Twice lost in translation, or what referee Dattilo really said to Colombo in the greatest upset in World Cup history, England v U.S.A. 1950

Abstract

This paper offers an explanation of an episode that took place in a 1950 World Cup game that saw the US defeat England by 1–0. It focuses on a linguistic misunderstanding between Italian referee Generoso Dattilo and US centre back Charles Colombo, an Italian-American from St. Louis. More precisely, the paper offers an explanation of what referee Dattilo said to Colombo following a rugby-like foul committed by the latter on English forward Stanley Mortensen. Colombo, as well as many others who recounted the story afterwards, maintained that the referee, surprisingly, complimented him. This article argues that what Colombo took as a compliment in Italian was instead a warning issued in Roman dialect. The meaning of the referee’s words was lost in translation and Dattilo’s warning turned into an unlikely compliment that has since entered soccer folklore as one of the defining moments in the greatest upset of World Cup history.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Roger Allaway, former official historian of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and member of the Society for American Soccer History, for helping me identify some of the players in Figure 1, and to Rosemary Thorne and Russell Williams for listening more than once to this story and helping me polish it.

Notes

1. On the socio-linguistic aspects of football see the 34 essays in Lavric et al. The Linguistics of Football; on three more technical aspects, see Bergh and Ohlander, “Loan Translations versus Direct Loans”; Müller, Football, Language and Linguistics; Love and Walker, “Football versus Football”. See also the interactive Innsbruck Football and Language Bibliography available online at https://www.uibk.ac.at/msp/projekte/sprache_fussball/bibliography/.

2. Wood, “Languages and Football.”

3. Gregori, “Lo Bello Concetto.” The episode became so well known that a scene in the 1974 Italian movie ‘L’arbitro’, whose main character Carmelo Lo Cascio is clearly modelled after Lo Bello, depicts him intent on learning insults in various foreign languages before going to bed.

4. Some newspapers had referred to the U.S. team as a ‘band of no-hopers’ while U.S. coach Bill Jeffrey referred to his team as ‘sheep ready to be slaughtered’ (Schaerlaeckens, “Chasing Gaetjens”).

5. The Derby Daily Telegraph of June 29, 1950 listed the U.S. squad line-up as: Borghi; Keogh (instead of Keough), Maco (instead of Maca); McGillivray (instead of McIlvenny), Colombo, Bahr; Wallace, Parioni (instead of Pariani), Guetjen (instead of Gaetjens), J. Souza and E. Souza. The Aberdeen Journal wrote on June 30, 1950 that the U.S. star of the match had been ‘Scots-born right half M’Ilveny.’ It should be noted, however, that the U.S. press did just as badly. The caption of the original picture taken at Randall’s Island also contains various errors: Lyon instead of Lyons, Valecenti instead of Wallace (Valicenti, and not Valecenti, was the original name of Wallace but he did not find this out until he went to obtain his passport prior to departure for Rio and he always played under the name of Wallace), bill Jeffry instead of Bill Jeffrey, Graddock instead of Craddock, Jeff Coombs instead of Geoff Coombes, D.Orio instead of DiOrio, Adal Molanin instead of Adam Wolanin, Anni instead of Annis.

6. After the World Cup, Matt Busby signed McIlvenny for Manchester United. After making only two appearances in three years, he moved on to Waterford, in the Irish first division, where he made 57 appearances in four years. He finished his career at Headington United (the name of Oxford United until 1960) of the Southern league, in what was at the time the sixth tier of the English football pyramid. After their performance in Brazil, three other U.S. players were offered professional contracts. Joe Gaetiens signed for Racing Club in Paris. He played four games and scored two goals before moving to a lower league team, Olympique Alès, for which he made 15 appearances and scored two goals. Joseph Maca signed with Racing White Daring Molenbeek, a Belgian Third Division club. Finally, Charles Colombo was offered a professional contract in Brazil but he turned it down (Schaerlaeckens, “Chasing Gaetjens” and Lange, “Belo Horizonte blues”).

7. Walter Bahr later said: ‘I don’t know of anybody that made a living off soccer back when I played. Everybody had a job’. The Philadelphia Nationals paid him $25 per week, which was about half of what he made per week as a physical education teacher. Joe Gaetjens was paid $25 a game by Brookhattan in New York (Lopez, “Walter Bahr remembers” and Schaerlaeckens, “Chasing Gaetjens”). According to Harry Keough, St. Louis players ‘made $6 a game if [they] won, $4 if [they] tied and $2 if [they] lost’ (Lange, “Belo Horizonte blues”). According to soccer historian James Robinson (A history of soccer in the city of St. Louis, 107), professionalism in that city only meant that ‘soccer was given … support by business and industrial firms.’

