At least three generations of Italians have dreamed of being able to scream “I made 13!” on the phone calling some family member or jumping happily for the home stay. On May 5, 1946 the coupon was born. And it was immediately understood that it was something more than what would become, in a few months, a phenomenon of custom. Indeed, “the” phenomenon of custom.
Winning at the Totocalcio was the possibility of being able to shout to the world that one’s existence had taken a different turn. Forever. And then, in post-war Italy “turning” meant many things. First of all, forget the dead, the injured, the pain. It was an unforgettable year that 1946. Women voted for the first time in the referendum for the Republic or the Monarchy, Gino Bartali won the tour of Italy for the third time and the magazines «Grand Hotel» and « Today. ”In reality, at the time, the predictions to guess were 12 and not 13. Only four years later the thirteenth will arrive.
In the collective imagination, however, there will always remain – even in those who have not heard it with their own ears – the scream of a Roman employee named Emilio Biasotti who, hitting the 12th of the first ticket of the first Sisal competition, won 462 thousand eight hundred and twenty-six lire, almost the entire amount of the prize money, which was 463 thousand and broken. To get an idea of what that dream was worth, just think that the salary of a worker at the time fluctuated between eleven and thirteen thousand lire a month. Something not far from four years of salary and some whim beyond a brand new dress.
30 lire for the ticket
The cost of the ticket was thirty lire and, after all, the mechanics were also simple: it was enough to score 1 to indicate the victory of the home team, 2 for the former away team for a draw. In short, it was something within reach from all points of view. The first millionaire hit came in the eighth competition when the win of the twelve earned the lucky bettor more than sixty million lire.
To conceive the game, it was a sports journalist, Massimo Della Pergola, who had guessed how through this competition football and sport in general could be financed. Starting with plant engineering. But, also, to invent what would become – well in advance of the financial exasperation of recent decades – a show that attracted millions of fans. A curiosity: that competition, which from 1948 will take the name of Totocalcio and which will be managed by the State Monopolies, in the initial stages, will meet more favor in the south than in the north.