Michalis Papazoglou
Encyclopedia
Michalis Papazoglou was a Greek athlete from Constantinople
. He started with track and field sports but when he came to Athens in the early 1910s, he joined the football club PPO (later to become PAO
). He was the man who had the idea of adopting the shamrock
as the official emblem of Panathinaikos
.
Papazoglou was also a great figure in the National Resistance
. He joined the resistance group of George Ivanof (or Jerzy Iwanow) - an athlete of Polish origin of Iraklis Thessaloniki. The group's mission was to give information to the English and to organize sabotage. With some external help from the naval base the group succeeded in destroying three German airplanes and sinking three small warships. He was arrested on the 12th of October 1942 and was transferred to the Averof prison, where he pretended he was psychopathic. The Germans then sent him to the Aiginition hospital for further testing. While he was there, the founder of Panathinaikos, Giorgos Kalafatis, and the founder of the PAO basketball team, Petros Giannatos, organized a successful plan to kidnap and free him.
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. He started with track and field sports but when he came to Athens in the early 1910s, he joined the football club PPO (later to become PAO
Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos is a multi-sport club based in Athens, Greece. It has the shamrock as its official emblem and green and white as its colours...
). He was the man who had the idea of adopting the shamrock
Shamrock
The shamrock is a three-leafed old white clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland. The name shamrock is derived from Irish , which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover ....
as the official emblem of Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos is a multi-sport club based in Athens, Greece. It has the shamrock as its official emblem and green and white as its colours...
.
Papazoglou was also a great figure in the National Resistance
Greek Resistance
The Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...
. He joined the resistance group of George Ivanof (or Jerzy Iwanow) - an athlete of Polish origin of Iraklis Thessaloniki. The group's mission was to give information to the English and to organize sabotage. With some external help from the naval base the group succeeded in destroying three German airplanes and sinking three small warships. He was arrested on the 12th of October 1942 and was transferred to the Averof prison, where he pretended he was psychopathic. The Germans then sent him to the Aiginition hospital for further testing. While he was there, the founder of Panathinaikos, Giorgos Kalafatis, and the founder of the PAO basketball team, Petros Giannatos, organized a successful plan to kidnap and free him.