The Santa Cruz Suicide Tour in 1943 – 04/29/2023 – Sport

“Once done”, says historian Luiz Antonio Simas, a student asked him what would have been the greatest epic in human history. Episodes such as the construction of the pyramids in Egypt, the adventures of Genghis Khan, the landing of man on the moon, “and other frills” crossed the professor’s mind.

“I thought a little about all these facts and expressed my opinion: ‘The greatest epic of all time was an excursion that the Santa Cruz soccer team made to the confines of the Amazon in 1943′”, reported Simas, in the book “Ode to Mauro Shampoo and Other Stories from the Várzea” (Mórula, 2017), which has a chapter dedicated to the tricolor saga.

80 years ago, the team from Pernambuco made a journey to the North of Brazil, with the aim of raising money in friendlies. Left on January 2nd, in the dark. He only managed to return to Recife on April 29, with four players less, two of them dead, and almost unbelievable events, which justify the inclusion of the trip in the list of the most fabulous adventures of humanity.

The Second World War (1939-1945) was underway. German submarines prowled the Brazilian coast. Days before, the ship Aranguá had been sunk off the coast of Sergipe. For this reason, the Santa Cruz delegation began its journey at night, lights off, with the vessel escorted by two others, from the Navy.

This circumstance would be enough for the undertaking to be treated as insane, but the first leg of the trip was completed without the record of major incidents. The team arrived in Natal, scored 6-0 against the national team and, from there, left for Belém.

There were still no clues that it would be known as “the suicide tour” or “the death tour”, the title of a report by the magazine Placar, which in 1979 reconstructed “a journey that had everything – even deaths”. “In the midst of World War II, a team’s heroic journey” was the subtitle of the text by Lenivaldo Aragão, who heard reports from survivors and painted the entire company with his proper epic paints.

It was on the following journey, after two wins, two draws and a defeat in Pará, that the tour began to turn into an epic. The journey along the Amazon River was made on a ship towing a shipment of food destined for Acre.

“The trip to Manaus lasted just fifteen days, including three days when the vessel could not continue for a very simple reason: Indians armed with clubs, clubs and blowguns kidnapped the group to get food. The skirmish with the Indians was resolved. , the team finally arrived in the capital of Amazonas,” reported Simas.

Arrived tired. The long journey did not set up what is considered good preparation.

“Away from home, without news, we ended up drinking,” right-winger Guaberinha told Placar. “The night arrives when the entire team is caught in the engine room of the steamer, having a memorable drunk with some of the crew”, described the magazine.

Not surprisingly, the first result in Manaus was a 3-2 loss to Olímpico. The hangover passed, with a 6-1 victory over Nacional, but something worse appeared. The head of the delegation, Aristófanes Trindade, and six players began to suffer from a strong intestinal infection, which did not prevent them from playing.

After the Manauara season ended and an attempt to play in the Guianas and Peru was frustrated –the CBD (Confederação Brasileira deesportivas) vetoed, because of the war, with the threat of suspension for 90 days–, the group returned for a new sequence of games in Belém . But not whole. Sidinho (who would later change his mind and return), Pelado and Omar stayed in Amazonas, attracted by offers from local clubs.

Soon there would be new, more tragic casualties.

Hospitalized in Belém, without proper recovery from the dysentery of the previous week, goalkeeper King was diagnosed with typhoid fever and did not resist. Dead at dawn on March 3, he was buried in the capital of Pará, in a ceremony with honors, which did not make Santa Cruz abort the tour.

There was a minute of silence before the match against Paysandu on March 8, Carnival Sunday. That day, typhoid fever was missing with one more player, Mumps. And the tour continued.

“It was even normal to see people crying. Limoeirinho cried, Amaro Cajá was one of the most weeping. I myself cried a few times, thinking about the family. It was hard to want to go back and not be able to”, recalled Guaberinha, then 60 years old, to Placar.

One of the matches held in Belém, a 3-3 tie with a team formed by athletes from Remo and Paysandu, had as its lure the proceeds reverted to the families of the dead. But Santa Cruz no longer caused the commotion it had caused upon arrival, with full stadiums, and played with empty stands.

It was time to take a new direction, and the chosen destination was São Luís. There would be no more deaths, but the greatest human epic would still gain relevant chapters, such as the journey to Maranhão.

“To save some money, players exchange first-class tickets for third-class ones. And they are forced to travel in the company of a gang of 35 thieves that the Pará police are exporting to Maranhão. Just in case, the 15 cups that the club won on the tour are carefully kept. An unnecessary measure – as thieves and players end up becoming good friends”, reported, in Placar, Lenivaldo Aragão.

In São Luís, with casualties due to desertion, injury, illness and death, the team even entered the field completed by the ship’s cook. At that point, the Campeonato Pernambucano had already started, and Santa Cruz competed in the competition with the reserves that did not travel.

The time to return home was approaching, but the task seemed impossible. The ship with the delegation left at dawn and had to return to São Luís in the morning. “The radar had detected the presence of submarines in the sea”, wrote Aragão, recalling that, in addition to the greatest human epic, a world war was in progress.

The solution was to go by rail to Teresina. It’s almost unbelievable, but the train derailed on two occasions, with no injuries. Once in Piauí, why not play soccer? Victory by 4 to 3 over the local selection.

The two final legs of the saga –Teresina-Fortaleza and Fortaleza-Recife– were made by road. In the last game of the tour, Santa Cruz beat Ceará by 3-2.

It was almost four months before the players were finally at home. “My six-year-old son Marcelo didn’t recognize me,” said Guaberinha.

It was the end of a historic and even incredible excursion, which also saw an athlete, Pedrinho, arrested for allegedly “harming a 17-year-old girl” and episodes like this one, in Teresina, narrated by Luiz Antonio Simas: “A player was stabbed after a riot in the red light zone”.

According to the historian, the whole saga “should become a series of some streaming”. “They are making a fool of themselves not to produce,” he warned.

“Excuse me, Alexandre, Gengis Khan, Napoleon, Christopher Columbus and others. Close to the epic of Santa Cruz in the Amazon, his great deeds keep the same drama as a picnic on Paquetá Island, with the right to ride a pedal boat in the waters of the Guanabara.”