I met, for work reasons, Livio Beruti in the fall of 1976, when I was Chief of Staff of the Fiat Forklifts spa, with one of the production plants in Bari. That autumn I attended the courtrooms of the Labour Court because the Company had been reported for anti-union activities pursuant to art. 28 of the Workers' Statute by the powerful FLM, Federation of Metalworkers, of Bari for alleged favoritism towards another company union.
Fiat was defended by the well-known lawyer Bruno Amendolito, President of the Bari Order, and the process ended with the rejection of the union's appeal.
From Bari to the idea of a sports club for Mennea
Furthermore, in the meantime between one hearing and another, a lawyer from the union's legal team, Prof. Thomas Germano, professor of Labor Law at the University of Bari, Gino Giugni school, and athletics manager, told me about a young athlete from Puglia who had been left without a sports group and was looking for a place to stay. It was about Pietro Mennea.
Since we were a company with an important factory in Bari, I had the idea of setting up a southern sports club to house those who were already known as “the southern arrow”.
I confronted a colleague, Mario Paoletti, not in his role as HR manager of Fiat, but as an expert in the world of sport, having been a former national athletics team member and, incidentally, husband of Giuseppina Leone, a bronze medalist in the 100-meter dash at the Rome Olympics and also a Fiat employee. Paoletti advised me to speak with the head of the Fiat Sports Group, and suggested arranging a meeting.
Two days later I was in the office of Giampiero Boniperti, who, in addition to being President of Juventus, was also at the same time head of the Fiat Sports Group, which was later transformed in 1978 into the multi-sports club Sisport-Fiat who, under his tenure, led several athletes to Olympic gold, including Mennea himself. Boniperti expressed interest in the initiative and placed me alongside him. Livio Beruti for all the necessary procedures for the establishment of a sports club and in particular for registration in the FIDAL, the national athletics federation, through its regional structure in Puglia.
Livio Berruti came down to Bari, and during the day we met, in addition to Mennea, the President of the Fidal Regional Committee and a couple of sports journalists to illustrate the constitution of the new sports club. Fiat Forklifts BariIn the evening we went to dinner at a then well-known restaurant serving typical Bari cuisine. “from Caesar” in Corso Cavour, the main street of Bari.
Leaving the restaurant, after a sumptuous dinner of meat and seafood appetizers, a pan of potatoes, rice, and mussels, beef brasciole, and the inevitable dessert of "sporcamuss" sweets, we found a small crowd, perhaps alerted by the restaurant owner himself or by a fellow customer, wanting to say hello to Livio Berruti. Elated and with my mind clouded by the house liqueur offered by Cesare, excusable only by my thirty years at the time, I challenged Livio Berruti to a short run along the sidewalk of Corso Cavour. Out of pure joviality, Berruti accepted the challenge, which ended quickly because after about ten meters I tripped and fell flat on my face, while the Olympic champion was cheered on by the ever-growing crowd of passersby who had recognized him.
The next year Pietro Mennea he won the Italian 200-meter championship wearing the Fiat Carrelli Elevatori Bari jersey, but the following year, with a coup, Boniperti brought Mennea to Sisport in Turin.
The second meeting and the Agnelli Trophy
I met again Livio Beruti about twenty years later, when, as an additional role, in the nineties I was also responsible for corporate sports activities in the automotive sector.
One of the main activities was the organization of the Agnelli Trophy, a series of competitions, in spring and summer, between Fiat employees, from running and walking competitions, to swimming, tennis, rowing, and above all the football championship between the teams of the various Italian factories.
Towards the end of the year, the award ceremony for the winners of the Agnelli Trophy took place, with players from the club participating as guests. Juventus and former athletics glories who had had or maintained a connection with the Fiat world.
For example, in 1998 there were Zinedine Zidane, representing Juventus, with Livio Beruti, Olympic gold in Rome, Maurizio Damilano, Olympic gold in Moscow, Carlo Lievore, world record holder in javelin throw, Franco Arese, European champion in Helsinki, and Silvana Forcellini, multiple Italian shot put champion.
