From: Petrovich (plizest@hotmail.com)
Subject: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-02 18:38:44 PST
Knowing that former Sporting idol Balakov suffered a career-threatening
injury and watching live to a Sporting's 2-2 home draw against Braga that
included three shots against the woodwork, really made up for a depressing
evening. So I decided to nag you all with one of those trivia questions for
which I don't even know the full answer.
As you all know, the vast majority of club's names is owed to Geography -
either a town, a region, a neighborhood, a river or the like. Yet there are
a few notable exceptions - which include teams named after people.
In Portugal there's Gil Vicente FC, from the northern town of Barcelos. Gil
Vicente was a 15th Century dramaturge, considered the percursor of modern
theater in Portugal - a local answer to William Shakespeare, if you want a
comparison.
In Brazil there's the famous CR Vasco da Gama (hello Lleo!), named after the
Portuguese navigator, the first european to get to India by sea, via Cape of
Good Hope, way back in 1498.
Does anyone know any other clubs playing in their countries top Divisions
named after people?
Pedro
P.S. to Paul C - Who is/was the 'Queen of the South' that gave the name to
the Scottish Club?
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From: Marcos Schieda (mjschieda@hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-03 03:02:10 PST
"Victoria Barrett" wrote in message news:...
> I know of Bolivia's Wilstermann, and Argentina's Newell's Old Boys, the
> former of which was named for a famous aviator. I'm sure Marcos knows about
> Newell's nomenclature.
Newell's Old Boys was born because of the Colegio Comercial Anglo
Argentino (English-Argentine Commercial College, or something like
that). This College was directed by Isaac Newell.
The former jersey was blue and white (vertical stripes), with an
English flag. When the commercial team was converted into a club, they
selected the current name. Actual colours where taken from England's
flag (Red - Newell's country), and from Germany's flag (Black -
country of Newell's wife).
Hope this answers your question.
Other Argentine examples:
Almirante Brown/Almirante Brown (Arrecifes)/Brown (Adrogué)
Because of Admiral Guillermo Brown, an Irishman who battled for
Argentina during the Independence war.
Banfield
The first manager of the Compañía del Ferrocarril del Sud (South
Railway Company) was Mr. Edward Banfield. When a new Railway Station
was created, it received his name. Later, Banfield was also the name
of the neighbourhood and, of course, the club.
Belgrano (Córdoba)
Manuel Belgrano is one of the most important Argentines we've ever
had. A lawyer, he also was a General because the country needed him
during our Independence. He was a member of the Primera Junta (Our
first Government), and he is the father of our flag.
Colón (Santa Fe)
Because of Cristóbal Colón (or Christopher Columbus).
J.J. Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza was a General. One of the main enemies Juan
Manuel de Rosas had. Urquiza finally defeated Rosas in the Battle of
Caseros (1850). Urquiza was named as a sort of President (there wasn't
a Constitution yet), and thanks to Urquiza, that Constitution was
created in 1853. However, Urquiza can't be considered as our first
President. During the first Elections, in 1860, Urquiza tried to
participate, but was killed.
Liniers
Santiago de Liniers was a Virrey of the Virreinato del Río de la
Plata (in 1807-08. A Frenchman, he was the key during both English
Invasions (Sobremonte, the virrey, ran away to Córdoba). Because of
that, people wanted him to be virrey. Later, his enemies convinced
everybody that he was making secret conversations with Napoleon (so
Liniers could give the Virreinato to France), and then was killed.
However, those rumours weren't true.
San Lorenzo de Almagro
Because of Priest Lorenzo Massa, who protected the team members,
giving them their first jerseys and a terrain to be used as a field.
Apparently, those jerseys had the same colours San Lorenzo has now.
San Martín (Mendoza)/San Martín (San Juan)/San Martín (Tucumán)/San
Martín (Burzaco)
José de San Martín is the Father of our Country. He also helped
Chile and Peru in their independence wars (In fact, O'Higgins didn't
do it - He was a San Martín's helper, but as San Martín didn't want
accept the "Presidence" in Chile, he named O'Higgins instead). He also
crossed the Andes - one of his most impressive acts.
Sarmiento (Junín)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was the first man that allowed and
created schools in our country. Besides that, he was President in
1968-74.
Vélez Sarsfield
Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield was an important lawyer during the 1800s.
The creator of our Civil Code in 1891 (it's still been used - with
some changes, of course), and the co-creator of the Commercial Code.
Victoriano Arenas
Victoriano Arenas was the owner of the lands where this team used
to play during their first years.
