You’ve Got To Hand It To The Keeper

ARTICLE BY SUPERSUB

Back in the early days of the 20th century, Argentinian football was dominated by teams who were mostly made up of British immigrants to the continent & were often developed from local athletic clubs that had been formed by the immigrant Brits. One such club was Barracas Athletic.

Established in 1901 & based in Lanus, Beunos Aries, Barracas joined the Argentinian Football Association, which had been formed in 1893.  Barracas won the Segunda Division title at the first time of asking, gaining promotion to the Primera Division where, in their first season at the top level, finished runners up to Alumni Athletic, another club based in the Argentinian capital.

Barracas continued to play in the Primera Division until 1906/07, when they finished 11^th out of 11, securing relegation back into the Segunda Division. This must’ve proved too much for the Buenos Aries side & they were dissolved that year.  So, as far as Barracas Athletic is concerned, there’s nothing obviously remarkable about their story, except maybe for one of their players, their Irish right back Winston Coe, one of the founding members of the club..

In 1906, shortly before the start of a new season, the Barracas goalkeeper left the club to join their local rivals, the aforementioned local rivals Alumni Athletic. The main problem here, was that Barracas didn’t have another goalkeeper in their squad & so several outfield players were tried between the sticks in training, but none of them were thought to be good enough to take on the role in competitive matches.  This is where Winston Coe, an Irishman by birth, comes into the story.  

With the first game of the season coming up against another Buenos Aries club, Estudiantes & no other player looking like a decent prospect for the role of goalkeeper, Winston (quite literally) put his hand up & said , “If you want, I’ll give you a hand”..?

Nothing unusual here, except that ‘a’ hand was all Winston could actually give, because he’d lost his left arm in a previous undocumented incident, but was willing to have a go between the sticks if necessary.   It turned out that Coe was actually a better prospect in goal than any of the other players who’s been tried & so he was given the GK role, in their opening match.

(There’s a similar story from Romania, of Tudorel Mihailescu, who played, one-handed, for Romprim in the country’s 4^th Division, but maybe that’s for another day).

In the Argentine media, it was reported that “…the match began amongst murmurs & mockery from the fans in attendance”, but Winston eventually ended up receiving praise from the fans & media following a narrow 2-1 defeat to Estudiantes.  One report in the local media noted that, “..the result would have been catastrophic for Barracas, if not for Coe’s presence in goal”.

The next day, the newspaper La Prensa published: “Coe, one-handed, stopped many shots, for which he became famous, because it is no small virtue to play this position in which you use your hands, when you don’t have any. His way of stopping the ball, the security and confidence with which he does so are worthy of praise.” 

Following his performance & the resounding praise from the fans & media, Barracas decided to make Winston their GK for other upcoming fixtures. It didn’t go as well as it did in the game against Estudiantes.  In the next game, Barracas lost 11-0 to Reformer Athletic, the reigning champions & were then beaten 5-0 by Alumni Athletic, who’s side included José Buruca Laforia, the goalkeeper who’d recently left Barracas.

Coe didn’t play any more games as goalkeeper and & little is known of him following the club’s demise in 1907.  He died in 1951, aged 72 & is fondly remembered in Argentina to this day, as the goalkeeper who ‘Gave a Hand’ when needed.

Winston Coe, the Irishman who became a legend in the early days of Argentinian football. There’s surely a lesson to be learned from his endeavours, but that’s up to the reader to work out what that might be.