Illustration by Sergio Membrillas
On the afternoon of June 4, 1969, as the crew of Mexican Airways Flight 704 prepared for takeof in Mexico City, the pilot asked the 79 people on board an unusual question: Would they mind if he delayed the fight for a passenger who was late getting to the gate? That request would typically have elicited groans and eye rolls, but this was no typical latecomer. When the door to the plane swung open and Rafael Osuna, Mexico’s most famous athlete, walked down the aisle, fashing his familiar toothy grin, a roar of excitement flled the cabin.
It was a familiar sound to Osuna. Just 10 days earlier, at the advanced tennis age of 30, he had achieved a lifelong goal by leading his nation’s Davis Cup team to victory over mighty Australia in front of a delirious audience in Mexico City in the early rounds of the tournament. Using every veteran move and tactical trick in his unorthodox playbook, with the crowd chanting his name throughout, Osuna had won both of his singles matches, as well as the doubles, to clinch Mexico’s frst win over the 16-time Davis Cup champions. During the previous decade, the little man with the hands of gold had carved out, in his own elegant and unassuming way, an elevated place for his country on the tennis map. Now, with his retirement around the corner, it was ftting that Osuna would close out the ’60s by carrying Mexico to the summit of his sport.
Yet his triumph, and his nation’s, would soon be engulfed by tragedy.