José Eulogio Gárate honoured at the match played on Saturday in the Vicente Calderón stadium
On the occasion of the Gunsmiths’ visit to the capital, the president and several members of the board of directors offered a simple tribute to the Gárate family as defenders of the values of the Club
With all the events organised to mark the 75th anniversary of SD Eibar drawing to a close, the club wanted to add a tribute to José Eulogio Gárate during the visit to the Vicente Calderón stadium last Saturday. The president, Alex Aranzábal, presented him with a plaque thanking him for his work as ambassador for the club during the anniversary , a title that was granted in the very same Vicente Calderón stadium in 2015.
An emotional José Eulogio received the plaque with an engraving of his father, Crispín Gárate, president of SD Eibar from 1949 to 1950, and a picture of himself in the Eibar shirt as a player, which he was between 1961 and 1965.
Crispín Gárate was appointed president of SD Eibar in 1948, although in January 1949, for questions of integrity and moral rectitude, he resigned in disagreement with decisions taken by the Provincial Football Federation. Crispín was penalised because he had collaborated with the city council for a social purpose, allowing use of the football ground when that day matches were forbidden because the Amateur Cup final was being played.
The fans en masse and also the city council asked Crispín Gárate to continue in his position, well aware of his human and professional qualities, but his integrity impelled him to stand by his decision to resign. Later, he excelled in his entrepreneurial role in industry, as part of the management of the company Solac, during which he had to endure the threats of E.T.A. on rejecting the blackmail of the “revolutionary tax”.
The legendary footballer Jose Eulogio Gárate, son of Crispín and nicknamed “the Knight of Football” for his sporting elegance, was named Ambassador for the 75th Anniversary of SD Eibar on 10 April 2015 in a ceremony on the pitch at the Vicente Calderón Stadium. Gárate, who made his debut in professional football in the Gunsmiths’ ranks between 1961 and 1965, was one of the best known players in football during the 1960s and 1970s, following his time at Atlético Madrid and his outstanding international career in the Spanish team in the European Championships and the World Cup.
SD Eibar chose the figure of Gárate from among other prominent players who have passed through the Gunsmiths’ ranks, such as Xabi Alonso, Óscar Artetxe, David Silva and Jose Ignacio Garmendia, for being one of the players who best represents the values that the club has stood for since 1940: humility, teamwork, effort and fair play.
The year of the 75th anniversary celebration officially ended during the match played in Ipurua on 30 December last year when SD Eibar played Sporting de Gijón. However, during these first few months of 2016 new events will be added to round off the celebrations, such as the presentation of a book about the history of the club and the publication of a CD with a recording of the concert in the Coliseo theatre last October