A great "art deco" postcard (illustrated by Yves Roowy) celebrating rugby at the 1924 Olympic games in Paris.
No rugby today... My favorite team , the Stade Francais, lost his second HCup final yesterday... Bad mood...
Having said that, there is a nice short-cut in history that enables me to a fine transition to tennis, as Roland Garros French Open starts today...
Let's make it short. Roland Garros was a Rugger... Maybe I will look later on for nice pics to illustrate it... but I have none on my computer right now...
The Stade Francais (omnisports) built this large tennis stadium in Paris Bois de Boulogne in 1927, in
order to organize the Davis Cup final after the "Musketeers" (Cochet, Brugnon, Borotra, Lacoste) won it the previous year in the US. It has been hosting the French Open since 1928 (it was previouly hosted at La Faisanderie, SF premises in the Parc de St Cloud).
At the time, Stade Francais was chaired by Emile Lesieur, a true "sportsman", who used to play winger in SF rugby team (Champion in 1908, 2 caps with France in 1906 and 1912), but also member of the
Olympic track & field team... From what I have read in the newspapers, this gentlemen was running really fast... he died 100 years old...
Emile Lesieur was an old-time friend of the aviator Roland Garros, with whom he studied at HEC (yes, the MBA...) at the beginning of the XXth century.
Following his friend Emile Lesieur, Garros joined the Stade Francais where is is recorded to have played rugby - not the A team, I admit - , and did also participate to several cycling championships...
Roland Garros was then a professional aviator in the 1910s (many of his records are listed in my previous link to EADS) and a pioneer in military aviation during WW1. He was shot down and died in october 1918, days before the war ended...
Later in the 20s, Emile Lesieur insisted strongly to have the new tennis stadium named after his friend. As it recorded : "je ne sortirai pas un sou de mes caisses si on ne donne pas à ce stade le nom
de mon ami Garros..."
You are invited to visit the the unofficial Roland Garros Blog (in French) of my blog friends Julien and Smooth ...
26/01/2006
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