8. Harris, “England Suffered their Greatest ever Humiliation”; Farnsworth, “The US and the 1950 World Cup.”

9. That six players (out of a total of 17) should hail from St. Louis is remarkable but that five of them should also have been born and grown up in the same small district of that city known as ‘the Hill’ is unique. Two of them (Borghi and Pariani), moreover, were born and lived across from each other on the same street (Dagget Avenue). That block of Daggett Ave. has been designated – at least on the small map of ‘the Hill’ – as ‘Soccer Hall of Fame Place’. Not far away, a block of Elizabeth Avenue is known as ‘Baseball Hall of Fame Place’ since that is where baseball catchers Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola were born and grew up. Both of them were playfellows of Borghi, Pariani, Colombo and Wallace on the neighbourhood youth baseball teams. On the remarkable history of sport, and soccer in particular, in St. Louis, see Robinson, A history of soccer in the city of St. Louis and Lange, Soccer made in St. Louis.

10. Carlisle, “Remembering the USA’s 1–0 Upset”; Zeitlin, “World Cup: US Legend Walter Bahr.”

11. Fifa.com, “The Miracle of Belo Horizonte.”

12. Burnton, “England Return to Belo Horizonte.”

13. Associated Press, “Frank Borghi, U.S. Goalkeeper.”

14. Fifa.com, “The Miracle of Belo Horizonte.”

15. Zeitlin, “World Cup: US Legend Walter Bahr” and Schaerlaeckens, “Chasing Gaetjens.”

16. In the pictures taken at Randall’s Island (above) and before the game with England, Colombo has his arms behind his back and hence it is impossible to determine whether he was wearing his mittens. A picture owned by goalkeeper Frank Borghi and reproduced in Douglas (The game of their lives), however, shows Colombo leaping high in front of Borghi and Mortensen to try to head a cross away (the ball ends up in Borghi’s hands). In this picture his right hand is visible and so is one of his gloves.

17. Douglas, The Game of their Lives, 33.

18. Carlisle, “Remembering the USA’s 1–0 Upset.”

19. Douglas, The Game of their Lives, 22.

20. Schaerlaeckens, “Chasing Gaetjens”; Lange “Belo Horizonte Blues.”

21. Jones, “The Upset that Shook the World.”

22. Of all the versions I have read of this episode, only Risolo (Soccer Stories, 171–2) claims that the foul occurred inside the penalty area. The 2005 film, The Game of their Lives, directed by David Anspaugh, does suggest that Colombo was a rough player but, surprisingly perhaps, does not contain a scene devoted to this episode.

23. Fatsis, “Who was Dent McSkimming?”; The New York Times, June 30, 1950. A search of the British Newspaper Archive also reveals that the often-repeated story that some newspapers reported a 10–1 win for the English team because they assumed that there must have been a typing error in the wire they had received from Brazil is a myth. British Newspaper Archive, “Copies of Old Newspaper Reveal a World Cup Myth.”

24. Derby Daily Telegraph, June 29, 1950 and Western Morning News, June 30, 1950.

25. Jones, “The Upset that Shocked the World”; Burnton, “England Return to Belo Horizonte.”

26. Trusdell, “Soccer’s all Time Upset.”

27. Longman, “How a ‘Band of No-Hopers’.”

28. Carlisle, “Remembering the USA’s 1–0 Upset.”

29. Longman, “How a ‘Band of No-Hopers’.”

30. Douglas, The Game of their Lives, 132.

31. Risolo, Soccer Stories, 172; Fifa.com, Laws of the Game, 2016/2017, 87.

32. Fifa, Laws of the Game and Universal Guide for Referees, 24.

33. So were Borghi and Pariani. Frank ‘Pee-Wee’ Wallace was also of Italian lineage, one of his ancestors having changed his real name, Valicenti, to Wallace. On the Italian community of ‘the Hill’ in St. Louis, see Mormino (Immigrants on the Hill).

34. Risolo, Soccer Stories, 171–2. A short excerpt is available on https://soccerstoriesbook.wordpress.com/tag/dent-mcskimming/.

35. See, the entry ‘Bòni … state bòni’ in Dizionario Romanesco Tascabile. Available online at http://www.turbozaura.it/tascabile.asp?idcategoria=Sub009#indice (accessed March 27, 2017).