunately missing them.

Calcio Is a complicated form of Tli of each consisted of 27 Players, dressed in white and green, respectively*, to represent the opposite banks of the Arno. Ancient procedure was scrupulously observed.

A gorgeously-clad procession included captains, heralds, knights trumpeters, drummers and palace guards, many of them mounted, and the members of which included descendants of historic families, met the players and marched through decorated streets amid ancient music to the church, where the players were blessed. All then went to a public square, where banners hung from the windows of surrounding houses. Ten thousand people were present. The sides changed ends each time a goal was scored. The winners carried a standard, which they unfurled and the losers trailed their standard in the dust. The greens won the game by nine goals to six, and received as a prize a white calf, which was decorated and formed part of the pageant.