THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: TERNANA, 1991-92 [ABM]

Ternana Calcio has its roots in two separate entities: Unione Calcistica Ternana, formed 1918, and Terni Foot-Ball Club, formed in 1920. Terni Foot-Ball Club wore red and green stripes, a nod towards the city’s coat of arms: the Viverna – a mythological, winged dragon with one pair of legs – set against a red shield. In 1925 the two teams merged to establish the Unione Sportiva Terni and participated in the dead-end Umbrian pool of the Southern League of the Second Division wearing the colours of Terni Foot-Ball Club, who had been the more successful.

The following year Unione Sportiva Terni became Unione Sportiva della Società Terni. With the change of name came a change of strip – yellow shirts, blue trim – in homage to the newly created region of Terni, of which Terni the municipality is the capital. In this guise the team won Group B of the southern finals of the Second Division, gaining promotion to the First (a forerunner to today’s Serie B). Come 1928, U.S.S. Ternana found itself playing in a restructured Southern League under the name Polisportiva Fascista Ternana. The season started off well but the club ended up waiving its right to compete in the semi-finals due to insolvency. They regrouped as L’Associazione Calcistica Ternana and reverted to wearing red and green stripes.

In 1933, another change of name – Società Sportiva Ternana – swiftly followed by financial ruin. The players offered their services to Juventus Terni, who would subsequently merge with the remnants of Società Sportiva Ternana ahead of the 1934-35 campaign to form Polisportiva Fascista Mario Umberto Borzacchini. A number of seasons languishing in ‘Prima Divisione Lazio’ followed before the team were promoted to Serie C in 1937-38.

The next change in name came as a result of the war – or rather, the outcome of the war. As in all of Italy, references to Fascism were eschewed and so Terni’s football team defaulted to their previous incarnation of Società Sportiva Ternana. They remained as such for the next 20 years, flitting between the regional leagues and Series C and D before gaining promotion to Serie B in 1968. Coincidentally (or not) the same year the suffix SpA was added to their name, which stands for Società per azioni and denotes the formation of a public limited company. Ternana’s first season in Serie B was unspectacular, although by the end of it they had moved in to the newly constructed Libero Liberati, a strange stadium that resembles a colonial cricket ground.

In 1970, pumped up on the success of surviving two consecutive seasons in Serie B, another change of name: Associazione Calcio Ternana SpA. Within a year the club were promoted to Serie A for the first time in their history; unfortunately, they were relegated the very next. Perhaps believing that the previous name change had contributed to their success, the club ditched the ‘Associazione’ and were reborn as simply Ternana Calcio SpA. In 1973-74 they were promoted to Serie A for a second time but were again demoted back to Serie B the following year. After knocking about in Serie B for a few more seasons, Ternana were relegated to Serie C in 1980, although they did also make it to the semi-final of the Coppa Italia, losing respectably to eventual winners AS Roma 1-3 on aggregate.

The 1980s saw a general decline culminating in bankruptcy. In 1988 the club re-registered itself as Polisportiva Calcio Ternana Srl (Società a responsabilità limitata) and were admitted to Serie C2, finished in second place and won the play-off for promotion into Serie C1. In 1991, presumably after getting their finances in order, the club became Polisportiva Calcio Ternana SpA. At around the same time they switched their kit supplier from Umbro to ABM. 

[Courtesy M. Barcarotti]

ABM adopted the same template they provided for Fiorentina and Pescara: a collared shirt with the ABM logo micropatterned into the polyester/cotton mixed fabric. The red and green stripes were maintained but the sportswear firm broke with Ternana tradition and liberated the Viverna from its shield. Shorts were black, which is normally the case, and socks green. The Viverna, the club’s name and the sponsors – ‘interpan’ (lower case) – were flocked, whereas ABM’s red logo was stitched. The white away-shirt was smarter still: black lettering, green trim and a green length of fabric, adorned with ABM’s motif, running from the shoulders and down over the sleeves.

In 1993 the club went bankrupt again, set up the Associazione Sportiva Ternana Calcio and re-listed itself as Ternana Calcio Srl in 1994, modified to Ternana Calcio SpA in the year 2000. It would be nice if it ended there, but in 2017 the club rechristened itself Ternana Unicusano Calcio SpA after being bought out by the president of the Niccolò Cusano Telematic University of Human Sciences – Unicusano for short – before settling on Ternana Calcio SpA as recently as 2018. They are currently plying their trade in Serie C.