Heliodoro Rodríguez López (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1890-1950) was the youngest of 10 brothers in a family whose shipping empire was the most important on the islands.
He always had a great love for football, making his debut with Sporting Club Tenerife at the age of 14.
However, his professional career would develop in offices, running the family businesses, becoming a prominent figure in Chicharrera society.
Being vice president of CD Tenerife, chaired by Don Pelayo López and Martín Romero, he would donate the replicas of the trophies that had burned in the fire that, on April 19, 1945, had devastated the club’s headquarters, located on Castillo Street, 16.
Heliodoro Rodriguez López would be elected president of the blue and white entity in 1946. His first action was to recover ownership of the Stadium, which had passed into the hands of the Island Council, and carry out its transformation, according to the project of architect José Enrique Marrero Regalado.
Four years later, upon being re-elected president, the assembly unanimously requested the Spanish Football Federation to grant him the Gold Medal for Sports Merit, receiving the distinction in the month of July of that year, coinciding with the anniversary of the inauguration of the Stadium.
Since the aforementioned event was attended by the top leaders of the island’s clubs: Norte, Price, Hespérides, Iberia and Real Unión, eternal rivals of the Blue and Whites, Don Heliodoro would take advantage of this event to reach an agreement by which CD Tenerife could participate in the national categories. and was considered the representative of the province in the promotion phase to the Second Division, which would compete with Las Palmas, Melilla, Ceuta, Toledo and Imperial de Murcia. The team would ascend to the First National category in 1952.
Two days after his death, Iberia would propose that the Stadium be called the Heliodoro Rodriguez López Stadium, while Real Unión would request that an annual tournament be held in his memory, which would be called the Heliodoro Rodríguez López Cup, a tournament that is still being held.
In the tribute paid to him on the first anniversary of his death, one of the streets surrounding the Stadium was named after him and, on the old Herradura stands, a bust with his figure was discovered, currently located in the former presidential box.
