In June of 1978, Tunisia entered the international football scene as the first African team ever to win a match in a final phase of the World Cup. The team arrived home and were hailed as heroes of the ‘Epic of Argentina’, their success helping somewhat the Tunisian people to forget they had just gone through one of the worst events in their history since independence. Just a few months before, tensions between the Only Party and the main trade union had led to confrontations on the streets. More than 500 people died in a single day, January 26th, 1978. ‘Black Thursday’ remains to date the bloodiest episode in contemporary Tunisian history, more so than the 2011 revolution. In 1978, a football team saved the regime and offered a relatively happy ending to a very black year.