December 1952. An impoverished Greece is desperately trying to find its post-Civil War pace. In the items that filled the day’s newspapers, besides the main headlines about the appointment of a new NATO commander in the Mediterranean, is a one-column story that marks the passing of an era: Former Piraeus Mayor Michail Manouskos Passes Away”.
The story merely adds that Manouskos passed away on the morning of December 11, and that his funeral will take place today (December 12), at the municipality’s expense, at the Aghios (St.) Constantinos Cathedral.
Manouskos was sincerely mourned by Piraeus, given that he was a prominent leader in the port city; an industrialist with distinct social sensitivities and charitable work; a reformer of the municipality during his three-year tenure (1938-41). His deeds and achievements were already plentiful to ensure his stature on Piraeus’ pedestal of celebrated citizens. There was, however, something more, something more Legendary…
Pasalimani… At the Olympiacos Club, the mood was somber, as Filippos Kourantis had passed away in October, followed in November by the death of Yannis Andrianopoulos, yet the “fountain” of historical memory was just opening, catching the thread from the beginning.
“I want to make Olympiacos so big that it covers all of Piraeus…” was the statement by the visionary Piraeus club co-founder, with his dream coming true.
A waltz of giants
Some 27 years before, in Miras’s taverna, a gathering takes place, and a “name” is shouted out by Notis Kaberos: “Olympiacos”. A second voice, Manouskos’, then rings out the next three words that will go down into the ages: “…Association of Piraeus Sportsmen”, to forever define the club’s popular roots.
It’s obvious, if Kaberos was Olympiacos’ “godfather”, by proposing the name, then Manouskos – one of club’s 33 co-founders – was a worthy co-godfather.
What followed was the approval of the new organization’s charter by a Piraeus first instance court (Decision 1247/May 20, 1925), with its first president a mere 30 years old.
Kaberos and Kremos served as the vice-presidents, Maragoudakis as the general secretary, Kokkinos as the treasurer, Lagouratzis as the team manager and Kyrimis, Zacharias, Louloudakis and Kasimatis as the board’s members. Truly a “waltz of giants”.
‘Spinning, weaving and dyeing’
Born into a bourgeois family in Piraeus in 1895, Manouskos’ economic and social ascendency was combined with the family business – a textile manufacturer called M. and H. Manouskos Bros. in Piraeus, where, according to a chronicle of the time, the business cultivated “true and friendly relations between workers and employer.”
A sports lover since childhood, Manouskos as an adult served as both a board member of the Hellenic Football Association (EPO) and the Hellenic Athletics Federation (SEGAS), while his involvement with football began long before 1925, serving as the secretary of the Piraeus football association during the Parageorgakopoulos tenure (December 1910) and as president of the local Piraeus league in 1924, a forerunner of Olympiacos.
His assumption of Olympiacos’ reins, amid difficult times, was a careful move. On the one hand, his best qualities, such as being a “persuasive spokesman”, meshed well with a consensus amongst the social strata represented on the Olympiacos board.
A team photo shows the players that won the Easter Cup of 1946, during the tenure of Olympiacos President Michalis Manouskos
Before the future bore out the results, he first showed the way. In a memorable phrase, he told journalist George Passamitros: “I want to make Olympiacos very big. So much so that it covers all of Piraeus”. And that was just the beginning.
He proved himself utterly reliable, beginning with his first term as president: achieving an important sports primacy in the port city against rival Ethnikos; the club’s first titles (four Piraeus-wide championships, 1925-28); the foundations of a tremendous three-year unbeaten streak (1926-29); the first international successes, as well as the first utterance of the moniker “Legend”, after winning the hard-fought Christmas Cup of 1928. Manouskos also made tireless efforts to resolve vital issues, with the main one, as he himself declared in 1928, being to “find a suitable stadium, so that we can carry out our sporting destiny”. Does this remind you of anything?
