San Fermín 1985: The Running of the Bulls

· Founder of Encierro, veteran bull runner

Looking Back at 1985

Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro

Looking back at 1985, you see a fiesta at an interesting crossroads. The ganadería lineup that year reads as a mix of the familiar and the quietly new. Pablo Romero and Miura anchored the week, while Cebada Gago ran the sixth encierro, on July 12. The death toll was zero, and the week closed without catastrophe. By any measure, a successful San Fermín.

What is striking in retrospect is how little anyone would have flagged the Cebada Gago run as significant. José Cebada Gago's cattle from Paterna de Rivera ran that morning, and in 1985 that was simply noted and moved on from. It took years, and a growing body of goring statistics, before the pattern became undeniable. That 1985 run is the kind of historical footnote that only acquires meaning later. The encierro rewards patience. The full story of any given year often takes decades to read correctly.

Dennis Clancey, Founder, Encierro

The Encierro in 1985

Eight ganaderías ran in 1985, from Pablo Romero on July 7 to Miura on July 14, with Cebada Gago on July 12. El País reported runners gored on July 7, 9, 11 and 13, including five in the Marqués de Domecq run of July 11 and Domingo Melón Oballe, badly gored in the Hernández Barrera run of July 13. No one died.

Not every morning was long. El País gave the Guardiola Fantoni run of July 8 a time of 2 minutes 45 seconds, with no one treated, and the Fermín Bohórquez run of July 10 a time of 2 minutes 34 seconds, a morning its headline said went better because there were fewer runners. The closing Miura run took 2 minutes 45 seconds, with no serious injuries.

"The bulls don't know it's a fiesta. That's the point."

Every 1985 Encierro, Day by Day

Each run with its ganadería. The route runs 848.6 meters from Santo Domingo to the ring.

What the Record Remembers

Ganadería

Cebada Gago on July 12

Cebada Gago ran the July 12 encierro in 1985; El País gave it 6 minutes 40 seconds. Onda Vasca now describes Cebada Gago as the ganadería that has left the most gorings in the encierro.

Streak

Miura Closes 1985

Miura closed the 1985 fiesta with a fast run of 2 minutes 45 seconds and no serious injuries, according to El País. The claim that Miura ran from 1982 to 2000 without goring anyone is wrong: the Miura bull Hacinador gored a runner on July 7, 1996.

Long Runs

Three Long Mornings

El País timed three 1985 runs at more than six minutes: Marqués de Domecq on July 11 (8 minutes 27 seconds), Cebada Gago on July 12 (6 minutes 40 seconds) and Hernández Barrera on July 13 (7 minutes 45 seconds). On July 9 El País also called the Osborne run very dangerous: two bulls separated, 11 people were injured and one was gored.

Official Poster: San Fermín 1985

Cartel 1985 by Xabier Idoate Iribarren.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, cartel archive

The City in 1985

Pamplona in July 1985 was a city in white and red, as it always is during San Fermín. The chupinazo opened the fiesta at noon on July 6, and the next morning El País counted 24 light injuries in the first encierro, a Pablo Romero run of 3 minutes 14 seconds.

On July 13, the day before the last encierro, El País reported thousands of people arriving in Pamplona for the end of the fiesta. The Pobre de Mí closed the week at midnight on July 14.

The 1984 fiesta brought a different lineup and its own stories worth tracing, and the 1986 edition brought the Portuguese ganadería Murteira to the street. Both years are covered in full at encierro.com.

Sources

Every fact on this page is checked against these sources. Where sources disagreed, the one closest to the day won.

• El País, "24 heridos leves en el primer encierro", 1985-07-08. elpais.com
• El País, "El segundo encierro terminó sin heridos", 1985-07-09. elpais.com
• El País, "11 heridos en el encierro de ayer", 1985-07-10. elpais.com
• El País, "Menos corredores permitieron un mejor encierro", 1985-07-11. elpais.com
• El País, "Cinco heridos por asta de toro en un quinto encierro largo y muy peligroso", 1985-07-12. elpais.com
• El País, "Miles de personas llegan a Pamplona para terminar los sanfermines", 1985-07-13. elpais.com
• El País, "Un herido grave y dos leves en el séptimo encierro", 1985-07-14. elpais.com
• El País, "Los sanfermines se despiden con el Pobre de mí en un ambiente de juerga y alegría", 1985-07-15. elpais.com
• Onda Vasca (Noticias de Navarra group), "San Fermín: riesgo extremo en el tercer encierro de Pamplona con los Cebada Gago", 2023-07-09. ondavasca.com
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Pamplona recordara los 16 fallecidos en la historia del encierro con adoquines". pamplona.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Carteles de San Fermin". pamplona.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "The Chupinazo and the Pobre de Mi". pamplona.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Encierro (turismo, French version)". pamplona.es

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