History of Mohun Bagan Super Giant
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Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the legal footballing entity of Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, is one of the oldest football clubs in India.
Mohun Bagan was established on 15 August 1889, with Bhupendra Nath Bose becoming the first president of the newly founded club and Jyotindra Nath Bose the first secretary of it. Mohun Bagan played their first match in 1889 against the team of Eden Hindu Hostel students and lost 1–0.[1][2] The initial players to play for the club were Girin Basu, Pramatha Nath Chattopadhyay, Sachin Bandhyopadhyay, Ram Goswami, Sarat Mitra, Hem Nath Sen, Nalin Basu, Upen Ghosh, Manindra Nath Basu, Manomoham Pandey, Probhas Mitra, and the captain Manilal Sen.[2] The first tournament that the club participated in was the 1893 Coochbehar Cup, where the team suffered to perform against the British Indian Army teams and the clubs like Aryan, National, Town Club, Kumurtuli, Fort William's Arsenal and the famed Sovabazar, which was founded by the Father of Indian football Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari himself.[1][2]
Late colonial era
The early exits from major tournaments suffered in the 1900s evoked ridicule from its local rivals, including Sovabazar.[1] Soon after the appointment of Subedar-major Sailen Basu as the secretary, the club adopted European playing methods and players underwent rigorous physical training and followed austere fitness regime similar to that in the army.[2][1] The club also began recruiting players from other clubs, especially from National, where footballers played in boots rather than barefoot. Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee was one of the notable recruitments from National, who was also the only player in the club to play in boots at that time.[2] As a result, the club achieved its first success by winning the 1904 Coochbehar Cup.[3][2]
The following year Mohun Bagan won the Coochbehar Cup once again and reached the Gladstone Cup final, held in Chinsurah, where they defeated the reigning IFA Shield champions Dalhousie 6–1,[1][2] with Shibdas Bhaduri scoring four goals.[4] Maharaja Rajendra Bhup Bahadur of Coochbehar, impressed by the team, would become a chief patron of the club.[3] In 1906, Mohun Bagan also won the Minto Fort Tournament by defeating one of the major English clubs in India, Calcutta.[2] But they were disqualified for the 1906 IFA Shield because P.K. Biswas, who had played for both National and Mohun Bagan in the same year, which was considered illegal by the Indian Football Association, the then de facto governing body of Indian football.[2]
Apart from team building, Subedar-major Basu had a remarkable contribution in arranging a new club tent and ground after the demolition of Mohun Bagan Villa in 1891. The club did not have a permanent club tent, but the number of club members increased due to minimal membership fees of at most 8 annas.[2] During this period a major meeting was held among the club officials including Jyotindra Nath Basu, Subedar-major Sailen Basu, Dwijendra Nath Basu, Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra and Dr. Girish Ghosh and soon the club tent within Mohun Bagan's premises in Maidan was constructed.[2][1] Mohun Bagan won the Trades Cup four consecutive times between 1906 and 1909, which was the second most prestigious tournament in India after IFA Shield. Mohun Bagan won Coochbehar Cup in 1907 and 1908, and then both the Laxmibilas Cup and the Gladstone Cup in 1909 and 1910.[2][1] In 1909 and 1910, among only a few other native clubs, the team had the honor to play in the IFA Shield for its consistent performances over the recent years. However, they would struggle to match the regimental teams of British and British Indian armies in the first two years of participation.[1]
The historic year of 1911
In 1911, Mohun Bagan formed a dominant side for the IFA Shield,[5] which included Hiralal Mukherjee, Bhuti Sukul, Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee, Monmohun Mukherjee, Rajen Sengupta, Nil Madhav Bhattacharya, Kanu Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Bhaduri and captained by Shibdas Bhaduri.[6][7] They battled out against the professionally equipped teams of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta Rangers Club, Rifle Brigade and Middlesex Regiment to reach the IFA Shield final without conceding a goal. The enthusiasm for the final on 29 July 1911 was such that people came from other districts of Bengal as well as from neighboring provinces of Bihar and Assam.[1] The East Indian Railway Company ran a special train and additional steamer services were pressed into service to ferry spectators to Calcutta from the mofussil areas.[1] Tickets for the match, originally priced at ₹1 and ₹2, were sold at ₹15 due to its immense demand in the region.[1] After trailing by a goal from Sgt. Jackson of East Yorkshire Regiment team within the first 15 minutes of the 50 minute-match, Shibdas Bhaduri soon scored an equalizer in the first half and then set up Abhilash Ghosh to score the winner with just two minutes remaining.[6][8] The club became the first native team to lift the IFA Shield, that too in front of an estimated crowd of 80,000, although the referee, H.G. Pooler, estimated approximately 20,000 to be the number.[6][9] Mohun Bagan supporters and the public at large went berserk, even supporters of Muslim representative clubs like Moslem and Mohammedan went to the streets to celebrate and the Muslims from Dharmatala joined the victory procession of Hindus near the Thanthania Kalibari.[1][10][11]
"For the first time in the history of Indian football an Indian team, the Mohun Bagan, consisting purely of Bengalees, has won the Indian Football Association Shield beating crack teams of English regiments. About 80,000 spectators were present on the ground, but most of them could not see the match. By noticing the flying of kites, they were following the actions of the match. And when they came to know about the win of their team, they started tearing off their shirts, waving them, tearing their hairs."[1][6]
"What the Congress failed to achieve, Mohun Bagan has. In other words, they have succeeded in degrading the English."