A municipal reformer
Although actively present in the club’s administrative affairs throughout his life (with the exception, perhaps, of the 1931-33 period), in 1929 he would hand over the president’s chair for first time in Olympiacos’ short history up until that time, being succeeded by Athanasios Mermigas.
In 1937 Manouskos returned for a second term (1937-39) as president, which was accompanied, apart from the new titles (a national one and the Piraeus Championships of 1937 and 1938), by a special milestone on the Piraeus club’s history: the first president of Olympiacos who also served as the mayor of the port city – officially, beginning from Oct. 1, 1938 – a term that wasn’t just a run-of-the mill administration, but highly productive.
Piraeus grew during the Manouskos era, with numerous projects undertaken and completed. He radically reshaped the area around the Town Hall and spruced up the Akti Miaouli waterfront, as well as Karaiskakis Square. He constructed new urban squares and beautified and embellished several others, along with public gardens, part of a “green campaign” through the planting of flower beds and creation of green spaces, including along boulevards and intersections.
The municipality during the Manouskos era paved over many streets and bridges with asphalt, both major thoroughfares and within the residential neighborhoods. A major effort was made to provide street lighting everywhere in the municipality, while major sewer works were commenced along the waterfront and harbors. It was during his tenure that the Kastella promenade was built in the same-name waterfront for residents’ leisurely seaside strolls.
Manouskos began restoration works on the tomb of Themistocles (at the Alkimon waterfront), while he provided space to house several associations, such as the Piraeus arts and literature clubs. But perhaps the most characteristic project of all was the construction and operation of the famous clock tower at the Pasalimani Square. The latter stands today as a magnificent landmark.
Manouskos recorded an equally impressive social and humanitarian body of work, with his involvement with the society then fighting against tuberculosis and the country’s Hellenic Cancer Society.
Some of the more emblematic achievements he left behind were a new wing of the Zanneio Hospital and the creation of the Piraeus Infant Care Centre for the care and upbringing of orphaned or abandoned children, under the direction of Dr. Papamattheou, and with the mayor’s and the municipality’s undivided care and supervision.
However, Manouskos’ accomplishments didn’t end there. He was very involved with the Patriotic Foundation for Social Welfare (later known as PIKPA), he created playgrounds and the historic Themistocleio gymnasium in the Ipapanti district, one of the many sports-related projects he conceived.
In industry, politics and sports, Manouskos’ legacy remains alive, justifying his title as one of the great Piraeus citizens.
The sports club, basketball and his legacy
In carrying the Olympiacos ideal with him at all times, and realizing the club’s importance for the overall Piraeus economy, Manouskos would add two more solid references to his historical legacy: the creation of the Olympiacos club at Pasalimani and what one-time municipal councilman Leonidas Alexiou recounted:
“We were sitting in the club, and he (Manouskos) says… ‘Do you see the sea there? “Soon, kids will be playing basketball there.’ We laughed… A year passed, and the basketball court was built on the sea! Exactly what he had dreamed of!”
“Sic itur ad astra” (thus one goes to the stars), according to the Romans. A very wise Latin saying.
He remained in Piraeus’ Town Hall until September 1941.
The thudding of the conquerors’ boots and Manouskos’ refusal to cooperate with the Nazi occupiers – he was asked, according to chroniclers, for a list of well-known Piraeus citizens as “candidates” for reprisals in case of any resistance acts – led to his resignation. During the occupation and until the liberation in October 1944, he engaged in noteworthy resistance activity.
Olympiacos entrusted him again for its helm, to lead the club’s rebirth. It would be his third term, from 1945-50, and it was an outstanding period for the club’s growth and progress.
However, he did not live long enough to see the club’s full blooming. In the eulogistic words of Giorgos Andrianopoulos (then mayor of Piraeus), on an early December afternoon in 1952, at the cemetery of the Resurrection, words which would be handed down to future generations as a sweet aftertaste: “Your memory will remain eternal, for the glory of Olympiacos and the city of Piraeus”.
It has remained so.
