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<\/figure>\n\nThe photographs for the display board were kindly provided by Reet Viilup. These images reflect her husband\u2019s sporting passions at various stages of his life. The museum also received a football bearing the name of the former head of \u201cEestishale\u201d, and his children signed their names above the photographs of their father. <\/p>\n\n
At the J\u00f5hvi football stadium, following a brief speech by the chairman of the parish council, Vallo Reimaa, guests were entrusted with the honourable task of attaching a commemorative plaque to the bench installed for the occasion. The skilled work, crafted by the masters of the Aes Triplex blacksmith\u2019s workshop in the capital, was created based on sketches provided by the Viilup family. The metal armrests of the art piece feature a forged football and a miner\u2019s pickaxe \u2014 symbols closely tied to the legacy of the oil shale industry legend of Ida-Viru County. As Reet Viilup noted, her husband always made an effort not to miss his favourite team\u2019s matches. <\/p>\n\n \u201cMy husband and I were brought even closer together by our shared love of sport. Not only did we attend home games, but we also travelled all over Estonia. I used to get very emotional watching our team play, and I knew all the footballers personally. It was lovely to see some old familiar faces \u2014 athletes \u2014 and to reminisce about those times. I especially loved watching the goalkeeper, because that\u2019s where all the most exciting moments happened, particularly the penalty kicks. I remember a match against the \u2018Norma\u2019 team, when their coach kept shouting: \u2018Watch that blond guy, he\u2019s excellent with headers.\u2019 That blond player is Sergei Sharymov, and he came here today, which really delighted me,\u201d said Reet Viilup. Sergei Sharymov, a veteran of Estonian football and a player for the Estonia mine team, came here from distant Uzbekistan with his wife and children. At the time, V\u00e4ino Viilup helped the young footballer settle into his new life.<\/p>\n\n \u201cV\u00e4ino Viilup was a very dedicated supporter \u2014 not like today\u2019s ultras, of course, but we lads always felt his backing. And we certainly remember the talking-to we\u2019d get the next day if we lost. I arrived in Estonia as a seasoned footballer with solid experience, and in my very first game after moving, I scored a goal with a header. That\u2019s when the kind of fame Reet mentioned really began. To be honest, there still isn\u2019t a team that has won the Estonian Cup three years in a row \u2014 but we did back then. And that\u2019s largely thanks to Mr Viilup, who put a great deal of effort into developing the Estonia mine team,\u201d said Sergei Sharymov. <\/p>\n\n When V\u00e4ino Viilup became director of the Estonia mine in 1972, he made an enormous contribution to the development of football in Ida-Viru County. Many athletes say without exaggeration that those were the golden years of the region\u2019s favourite sport. A man of great ambition, the new director channelled all his boundless energy into building a strong football team. From being a regular underdog in the top league, frequently relegated to the second division, the team became a formidable opponent, winning every type of medal in the Estonian championship. The head of the Phoenix football club, Sergei Ivanov, noted that installing a commemorative bench in honour of V\u00e4ino Viilup is the least that can be done today for an Honorary Citizen who played a significant role in the development of north-eastern Estonia.<\/p>\n\n \u201cIt all comes down to memory: without it, there is no past, no present, and no future. The children playing on this pitch today have no idea how old this stadium is or how many generations have been able to enjoy their favourite sport thanks to this man. If a nation engages in physical activity and sport, that nation will thrive \u2014 and V\u00e4ino Viilup proved this through his example and his dedication to grassroots sport. In the photographs, we see him at sixty years old shot putting, skiing marathons, playing volleyball, and taking part in basketball. Even at a very advanced age, he and his wife would take walks along the J\u00f5hvi promenade, and he would come to open our matches here, at the stadium.\u201d <\/p>\n\n The idea of installing a commemorative bench emerged this summer, during active discussions about the construction of an indoor football hall in J\u00f5hvi, while the club was raising funds to bring the project to life. According to Phoenix volunteer Vladislav Naumov, it was at that time that forged football boots were added to the \u201c100 Years of Football\u201d monument, once again reminding everyone that football has a presence in the parish. There was also a desire to install another art object dedicated to this team sport. Upon seeing a report about a commemorative bench being unveiled for a prominent figure somewhere else in Estonia, the activist thought that the same idea could be realised here as well. <\/p>\n\n \u201cThis summer, Reet Viilup visited our museum, and the decision about whom to dedicate the new piece to came immediately. We shared our plans with parish representatives, received their approval, and began bringing the project to life. Unfortunately, the administration didn\u2019t manage to prepare the site in time for the unveiling, so the bench is currently located at the stadium, near the spot where V\u00e4ino Viilup loved to watch the miners\u2019 team play,\u201d the activist explained. Denis Ozerov Reference:<\/p>\n\n Speaking of V\u00e4ino Viilup\u2019s biography, it is worth noting that he received his education not only at the Tallinn Polytechnic Institute but also at the Moscow Mining Academy. He began his career in Ida-Viru County in 1954 at the Tammiku mine. From 1958 to 1961, he served as Deputy Head of the Board of Oil Shale and Chemical Industry under the Republican Council of National Economy. He headed the Eestishale trust, the Estonia mine, was part of the leadership of the capital construction board, and served as both Director General and a board member of Eestishale. A new commemorative bench will appear on the J\u00f5hvi promenade. This time, the personalised art installation is dedicated to the \u201cKing of Oil Shale\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museum-visitors","category-new-at-the-museum"],"acf":{"choi\u0441e_menu_page":false,"full_width":false,"header_transparent":false,"header_white":false,"menu_type_page":"default","menu_align_page":"default"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5560,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions\/5560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_2502-1.jpg\")
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She expressed her gratitude to the Phoenix football club for ensuring that the memorial bench was completed in time for her husband\u2019s birthday \u2014 a date the family had celebrated the day before. <\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_2490-1.jpg\")
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At that time, true professional miner-footballers emerged \u2014 players who were exempt from mine work from spring to autumn. They were only required to report for work in one case: if they lost. This form of punishment was imposed for poor performance on the field. <\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jalgpallimuuseum.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0414.jpg\")
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The entire financial burden for creating the commemorative symbol was taken on by the Phoenix club, while the installation is being handled by the parish. The bench won\u2019t be moving far from its current location \u2014 in a few weeks, it will be placed near the old entrance to the stadium, where a small area is being specially prepared for it. <\/p>\n\n
Photo by the author<\/p>\n\n
From 1968 to 1971, Viilup was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, chaired the Kohtla-J\u00e4rve city council for several years, and also worked as Deputy Chairman of the J\u00f5hvi city council. In 2002, V\u00e4ino Viilup was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of J\u00f5hvi, and in 2004 he received the Order of the White Star, Class IV. Viilup\u2019s name is well known in sports circles \u2014 he chaired the Basketball Federation, the Eestishale football club, and the Kohtla-J\u00e4rve Veterans\u2019 Sports Council. V\u00e4ino Viilup is an honorary member of the Kalev sports society. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"