A Team That Died With Its Boots On

Today I bring you the story of the most inspiring victory in all sport.


It came in the summer of '42. Hitler's army had settled into its brutal occupation of the Ukraine, and among the cities in its grip was Kiev. Before the war, the local team, Dinamo, was among the best in the country. But the team's players were drafted into the Red Army, and in due course fought and were taken prisoner. The Germans put most of them to work as porters at bakery No. 1 in Kiev, and there they formed a football team, that became known as Start.


They did not have to wait long for their first match. The Germans wanted to reopen the local stadium, and they chose to do so on June 12, with a match between Start and a German army unit. Much to the annoyance of the German top brass, Start won. Neither was the Nazi temper improved by the next match, on July 17. This time, Start beat a far stronger German side, PGS, by the humiliating margin of 6-0. "The fact that our team lost must not be regarded as an achievement by the Start team," the local German-controlled newspaper commented,


For the next match, on July 19, the Ukrainians faced a Hungarian team, MSG Wal. They won this meeting 5-1, but in the return a week later, Start could only scrape home 3-2. This performance was seized upon by the Germans. They had been infuriated by the partisan feelings Start's victories had stirred up. When they heard this latest result, they felt that the time was now ripe for Start FC to be slapped down. The authorities then fixed a match for them against the crack German army team, Flakelf.


It was an intimidating prospect. Flakelf was superbly fit, and unbeaten in occupied territory. Start was half-starved, living in virtual siege conditions, and in no state to play an intense program of matches.


But they had their pride, and, fired by this, in the game Aug. 6 they played so well that at halftime they actually led 2-1. The second half would be different, they said. Indeed, it was; the Germans did not score at all. Instead, Start scored three more times, and ran out 5-1 winners. The Germans were incensed. Their team's proud record, not to mention the reputation of the glorious Third Reich, had been ridiculed by this makeshift team of Ukrainians. Something had to be done.


It was, but it did not have much to do with sport. As the Ukrainians still sat in their dressing room, a Nazi officer came to see them. He told the players that a return game had been arranged for three days' time. He also reminded them that until Flakelf had met Start it had not lost a match, and the indignity of doing so again would not be tolerated. Then, quite coldly, he said, "If you do not lose the game, you will be shot."


The team listened in stunned silence. The dilemma it faced was clear-cut: lose a game of football or face the firing squad. When it reassembled at the Zenit stadium three days later, Start's players knew they really only had one choice. They could not let their own people down. They would go out and beat the Germans as they had never beaten any team before.


From the moment the whistle blew, Start was brilliant. In no time at all they had scored, and if the Germans thought this was just Start's small gesture of theatrical defiance before they caved in, they were wrong. The longer the match went on, the more obvious it became that Start had no intention of losing. Eventually, with the Ukrainians comfortably ahead and distinct signs of agitation among the German high command in the stands, the referee was ordered to cut the game short.


It was the signal for the Germans to fulfill their pre-match threat. Before the Start players had even left the pitch, they were arrested, bundled into a closed van, and taken away to Babi Yar, a ravine to the northeast of Kiev. There, still in the shirts they had worn with such fierce pride, they were lined up and shot. The team that refused to be beaten had died with its boots on.