I've found other ones:
* Luis Angel Firpo (El Salvador)
* Bolivar (Bolivia)
* Fernández Vial (Chile)
* O'Higgins (Chile)
* Presidente Hayes (Paraguay)
* Pérez Zeledón (Costa Rica)
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From: Lléo (leonardo@inx.com.br)
Subject: Re: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-02 21:06:39 PST
Petrovich escreveu nas notícias de
mensagem:1015122783.478796@news.iol.pt...
> In Portugal there's Gil Vicente FC, from the northern town of Barcelos. Gil
> Vicente was a 15th Century dramaturge, considered the percursor of modern
> theater in Portugal - a local answer to William Shakespeare, if you want a
> comparison.
And how about Paços Ferreira?
> In Brazil there's the famous CR Vasco da Gama (hello Lleo!), named after the
> Portuguese navigator, the first european to get to India by sea, via Cape of
> Good Hope, way back in 1498.
And the club was founded exactly 400 years later, in 1898 (August 21st, to
be precise). In fact, this was the reason the founders picked Vasco to name
their brand new club. I suppose I should be lucky, since the other options
were Pedro Álvares Cabral and Santa Cruz... (historically, Terra de Santa
Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross) was the second name my country was given,
after being found/discovered - then, it would definitely change to Brasil).
I mean, instead of a Vascaíno, I would be a Cabralino or a SantaCruzense...
eugh! ;)
Vasco da Gama, the navigator, is mentioned as such in the anthem:
"Tu tens o nome do heróico português/Vasco da Gama a tua fama assim se fez"
And the link with Portugal is mentioned further:
"[...]/No remo és imortal/No futebol és um traço/De união Brasil-Portugal".
Hmmm, now that I've mentioned this, I have a question: do Portuguese clubs
have anthems/hymns, Pedro? I once asked Vicky about the English teams, and
she replied that it was not like that, more like songs that got associated
to the club. In Brasil, every club (or most of the known ones) has an own
hymn.
> Does anyone know any other clubs playing in their countries top Divisions
> named after people?
In Argentina there is Velez Sarsfield, named after a 19th century lawyer.
There's also Newell's Old Boys, Newell iirc was a teacher, whose students
used to play football after class, or something like that. Marcos will
probably know the correct answer. :)
In Bolivia, Jorge Wilstermann, who was a pilot. Also, there's Bolívar.
Although the club is not called "Simon Bolívar FC", it is pretty clear that
it's named like that because of him.
In Chile, Colo-Colo was an old Indian leader iirc. Not sure about this one
either...
And how can we forget Paco Casal FC, who will be showing up at this year's
World Cup ;)
> Pedro
>
> P.S. to Paul C - Who is/was the 'Queen of the South' that gave the name to
> the Scottish Club?
I am not Paul C, so I cannot give you the correct answer, but only a wild
guess. :) I suppose it would be the Queen of England? Not likely, though...
How about Queen's Park (Scotland), Queen's Park Rangers and King's Lynn
(England)?
==========================================================================
From: Paul C (paulc@easynet.co.uk)
Subject: Re: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-02 23:53:17 PST
Queen's Park is a park in Glasgow named after Mary, Queen of Scots. It
has given it's name to the surrounding area. I presume the club's
first ground was either in the park itself, or in the district of
Queen's Park.
King's Lynn is easy (!). The town was originally called Lynn. When
King Henry VIII took over the lordship of the town it became King's
Lynn.
=========================================================================
From: Paul C (paulc@easynet.co.uk)
Subject: Re: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-02 23:40:51 PST
On Sun, 03 Mar 2002 02:38:42 GMT, "Petrovich"
wrote:
>Does anyone know any other clubs playing in their countries top Divisions
>named after people?
O'Higgins, Chile
>
>Pedro
>
>P.S. to Paul C - Who is/was the 'Queen of the South' that gave the name to
>the Scottish Club?
Devorguilla Balliol (1209-1290), the last 'Princess of Galloway'.
....for an added piece of trivia, she founded a school for the poor in
Oxford which later became Balliol College.
BTW there's an Aberdeen junior club (non-league in English parlance)
called Wilson's XI (kind-of website at
http://www.ctwentyone.co.uk/football/football.htm
Founded by a Mr Wilson (I can't find his first name) who modestly
named the club after himself.
--
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From: Be lyin (belyin@aol.com)
Subject: Re: Clubs named after people (Trivia)
Date: 2002-03-04 16:49:43 PST
There is the wonderfully named Trinidadian team Joe Public--I guess it is named
after all of us!