Atalanta began life as the Bergamo Society of Gymnastics and Athletic Sports Atalanta in 1907, named in honour of the mythological Greek of the same name: huntress, slayer of centaurs, injurer of boars, the object of the Argonaut Meleager’s affections, and runner. The club was set up by a group of students who attended the prestigious Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi, and who had in turn been members of the ‘The Young Orobia’ – Orobia being the name of the territory that formerly constituted north-eastern Lombardy.
At that time, Bergamo already had a football team, called Foot-Ball Club Bergamo. Established in 1904 by a Swiss textile-industrialist named Matteo Legler, they played in Italy’s Seconda Categoria, but it doesn’t seem they took it too seriously, forfeiting a game against Unione Sportiva Milanese so they could play in friendly against Chiasso in Switzerland. In the 1911, the club folded.
Meanwhile, the Bergamo Society of Gymnastics and Fencing – or Bergamasca for short – were looking to expand their interests. Sensing an opportunity, they offered Matteo Legler the job of setting up a football club, which he duly did, bringing with him financial clout and any of his mates who were still interested in kicking a ball about. Before long, football was the association’s main concern.
Atalanta’s fortunes were also on the up. After playing nothing more than friendlies on improvised terrain, the club gained access to a field large enough to meet the regulations laid out by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) and received official recognition from the governing body in 1914. The Great War intervened, and then in 1919 a problem arose. The FIGC would only permit one team from Bergamo to compete in what was then known as the Prima Categoria. The Italian championship was oversubscribed, meaning that teams had to win regional pre-season qualifiers to gain admittance into the group stage of the championship, with the aim of qualifying for the national semi-finals, which were also group-based. There was nothing for it but to play-off against each other. Bergmasca were favourites but Atalanta prevailed, two goals to nil.
Atalanta finished third in Lombardy Group B, which wasn't enough to get them into the semi-finals. In February 1920 it was decided that the best course of action would be to join forces to create Atalanta e Bergamasca di Ginnastica e Scherma, abbreviated soon after to Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio.
Whereas Atalanta had worn black and white vertical striped shirts, Bergmasca wore blue and white, which suggested a combination of the two. Initially, the newly formed club opted for blue and black halved jerseys with black shorts and socks, before settling for the blue and black vertically striped format worn to this day. The club crest incorporated horizontal black and white stripes occupying one of half of a shield with a field of solid blue in the other as a nod to both teams' history.
The Italian Championship was by now approaching its critical mass. Rather than reduce the number of competing teams, the competition was enlarged to accommodate more of them. It made no difference. Atalanta finished bottom of their Lombardian qualifying group – one of the six required to whittle down the numbers – and faced relegation. Following the schism that resulted in the formation of the rival Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI), however, Atalanta kept their place in the Prima Categoria. Following the Columbo Compromise of 1922, they were then demoted to a newly formed Seconda Divisione.
In 1925, the Seconda Divisione became the Prima Divisione to allow for the creation of the Divisione Nazionale, into which Atalanta were promoted in 1928 – the same year they moved into their current stadium (known then as Stadio Mario Brumana). 1928-29 was to be last edition of the Divisione Nazionale before the move to a single-group format. As such, the top eight teams in each of the two groups that constituted the National Division would be granted entry into Serie A, the teams placed ninth to fourteenth place relegated to Serie B, and the bottom two teams demoted to the old First Division. Atalanta finished Group A in fourteenth place.
The club continued to play in Serie B up until they were promoted to Serie A in 1937, making it to the third round of the Coppa Italia in the process. In 1938, Atalanta were relegated, although they did make it as far as the quarter finals of the Italian Cup. In 1940 they were back in Serie A, where they would remain until 1958 (excepting the brief alteration to the format that came about after the Second World War). In 1959, Atalanta won Serie B for a second time, and in 1963 they were victorious in the Coppa Italia for the first.
Perhaps to celebrate, they decided now would be a good time to redesign their badge, reconfiguring the shield to include an image of their Greek namesake on the right, blue and black vertical stripes to the left, and the club's name above. Atalanta's fortunes thereafter were mixed, although never disastrous, flitting between Series A and B with mild regularity, a pattern that would persist for the rest of the decade and well into the next
The 1980s can be seen as something as a turning point, not just on the pitch but off it. In 1984, Atalanta came top of Serie B for the third time in their history and decided to give their badge a modernist revamp. Atalanta’s head was depicted in profile, her hair blowing behind her, suggesting movement, set against a blue background circled within a thin band of yellow – no text. Moreover, it appeared be made of leather. If you didn’t know better you’d think graphic designer Piero Gratton had a hand in it. The kit itself, which was nothing to write home about, was sponsored by Sit-In, manufactured by Ennerre.
Then in 1989, after having been relegated in 1987, the same year they reached the final of the Coppa Italia, Atalanta were back in Serie A with the same badge but a new sponsor, the energy provider TAMOIL. The bold, italic, uppercase font was hardly spectacular, but it was set
in red against a white, rectangular background. The material was a silky polyester, and it had a collar. Then there was Ennerre’s
delightfully minimal insignia, the letters ‘n’ and ‘r’ embroidered in green thread. Driven on by goals
of Claudio Caniggia and Armando Madonna, Atalanta finished seventh, which was
good enough to gain entry into the UEFA Cup. (They had actually qualified for the same
competition the previous year, only to be then eliminated by Spartak Moscow in the
first round.)
For the next season, TAMOIL was
printed in white, doing away with the white backdrop, but apart from that the strip
remained the same. Atalanta fared better in the UEFA Cup this time around, knocking
out Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahçe and Cologne, before losing to eventual winners Internazionale in the quarter finals. They finished Serie A
in tenth place with Evair and Caniggia as joint-top scorers, contributing 10
apiece.
1990-91
In 1991 Atalanta joined up with Lotto, and anybody who reads my stuff will know that I don't
care much for shirts made by Lotto. In 1993 they tinkered with the badge,
superimposing an oval to make room for the club’s name and the date of 1907. The distinctive profile of Atalanta was unaltered, and remains as it is to this very day. Thank God for small mercies.
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