page_title: Argentines of European descent
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Argentines of European descent / Influences on Argentine culture / Sports
caption_attribution_description: English: Argentine boxer Nicolino Locche as covered on El Gráfico magazine in 1973.
context_page_description: European Argentines belong to several communities which trace their origins to various migrations from Europe and which have contributed to the country's cultural and demographic variety. They are the descendants of colonists from Spain during the colonial period prior to 1810, or in the majority of cases, of Italians, Spanish and other Europeans who arrived in the great immigration wave from the mid 19th to the mid 20th centuries, and who largely intermarried among their many nationalities during and after this wave. No recent Argentine census has included comprehensive questions on ethnicity, although numerous studies have determined that European Argentinians have been a majority in the country since 1914.
context_section_description: Many sports that nowadays are very popular in Argentina were introduced by European immigrants -particularly by the British- in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
  Football is by far the most popular sport in Argentina. It was brought by the British railway businessmen and workers, and it was later embraced with passion by the other collectivities. The first official football match ever played in Argentina took place on 20 June 1867, when the "White Caps" beat the "Red Caps" by 4–0. A look at the list of players -eight by team- shows a collection of British names/surnames. "White Caps": Thomas Hogg, James Hogg, Thomas Smith, William Forrester, James W. Bond, E. Smith, Norman Smith and James Ramsbotham. "Red Caps": Walter Heald, Herbert Barge, Thomas Best, Urban Smith, John Wilmott, R. Ramsay, J. Simpson and William Boschetti. The development of this sport in Argentina was greatly boosted by Scottish teacher Alexander Watson Hutton. He arrived in Argentina in 1882 and founded the Buenos Aires English High School in 1884, hiring his countryman William Walters as coach of the school's football team. On 21 February 1893 Watson founded the Argentine Association Football League, the historical antecedent of the Asociación de Fútbol Argentino. Watson's son Arnold continued the tradition playing during the amateur age of Argentine football.
  Tennis was also imported by the British immigrants; in April 1892 they founded the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club. Among the founding members, we find all British surnames: Arthur Herbert, W. Watson, Adrian Penard, C. Thursby, H. Mills and F. Wallace. Soon their example was followed by British immigrants who resided in Rosario; F. Still, T. Knox, W. Birschoyle, M. Leywe and J. Boyles founded the Rosario Lawn Tennis.
  The first Argentine tennis player of European descent to achieve some international success was Mary Terán de Weiss in the 1940s and 1950s; the sport, however, was considered an elite men's sport and her efforts to popularize this activity among women did not prosper at the time. Guillermo Vilas, who is of Spanish descent, won the French Open and the US Open both in 1977, and two Australian Open in 1978 and 1979, and popularized the sport in Argentina.
  Another sport in which Argentines with European ancestry have stood out is car racing. The greatest exponent was Juan Manuel Fangio, whose parents were both Italian. He won five Formula One World titles in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957; his five-championships record remained unbeaten until 2003, when Michael Schumacher obtained his sixth F1 trophy. Another exponents are Carlos Alberto Reutemann (his grandfather was German Swiss, and his mother was Italian), who reached the second place in the World Drivers' Championship of 1981.
  Boxing is another popular sport which was also brought by the British immigrants. The first championship ever organized in Argentina took place in December 1899, and the champion was Jorge Newbery (son of a White American odontologist who migrated after the American Civil War), one of the pioneers of boxing, car racing and aviation in the country. A list of Argentine boxers of European descent should include: Luis Ángel Firpo (nicknamed "the wild bull of the pampas", whose father was Italian and his mother was Spanish), Nicolino Locche (who was nicknamed "the Untouchable" for his defensive style; both his parents were Italian), etc.
  Golf was brought to Argentina by Scottish Argentine Valentín Scroggie, who established the nation's first golf course in San Martín, Buenos Aires in 1892. The Argentine Golf Association was founded in 1926 and includes over 43,000 members.
  Hockey was another sport imported by the British immigrants in the early 20th century. It was initially played in the clubs founded by the British citizens until 1908, when the first official matches between Belgrano Athletic, San Isidro Club y Pacific Railways (today San Martín) took place. That same year the Asociación Argentina de Hockey was founded, and its first president was Thomas Bell. In 1909 this Association allowed the formation
caption: Nicolino Locche (1939–2005) was a professional boxer born in Tunuyán, Mendoza from Italian parents.[100] He was nicknamed "the Untouchable".
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