“Rapid is an unquenchable, endless love from which we never part. If Rapid didn’t exist, it would have had to be invented”. Dan Claudiu Tănăsescu
Romfilatelia welcomes sports lovers, by introducing into circulation, on Friday, June 23, this year, of the postage stamps issue Rapid Sports Club of Bucharest, 100 years.
The issue consists of 2 postage stamps, 1 perforated souvenir sheet and a First Day Cover.
The two postage stamps, with the face values of Lei 2.90 and Lei 5, have in their graphic composition an image of the “jewel” of the Club, the future football arena and respectively sequences of some sports events: a volleyball match, an enthusiastic “gallery” of winning a volleyball
cup and a grandstand with spectators. The Club emblem, which includes the well-known CFR emblem, personalizes the overall images of the postage stamps.
The philatelic souvenir sheet, with a generously sized perforated stamp, having the face value of Lei 34, appears as an entrance to a football arena, where the architecture of the current stadium’s facade is complemented (figuratively) with the architecture of the future modern football-king arena.
The Club emblem is bordered by a perforated outline, appearing as a ball.
The characters in the photo material represent record-breaking athletes in various disciplines, members of the Rapid Sports Club of Bucharest.
The First Day Cover, which displays the postage stamps of the issue, with a sports postmark having a symbolic drawing of a ball found, as is known, in football, handball, volleyball, basketball, has as a thematic illustration a locomotive, with visible elements (emblems and text) intended to present to the public the messages for the recognition of the Club’s symbolism.
A facsimile of the Minutes attesting the founding Act of the CFR Staff Sports Club, drawn up on June 11, 1923, is also reproduced on the envelope on the First Day Cover.
The act attesting the establishment of the “CFR Staff Sports Club” is dated June 25, 1923 and bears the signatures of 28 people. Minutes number 3 is dated July 5, 1923 and refers to the issue of equipping a football team.
In its entire history, along with the successes achieved in football, volleyball, handball, etc.,Rapid has 5 Olympic medalists: Valeria Bufanu, Vali Ionescu, Violeta Beclea, Gabriela Szabo and Marian Oprea. Valeria Bufanu is the first athlete from Rapid to climb the Olympic podium, silver in the 100-meter hurdles at the 1972 Munich Olympics. 12 years later, in Los Angeles, Vali Ionescu became, in turn, Olympic vice-champion in the long jump. Another Olympic silver was to be won by Violeta Beclea at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in the 1500 m race. The most prolific athlete of Rapid at the Olympic Games was Gabriela Szabo. Szabo took silver in the 1500 m in 1996 in Atlanta, bronze in 2000 in Sydney, in the 1500 m, and gold, also in Sydney but in the 5000 m. The last Rapid athlete to win a gold medal is Marian Oprea, silver in the triple jump, at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. 6 of the 7 Olympic medals won by Rapid club athletes were also obtained thanks to Mihai Zaharia, athlete, coach and president of club for 50 years.
The new stadium, emblem of the rebirth of a symbol of soul, marks in a centenary year a still living history of a sports club with soul.
A sports club loved everywhere, everywhere at home!
Happy Anniversary, Rapid Bucharest!
Romfilatelia thanks the representatives of the Rapid Sports Club of Bucharest for the good collaboration within the anniversary philatelic project.
