It was the spring of 1896, when Eliso Rivera, from Piedmont from Masio and director of Il Ciclista, and Eugenio Costamagna, from Turin, director of La Tripletta, met in Milan. They decide to combine the effort of their periodicals. And so, from the marriage of Il Ciclista and La Tripletta, La Gazzetta dello Sport was born on 3 April. It was Milan at the end of the century. They traveled around in horse trams, ready to be replaced by the first motor carriages… the upper class went to La Scala and dined at Savini in the gallery. Bicycles and the first bicycles, considered very dangerous, roamed the streets.
Mr. Ciclista and Mrs. Tripletta get married and it is immediately a pink bow, or rather a green one, in the house of the publisher Sonzogno, in via Pasquirolo behind the Duomo. Yes, because the first issue of the Gazzetta is pale green, exactly like Il Ciclista was. The first Gazzetta is sold for 5 cents and has 4 pages printed in 20 thousand copies which are sold out. Three days later, in Athens, the first edition of the Modern Olympics was inaugurated and two weeks later, in the north of France, the first Paris-Roubaix was held… Twin of the Olympics, mother of our cycling, from the Giro d’Italia to Monumental Classics such as Milan-Sanremo and the Giro di Lombardia, the Gazzetta has accompanied, taking it by the hand and sometimes showing it the way, all of contemporary sport.
Eugenio Costamagna, director with Eliso Rivera, signs the first editorial with the pseudonym Magno: “Without claiming to make history, which is compatible with the character of this newspaper, we will limit ourselves to mentioning the difference in meaning that sport can have in today’s era, if we want to compare it with the past….”. And he closes with a purpose that is still very modern: “Sports newspapers must not only provide news, comment on progress, record success, no, they must predict, run the very risk of all things at the end of the century, they must arrive. Will we arrive? We modestly dare to hope so, in any case it will certainly not be on our part that will and tenacity of purpose will end.”
At the beginning the Gazzetta was bi-weekly, published on Fridays and Mondays, because the races and horse shows were usually held on Sundays and Thursdays. The first issue comes out on Friday 3 April, which in 1896 was Good Friday, just like this year for the 130th anniversary. And so the second issue is an immediate exception: “We will be released on Tuesday 7th to give the workers a rest for the Easter holidays.”
The Gazzetta is green in color to differentiate itself from other news newspapers, but in the early years it changes often. It also turns yellow or white, when the green card was not found. The big turning point came on January 1, 1899. The Gazzetta becomes pink and will remain so forever, except for a few rare exceptions during the two Great Wars. In announcing the sensational news, Magno attributes the choice to the readers: “You tell us that now the color green, which formed the emblem of our hope, no longer has any reason to exist – he writes – the color has transformed, has undergone metamorphosis of a strong vitality and is now a ripe fruit: for this reason you advise us to choose the pink shade”.
That Gazzetta color would also become the leader’s jersey of the Giro d’Italia in 1931, the reference color for the sport and for us gazetteers… All the pink of life…
