The Team of Six Consecutive Championships That Made Olympiacos a Legend

They comprised the last generation of everyday heroes in Greek football. This generation had selflessness, romanticism and tenacity of the players of the inter-war period, at a time when the first faint glint of a more organized type of football emerged.

As if from a Biblical narrative, Olympiacos’ evolution begins with its “Patriarchs”, the Andrianopoulos brothers, and then passes to the next generation of Vazos, Raggos and Simeonidis. The latter, in turn give way to the legendary team of the 1950s, which included the likes of Mouratis, Kotridis, Rossidis, Theodoridis, Darivas, Yfantis, Bebis and, of course, the Helmis brothers.

A Legend: The team created by the Helmis brothers combined passion, top physical condition and tactical brilliance, creating an Olympiacos that wasn’t a mere champion, but a synonym for football greatness.

Overshadowing all rivals, and previous Olympiacos sides

At a time when football achievements were primarily oral narratives, the Olympiacos team in the 1950s overshadowed not only its opponents, but also everything that had preceded it in the Reds’ history. By 1950, Olympiacos had won eight championships, but by the end of the 1958-59 season it had reached 15.

Similarly, the Club had won the Greek Cup only once (1947), yet by the end of the 1950s it had picked up eight and had achieved five Doubles, three of them in a row (1957, 1958, 1959) – a record remains unbroken to this day. If you add several regional and lesser titles, such as the Christmas and Easter Cups, for instance, where even here opponents competed in the national championship, then Olympiacos’ dominance appears as considerable in the first post-war decade. The titles would have been even more if all the final stages of the national championship had been held during the 1950s. However, let’s not forget that we are referring to country that was still trying to recover from WWII and a Civil War.

Of course, the crowning glory of all the successes was the winning of six consecutive championships from 1954 to 1959, which established Olympiacos as a legend and massive increased its popularity throughout Greece. The era witnessed the forging of a special bond with fans throughout the country. The nickname, “Legend”, was decisive for the relationship between Olympiacos and its fans and boosted the team into a new dimension, beyond its purely competitive characteristics. Legend, or Thrylos in Greek, was not just a football team, but a permanent source of pride and a component of identity for its fans. The “O-lym-pi-acos, O-lym-pi-acos” chant electrified the masses, not only in the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium or at the Leoforos Alexandras Stadium – its home field until an upgrade of the Neo Faliro facility was completed – but also in every stadium in Greece. At one game in the northern city of Drama, for instance, for the national championship league, there were 5,000 Olympiacos fans in the stands. Open practice sessions at the Karaiskakis Stadium were attended by 10,000-15,000 fans during the era, depending on the importance of the coming match.

It was this chant that, according to press reports of the time, reverberated throughout the stadium during the last game of the season against AEK, one that was heard over the adjacent Faliro Bay, and which roused the team’s players to overcome a 2-0 halftime deficit and score two goals in the second half to achieve a 2-2 tie. The result was good enough to be crowned champions of Greece for the sixth consecutive year.

The Helmis Bros Era

In an era when Greek football was still at the amateur level, Olympiacos was fortunate to have Giannis and Vangelis Helmis in charge of the Club. The brothers placed a great emphasis on tactics, physical fitness and the overall smooth operation of the football department. They were tireless works in the ranks of Greek football, but also passionate visionaries.

“Establishing a pro league will enable us managers to impose discipline on the players […] We demand of them (players) intensive training, and to lead a clean lifestyle, but what do we offer them in return? Nothing!”, one of the brothers was quoted as saying in an interview in 1956 published in the magazine “Tachydromos”.

Players of that era’s Olympiacos were very athletic and fast, by the standards of the time, and capable of absorbing the innovations of the Helmis brothers, such as pressing the opposing players in their end of the field and using wingers to build up the offense.

The innovations coincided with a coterie of new players who were also Piraeus natives, thus combining team’s roots even more tightly with the port city.

Mouratis was born, raised and lived in the Neo Faliro district, where the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium stands. His whole life revolved within the triangle of Karaiskakis Stadium – the port city of Piraeus – and the local Public Power Corp. plant.

Ilias Yfantis was from the Agiasofia neighborhood. Rossidis was also from Neo Faliro district and grew up near the then velodrome. Babis Kotridis was from Piraeus’ Drapetsona district, while Thanasis “Soulis” Kinley grew up in Piraeus’ Nikea district.

However, even those who weren’t Piraeus natives came from the working-class neighborhoods in Athens.

Bebis grew up in the gritty Botanikos quarter and made his name in the fields of nearby Petralona and the Tavros district.

Giorgos Darivas grew up in the Psyrri district, in the shadow of the Acropolis.

Of course, there was the one major exception, a player that would emerge as an archetypical Piraeus man, Savvas Theodoridis, who hailed from the central Athens district of Ambelokipi.

All of them, a legendary group of players, not only achieved competitive successes, but dedicated every day of their lives to Olympiacos. They lived in tandem with Olympiacos because they considered it their duty.

Epic tales

Unlike the Olympiacos teams of the pre-war era, the players of this first “golden team” in the 1950s were lucky enough to have their exploits narrated by some of the best and most influential storytellers of the era.

Olympiacos’ reputation was built day in day out through sensational newspaper headlines, the black and white photographs of its protagonists, the vivid chronicling of every facet of its games, and the sketches depicting every goal scored. The players were lauded as “aces of the ball”, “steely defenders”, and “football virtuosos”, and patrons in coffee shops and pool halls would gather around as one of them read coverage of a match out loud from an open newspaper.

“World Champions” was the headline in the “Omada” sports paper the day after the team won its sixth consecutive championship, explaining in detail how this performance had not been achieved in any other top-flight league in the world.

But mostly it was the crisp voice of the radio announcer, and the four words “A goal, dear listeners!” during the Sunday ritual of listening to the football match which—coupled with the Club’s unrivalled success—turned Olympiacos from a team with a fanatical following in Piraeus into a Club beloved throughout Greece. Through such radio broadcasts, Olympiacos became part of everyday life for millions of Greeks, regardless of their social class or where they lived. Over time, the team gained diehard supporters all over Greece, as its reputation spread beyond Athens and Piraeus. Its titles, coupled with the success and popularity it achieved, created a firm foundation on which Olympiacos could build in the future.

Decades later no proof is needed. All it takes is the image of Savvas Theodoridis in the dugout cheering on the starters just before they step on the pitch.

In the 1950s, Olympiacos dominated Greek football with a team that had a passion to win.