[2] Under de la Sota's leadership, Athletic Bilbao achieved its greatest economic and sporting successes, becoming a dominant team on the national level, winning three back-to-back Copa del Rey titles between 1914 and 1916.
The family was shipowners, banking and insurance shareholders, with significant assets in Altos Hornos, the largest company in Spain for much of the 20th century.
[10] His family, in addition to amassing wealth, patronized numerous Basque cultural and national organizations, allocating a quarter of their profits to their various ventures.
[citation needed] Athletic followed this tradition of using only local players for more than a hundred years, a club policy which survived into the 21st century, getting through the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath of purges, the avalanche and trend of foreign hiring in the 50s and the change from the peseta to the euro.
San Mamés could seat almost forty thousand people and it was renowned for the unique and boisterous atmosphere its crowds of devoted and loyal fans would create on match days.