Goal scorer in Spain's La Liga. The anniversary of his death fell on March 1st 1922.
Born in 1892, with his father the Mayor of Bilbao. His uncle was Miguel de Unamuno, the well known Spanish essayist and philosopher. So he obviously had a good start in life.
His named trophy has been awarded to some of the great goal scorers in Spanish football;
Di Stefano, Puskas, Kempes, Sanchez, Butragueno, Brazilian Ronaldo, Eto'o and van Nistelrooy are a few of those who have held that title. Telmo Zarro has held the trophy six times, whilst Real Madrid players have the highest number of awards with 13 and Barca a second with 10.
Athletico Bilbao's legendry striker Pichichi was one of Spain's greatest stars.
He made his debut for AB in 1911 and scored his first goal at the oldest football ground still in use in Spain, the San Mames stadium, La Catedral, which has since been modernised.
He won four Copa Del Reys with Bilbao, but lost his first cup final in 1913. He came back for the first win in 1914 against Espana de Barcelona and in 1915 his hat trick won his team the cup against Espanol. In 1916 his team thumped Real Madrid 4-0 in the third final.
He won a silver medal with Spain in the Antwerp Olympics, with Pichichi contributing his only national goal in the silver medal decider against Holland. He won only 5 caps.
In 1921 after his fourth Copa title, he contracted typhus at 29 years old and died. In 1953 the Spanish federation and newspaper Marca, named their top goal scorer trophy after him. The new trophy was awarded retrospectively back to 1928/29 and the first four winners were of Basque origin.
More recently Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have held the title between 2007and 2010.
At the moment Luis Suarez leads the chase with 25 goals.
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