C. A. Colón | 1965 Primera División B Champions

Around the year 1959, Colón got relegated to the 3rd Division, or Primera C, after a failed attempt at winning the title, which they lost incredibly thanks to extra-sporting reasons; their debts were too many to maintain their best players. This showed up quickly, as in 1963, Colón sold their best player, and their biggest star, José Pastoriza, who was considered at that time as one of the biggest prospects in Argentinian football.

President and legend, Italo Giménez, tried his best on renewing the team from scratch, so he invested some of his own money into the club. His wonderful economical management made him capable of getting 5 Paraguayans for free; José Luis López, a goalkeeper, the defenders Edilberto Pérez and Juan Bareiro, the defensive midfielder Cilenio López, the incredible striker Fernándo López, brother of the last mentioned Cilenio, and finally, Luis Cabaña, a left-winger. He also bought San Justo's top goalscorer Norberto Serenotti, and the local striker Demetrio Gómez.

Colón wanted to return to the 2nd Division as soon as possible, which finally became possible thanks to his president Italo Giménez, who negotiated with AFA for a Primera C tournament with 9 promotions. This tournament was made, but it wasn't necessary after all, since Colón ended up 2nd in the league. The club was finally in the 2nd Division for 1964, and their main goal was to become an elite team in the country.

10th May of 1964, Colón, in order to celebrate their promotion to the 2nd Division, organized a game against Pelé's Santos, who had just come from becoming twice Club World Champions and were in a 44-game winning streak.

Colón played with the following lineup:

GK José Luis LÓPEZ
CB Juan BAREIRO
CB Edilberto PÉREZ
DMF Carlos LARPÍN
DMF Cilenio LÓPEZ
CMF Alberto PONCIO
RWF Luis López
SS Norberto SERENOTTI
CF José Luis BROGGI
CF Fernando LÓPEZ
LWF Luis CABAÑA

Meanwhile, Santos played with their classical lineup with most of their starters, as it was an exhibition game:

GK GILMAR
LB LIMA
CB João MODESTO
CB MAURO Ramos
RB GERALDINO
DMF ZITO
CMF JOEL
LWF PEPE
SS PELÉ
CF COUTINHO
RWF PEIZINHO

Of course, that the Brazilian team was expected to win this game, since they were the World Champions at that time, and were competing against a poor 2nd Division team. After only 37 minutes, Pelé grabbed the ball in the center of the pitch, and gracefully dribbled through the whole Colón defense to score the 1-0 for the Brazilian team. The game belonged to Santos until in the 52 minute, Luis "Motoneta" López, made a run through the whole right flank and cut inside in order to shoot fiercely through Gilmar's goal. The game stayed even, with chances from both teams. Both local and away fans were amazed by Colón's defense ability to maintain Pepe, Coutinho, and Pelé all in line. It is said that that day, Coutinho didn't touch the ball even one time during the whole 2nd half.
The game came to an end when in the 88th minute, the recently ingressed Demetrio Gómez, scored a lovely header from a Larpín cross, putting the game 2-1 for Colón, for the amaze of everyone.

This game, which still is one of the most important games of the team's history, was just a harbinger of everything that would come next for the Santa Fe club. Years of joy and prosperity for "El Negro".

In 1965, the club, which was already in the 2nd Division thanks to their wonderful 1964 campaign, still had some financial issues, so Italo Giménez decided to sell all the players he had bought the year before, with just the exception of Cabaña and Pérez. This made the team win a big amount of money, which they used to pay all their debts and to rebuild the stadium. Fans were already extremely happy that it wouldn't happen to them the same that it had happened in 1959.

1965 Primera División B

The Primera División B tournament of that year consisted of 23 teams, and the league had 2 promotions to the 1st Division, and surprisingly no relegations.

10 games before the tournament's finish, Colón was 4th, behind All Boys, Quilmes, and with the same amount of points as Los Andes. The fans were disappointed that they had been so close, yet they couldn't get promoted even with all the quality of a team they had.

But the real opportunities came out of nowhere, when only 4 games before the league's end, Colón reached Quilmes and Los Andes in points: all three teams shared the 1st place since they had the same amount of goal difference.

After that, Colón beat Central Córdoba (R) and Defensores de Belgrano by 3-1. On the 14th of December of 1965, Colón had to play against Deportivo Español in Atlanta's stadium, just one game before the tournament closes. After a whole game of boredom and with zero chances from both sides, Colón was starting to lose hope, until on the 89th minute, Obberti scored a lovely 20-yard goal to give them the win. That same matchday Quilmes won and Los Andes drew, which meant that Colón and Quilmes were battling for the title, and them two and Los Andes for the promotion.

Colón was just one game away from the title, they only had to win. Quilmes drew their last game, which meant that the only thing that could ruin the black and red team's chances was a defeat against Nueva Chicago, the same rival that beat them in the first round of the tournament.

The game was a big joy for the "sabalero" fans since they won easily thanks to their MVP's goal, Orlando Medina, and a wonderful free-kick from Alfredo Obberti. They finally won the title, Colón was going to play on the first Division for their first time ever.

This achievement transformed Colón in the FIRST team in the whole city of Santa Fe to play on the First Division of Argentina, and the club has not visited the 3rd Division ever since.