Rugby: "140 years of history", Racing through the pages, from its birth to the present day

Its long history is now engraved on paper.

On the occasion of its 140th anniversary, Racing has decided to call upon its memory and retrace the entire life of the club, from its birth within the walls of the Condorcet high school in Paris, to the present day.

The book entitled "140 years of stories", an opus of 848 pages, weighing four kilos and containing more than a thousand photos, will be released in bookstores in mid-December but it will be on sale this Sunday on the sidelines of the clash of Top 14 against Clermont at 5 p.m. at Paris La Défense Arena, where the club's former players were invited to join the party.

The book took almost four years to complete.

“It's incredible but until then there was no book retracing the history of Racing, underlines Patrick Serrière, former captain of the French champion club in 1990 then general manager from 2018 until the end of last season.

I opened up about it to President Jacky Lorenzetti, who entrusted me with the project.

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The only club to have hosted the Olympics twice

Problem, during the schism between the Racing Club de France and its main sections, including rugby in 1995, all the archives disappeared.

We had to collect all the possible documents from each other.

More than 6,000 recovered pieces have been digitized.

"Racing is the only club that has hosted the Olympic Games, even twice, in 1900 at Croix-Catelan (in the Bois de Boulogne) and in 1924 at the Colombes stadium (Hauts-de-Seine), says Patrick Serriere.

I have always been interested in his story but I discovered incredible things.

First World War hero aviator Maurice Boyau, who won 35 battles before being shot down in the 36th in 1918, continued to play rugby between his flights.

On match days, he landed at Le Bourget,

came to dispute the meeting then left with his plane to his base.

He went to see his commanding officer, told him that he had deserted for two hours, that he deserved to be punished and therefore had to be sent on a very dangerous mission.

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The facts of glory, the anecdotes are linked over the pages.

All the final stages since the first French championship title in history, won (4-3) against Stade Français in the Parc de Bagatelle (Bois de Boulogne) on March 20, 1892, are now listed.

Modernity obliges, 12 QR codes refer to videos studded with unpublished images.

We walk over more than a century, we pick up tasty moments like the 1920 semi-final against Stade Toulousain for example, or the intimacy of the locker room of the 1990 champions. The memory of Racing has now found support .

"140 years of stories", published by En Exergue, 848 pages, 59 euros.