Subsequent to the nature of the illness which caused the sudden deterioration of his health and his untimely death at age 66; Yidnekatchew Tessema lost the brief race with time in his desperate efforts to accomplish the autobiography he so much wanted to write. Nevertheless, in September of 1986, he selected the most befitting title “In the World and in the World of Sports” and even wrote the first few lines of the introduction for the eventual book which he knew by then was destined to be written after his life.
This is why I used the title “In the World and in the World of Sports” to write the first edition of his life history in the year 1997 and also decided to use it again for the second comprehensive edition I intend to publish in the coming few months. In the meantime, this title shall be used for his section on this Biographies site. It is the appropriate and telling title for the biography of a person who lived fifty eight of his short sixty six years; in the World of Sports.
Birth & Child-hood
Yidnekatchew Tessema was born on September 11 1921 in Jimma town south-west Ethiopia; where the father Tessema Eshete was serving his fifth year in exile subsequent to the overthrow of Lij Iyassu's Government, in which he was the Minister of Posts and Telegraph. The mother W/ro Mulatwa Gebreselassie was a housewife.
As was customary in those days, Yidnekatchew first received his early Bible and Amharic language studies at home and then attended French classes available in the country; at the Alliance, Menelik, and Tefferi Mekonnen schools before he became one of two young Ethiopians selected to travel to France for higher education in 1935. He was taking necessary orientation for life in France at the French Legation in Addis Ababa when the travel plan had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. He thus had to be content with the Italian Mission School in Addis Ababa where he completed the courses then allowed to the natives.
Fifty Eight years in the World of Sports
His unparalleled fifty eight years sports career commenced at the tender age of eight, when he was the captain of the children’s football team of the Tefferi Mekonnen School. At age 14, just a few months before the Italian invasion, he had joined “Arada”, later Saint George; the first sports club in Ethiopia, founded by his neighbourhood friends Ayele Atnash and George Dukas.
All round athlete; short distance runner, Boxer, Cyclist and most importantly, Ethiopia's greatest Footballer in his teens; Yidnekatchew Tessema had scored a record 43 of a total 47 goals by his team Saint George in a single competition season. He was also the founder of the first Ethiopian sports office in 1943, thereby the beginning of the first National club competitions in football. Although he was already 29 years old when Ethiopia started National Team Football, he was still selected and was the Captain of the National teams during the first fifteen international matches.
Prior to and during the first years of the founding of the Ethiopian Sports office Yidnekatchew Tessema had to earn his leaving mainly from translation works as full and part time employee in a number of Government institutions.
In 1943 he found the first Sports Office which was also the Football Federation at the time; and was a part time volunteer technical advisor in this office from1943 to 1948. Following the appropriate timely restructure of this office in 1948 he became the first elected Secretary General of the Ethiopian Football Federation.
In 1960, he was appointed the first Ethiopian Secretary General of the then Semi-Governmental Ethiopian sports Confederation.
In 1967, Yidnekatchew Tessema fulfilled all outstanding minimum requirements of the International Olympic Committee and properly founded the long overdue Ethiopian National Olympic Committee. He was the first elected President of the National Olympic Committee and served in this position from the year of its foundation to 1981.
He was the leader of the historic Ethiopian Olympic delegations to Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 & Mexico 1968. Following his cooption as a Member of the International Olympic Committee in 1971 and in line with the Rule in the Charter which stipulates that "the members of the I. O. C. are the ambassadors of the Committee in their own countries; and cannot therefore be the Delegates representing their respective countries at the Olympic Games;" he was not a member of the Ethiopian Olympic delegations to Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980.
When a fully Governmental Ethiopian Physical Culture and Sports Commission was finally established in 1976; he was appointed the first Commissioner and asked to remain in office until the rare five years Government extension of his retirement age ended on 07 July 1981.
On the International level, his initial exposures in several African and European countries were as a footballer, coach and team leader of the National Football team starting in 1948. The first time he represented the country’s sport in an International meeting was during the founding congress of the African Football Confederation in Khartoum the Sudan, in February of 1957.
Hereafter, he continued as Organizing Committee Chairman, Vice President and President of the African Football Confederation during the first thirty years of its life. He was also among the Co-Founders and a member of the first Executive Committee of the A.N.O.C., Co-Founder-President of the Union of African Sports Confederations, Co-Founder-Honorary President of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa; as well as permanent member of the Executive Committee of the Supreme Ministerial Council for Sports in Africa. He was a member of the Executive Committee of F.I.F.A from 1966-1972 and a Member of the International Olympic Committee from 1971-1987.
Thus the biography of Yidnekatchew Tessema is part and parcel of the histories of the very beginning of modern sports in Ethiopia, the evolution of Ethiopian sports from 1943 until his retirement in 1981, the beginning of Continental football in 1957 and its evolution until his death on August 19 1987, the creation and evolution of the Organizations that manage African sports to this day, the integration of African Sports into International Sports Organizations which for well known historical reasons were founded in the absence of the continent and major milestones in the histories of FIFA, the IOC & IAAF..