SWISS TEAM RECLAIMS ITS HERITAGE AS THE TIRGGEL RETURN TO THE MEADOW!
Observations & Opinions / Week Fourteen
From Harold Abrahams – Senior Correspondent for TSS
Over the last, say, fifteen seasons, Wiesespiel has had an uneven relationship with Zurich … and vice versa. Situated at the head of scenic Lake Zurich and in the midst of countless villages that live and breathe the Meadow Game, Zurich was always positioned, since its founding in 1874, to be a dominant team and an influential shaper of the game. And while no one would sniff at a club that has claimed six Tyrolean Cups in its 150-year history, players, coaches and fans alike of Zurich know they have achieved less than they have wanted and expected. And as the city grew into a metropolis of nearly 2 million souls, Zurich came to represent, as did Munich, a team that struggled to balance the growth that prosperity and hard work brought to the city with the rural and agrarian origins of a game that is, by definition, played on a meadow.
The curious relationship among the fan base, the team and the changing times heightened when, in 1936, as the continent edged toward war (again), the team announced that it was changing its mascot and team name from the Zurich Tirggel to the Financiers. The Tirggel – that crispy, honey-flavored confection perfected in Zurich and beloved by its citizens – called back to central Switzerland’s history and symbolized its cherished sense of comfort and home … and it was left behind.
The intention, one wants to believe, was good: Zurich had become a financial heavyweight in Europe, and remains that, and in a nod to its growing eminence in an enterprise that drives our culture (for better or worse), on Saturday, February 15, when the team trotted onto the Meadow to face the Interlaken Yodelers, they were wearing new colors, a new emblem, and a new name: the Financiers. The fans attending that match were, as accounts from the TSS of that week recorded, “stunned into silence” and “offended by the crass nature of what the leadership hath wrought.” Even the players seemed dis-spirited that day, it seems, as they were man-handled by a woeful Yodelers team, 27-11.
But it was the Financiers, after all, that won five titles in the 25 seasons spanning the mid-1940s (after the post WWII resumption of play) through the end of the 1960s. And the supporters of the club continued to attend matches, even as Zurich labored manfully but without a title in the past 30 years. Zurich felt like a team – frankly – without an identity or clear direction. In fact, to their chagrin, many across the AL world know them best for their implosion in the 1974 season, when they plunged from Second Place in 1973 to Tenth and Relegation in what scribes and wits dubbed the “Financial Collapse.”
UNTIL NOW! Until Saturday, February 15, 2025 (note the date – exactly 89 years have passed since the original mascot switch) … when the Financiers trotted onto their home meadow, under a glittering sun … in new (old) colors – the sky-blue of the coat of arms of the Canton of Zurich, with the name TIRGGEL emblazoned across the shoulders on their jerseys and, most appealing of all, with each man displaying an image of a Tirggel as the badge over their hearts: Ozi Mannheim’s was an Alp, Jurgen Klose’s a fir tree, Armand Flamur’s a carriage.
After nearly a century, Zurich were again, properly, the Tirggel.
And did the assembled fans notice …? The joy evident in the faces and voices of the supporters as they realized what they were seeing generated the loudest ovation this reporter has heard outside of a Tyrol Cup Final in countless seasons.
The Tirggel themselves were inspired. An indifferent 4-9-0 club coming in, the Biscuits – as the TSS was fond of calling them in the days of yore – played with impulsive energy and fun, an element that Zurich has lacked for some time and emerged with an easy 14-1 victory over Munich. Granted, over-running this Lederhosen squad isn’t like defeating the 1990s dynasty, but Zurich looked reborn.
My new colleague, Zino Stiles-Johnson, joined me on the journey to Zurich and mingled both among the delighted audience watching the match and managed an interview with the reclusive President of the Tirggel, Migros executive Martin Duttweiler, who arrived, as always, at the match in one of his family’s iconic old lorries (pictured above), a vehicle that hearkens back to the Migros conglomerate’s more modest beginnings. Today, though, Duttweiler and other team executives passed out boxes of Tirggel to ecstatic fans at the Interval. A grand and lively day in Zurich as a team that was languishing without an identity reclaimed its heritage, inspired its players, and sent an electric charge through thousands of fans. Well done, Zurich, and welcome back to your history. Read on, fellow lovers of Wiesespiel, and please welcome to our staff our newest writer, Miss Zino Stiles-Johnson.