"The team comprising of the Bengalis won the IFA Shield by defeating three top military teams. 80,000 Indians will remain witnesses to this event. There is nothing to be surprised at. The team that is physically more fit, has sharp surveillance and intelligence, wins."[6]
"The Japanese victory over the Russians did not stir the East half as much as did the match between Mohun Bagan and East York."[12]
"Mohun Bagan is not a football team. It is a tortured country, rolling in the dust, which has just started to raise its head."[13]
Based on a popular legend, after the match ended, a Brahmin, pointing to the Union Jack fluttering atop Fort William, asked Rev. Chatterjee, "When will that come down?" and was predicted that the flag would come down only when Mohun Bagan wins the shield next time, which coincidentally came true.[10]
Nation-wide exposure of the club (1912–30)
After a comparatively disappointing year in 1912, Shibdas Bhaduri handed the captaincy to Habul Sarkar the following year, but they failed to win any trophy that year.[6] The same year Gostha Pal joined the club as a defender at the young age of 16 and soon became known as the "Chinese Wall" for his defensive prowess.[14] In 1914, Mohun Bagan for the first time played in CFL 2nd Division and finished third, but got promoted after a team from the 1st Division withdrew.[6] Mohun Bagan played their first match on 15 May 1915 against Calcutta, which was drawn.[15] Meanwhile, Subedar-major Basu had to leave for his commitments in the military service for the World War I and Dwijendra Nath Basu, nephew of Bhupendra Nath Basu and brother of Subedar-major Basu, replaced him as the club's secretary.[16] Mohun Bagan finished fourth in their league debut, while a separate team of the club made to the semi-finals of the Trades Cup and Coochbehar Cup.[16] The next year, Mohun Bagan reached the second position in the league and the following year, narrowly lost the IFA Shield final to Middlesex Regiment.[17]
On 8 August 1921, the club played its first match against East Bengal in the Coochbehar Cup semi-final, which ended in a goalless draw, but Mohun Bagn went on to beat them in the replay by 3–0 and gave rise to the Kolkata Derby. In 1922, Mohun Bagan played exhibition matches of football and cricket against a team of Indians from South Africa.[18] The following year, Mohun Bagan was invited to Rovers Cup in Bombay,[19] where they lost to Durham Light Infantry by 4–1.[20] After 35 years of long association of Bhupendra Nath Basu with Mohun Bagan came to an end with his demise in 1924, and was succeeded by Sir Rajendranath Mukherjee.[16] The next year, Mohun Bagan became the first civilian Indian team to be invited to the oldest football tournament in Asia, Durand Cup, where they lost to Sherwood Foresters in the semi-finals.[21][22] That year Mohun Bagan also failed to win the league and finished second. During this period, the club attended as well as hosted numerous charity-matches all over the country for fundraising as the earnings from memberships were not enough to run the club over a long period.[16] On 28 May 1925, the club played its first official derby and lost by 1–0. In 1929, due to a clash during the match of Mohun Bagan and Dalhousie, all the native teams withdrew their names from the IFA registration, until it was negotiated on the condition that there would be equal number of European and Indian teams in the association.[23]
Significant contributions to the national team (1931–47)
Renowned barrister Shailendra Nath Banerjee became the secretary of the club with the turn of the decade.[24] In 1931 the club acquired the services of highly skilled players like, Karuna 'Habla' Bhattacharya and Syed Abdus Samad.[24][25] In 1933, Gostho Pal, who lead the club for 5 years from 1921, got selected as the captain of IFA XI representing India for an away match against Ceylon, but the following year, due to injury, his partner in defence Dr. Sanmatha Dutta led the tour to South Africa for a series of matches.[26] 1935 saw a great change in Mohun Bagan's tradition of playing with bare-feet when on the behest of Abdul Hamid, a renowned player from Quetta, the club decided to use boots mandatorily for the first time.[24][27][28] In 1937, Mohun Bagan originally faced off against a foreign team – an English amateur club Islington Corinthians, who were on a world tour; but narrowly lost by 1–0.[29] In 1938 the tradition of Mohun Bagan players leading IFA teams continued with Karuna Bhattacharya captaining a side to Australia, where he also scored against Australia as well as Football Queensland team during the tour.[30][24][25][31] In the late-1930s both Umapati Kumar and Gostha Pal retired, but the squad got competent reinforcements – Anil Dey in half back position and Satyen 'Mana' Guin in attack, who a right winger was nicknamed "Racing Deer" for his speed along the flanks.[24][32] Mohun Bagan also broke a 29-year-old barren run in Trades Cup, in 1938.[24] Captained by Bimal Mukherjee, Mohun Bagan broke their long wait for a major trophy in 1939 when they won their first ever Calcutta Football League title.[32] Significantly, Mohun Bagan also celebrated its golden jubilee the same year, which was marked with celebrations across the city, match organized featuring renowned former players and, medals and jerseys were distributed to the players. From 1933 to 1939 the club won 29 trophies, also out of 23 derbies, was victorious 12 times, including 1 walkover win, drew 10 matches and lost only once.[33]
In 1941, the secretaryship was given to another famed barrister, B.C. Ghosh replacing Sailen Banerjee, who was elected as the club's vice-president, and the following year insurance policies were incepted for the medical aid of the injured players during matches, and a medical board composed of reputed doctors was formed to oversee the medical issues.[34] A trust board was also formed on the initiative of a solicitor B.K.Ghosh and a barrister Dr. S.K.Gupta for the monetary support of the club.[34] In 1943 and 1944, Mohun Bagan won CFL in succession. In 1944, Secretary Ghosh became the club's vice-president, and Dr. Gupta took charge of the general secretary's office. Meanwhile, a junior football team was formed under the guidance of a former Mohun Bagan player, Balaidas Chattopadhyay, and also efforts were taken to introduce sports like rugby and baseball among the youth.[34] In 1945, George Curtis, who was an Arsenal player stationed in India as a part of Royal Air Force in the World War II, took charge of the team on request as a mentor for a brief stint.[34][35]
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