Mário Américo

Just after his brief artistical carrier, Mário Américo found a new passion: boxing. At the academy, located at the Ladeira da Memória street, in São Paulo's downtown, Mário was trained by the Argentinian coach Aristides Jofre and fought some matches in Rio de Janeiro as a lightweight In love with Rio, he moved to Madureira with his newly wife Maria de Souza, mother of his first two children: Vera Lúcia and Mário César. The carrier as a boxeur lasted for ten years, with memorable knockouts. Mário, however, was knockouted by Antônio Mesquita. The bloody fight approached Mário and Almir do Amaral, a boxing fan and physician of Madureira Esporte Clube . The friend advised the "hot head" Mário to change his carrier.

Mário, while still working at Vasco, at the final match of the Rio-São Paulo Tournment, assaulted the president of Portuguesa, Mário Augusto Isaías, without knowing who he was. Later, Mário made a public apologize statement in a radio show, and received an apologize telegram from the president himself.

There is a famous anedote with Mário and Garrincha. Garrincha bought a radio in Sweden, during the World Cup of 1958. Mário really wanted a radio for himself, and convinced the naive coleague that the new device would only speak Swedish. The masseur then offered to buy the equipament, paying a lot less than the price Garrincha had paid, just to "spare" him of the team's teasing.

Besides fearing the National Team of Hungary, undefeated for over seventy matches, Mário had witnessed an evolution of the football practice: before the match started, Hungarian players were doing gymnastics, running and jumping inside the locker room. They were teased in that World Cup but, months later, the same practice would be adopted by the Brazilian team as the very well known "stretching".

Mário explained the second conquest of the World Cup to the maintenance of the same, yet more seasoned - athletes of 1958, This was the Cup of Garrincha and Aimoré Moreira, debuting as coach. The best technical comission of a Brazilian Team, according to the masseur.

According to "uncle" Mário - the nickname he then received from the players - the Mexican supporters were the warmest ones. They root all the time for the Brazilian team and, in the match against Uruguay, remembering the 1950's final, the supporters brought posters cheering the Brazilian Team. The third championship in a row was celebrated as a carnival abroad, with a lot of fun covered in water and flour.

Cold was the biggest enemy at this championship. Mário never worked as much as in that World Cup. Any blow meant intense pain in the athlete's body. It was a mixture of a lot of tension and instability among the team members, especially when it came to the choice betwwen players from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo.

Mários collection of over 3 thousand cups, brought from different cities, help us to tell his professional and geographi trajectory,

The 1970 Team was Mário's favorite. To pay his homage, he named the Community Sport Club (CDC) - public spaces, managed by associations and overviewed by the City Hall - he founded in São Paulo north area, while he was a city councilman, as "Copa 70". The "copa 70" host several sport activities, besides the amateur clubs with teams like Grone's and Antrax.

In 1976, Mário ran for the city council in São Paulo by the Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, receiving aroung 53 thousand votes. The end of his term also ended his brief political carrier, for which he said he was not fit. During this time, he continued to treat athelets and common patients at the Physiotherapy Institute, at Imirim neighborhood, in the north area of São Paulo

After his first wife passed, in 1966, Mário got married to Maria Hilda Rocha, known as Iara, mother of his third child, Mário Américo Júnior. The "uncle" was also a kind of shrink and "daddy" of players along three decades of services to the Brazilian Technical Staff.