History – 1930 -1939

History of Mohun Bagan – Presented by MohunBaganClub.com

Era of Legends – 1930 to 1939

In 1930,none of the Indian clubs, including Mohun Bagan participated in the League as well as IFA Shield because of the prevailing political turmoil. However, Mohun Bagan won the Suryakanta Shield of Moimonsingh that year.In 1931,Mohun Bagan defeated Leicester regiment, the Prince of Wales and Calcutta Customs but lost to Highland Infantry. That year Club lost its key person Subadar Major Sailen Basu. On his memory, Club handed over a Shield to IFA, which was to be rewarded to the winning team of the exhibition match between European and Indian teams, each year. In 1932, Sibdas Bhaduri, the icon of Mohun Bagan’s 1911 team passed away. An award was declared for the Captain of each year’s Shield winning team as his memento. Dwijendranath Basu, brother of Sailen Basu, who was in the charge of Secretaryship for a long time, Club’s founder members P.N.Mitra and Ajay Kumar Barat also passed away this year. Famous Barrister Shailendranath Banerjee became the honorary General Secretary of the Club.

In 1933,Club lost to York and Lancashire in the IFA Shield. But won Dwarbhanga Shield, the Governor’s Cup of Hazaribagh and Lady Shifton Shield. Gostho Pal, after being elected as the Captain of the Club, left for Ceylon(Srilanka). Karuna Bhattacharya and Samad were also included in the team.

Next year, in 1934,Dr.Sanmatho Dutta was sent as the Captain of IFA team for South African tournament as a substitute of Gostho Pal, as Pal was ill. Satu Chowdhury and Karuna Bhattacharya were also included.

In 1935,Abdul Hamid from Quetta (now in Pakistan) joined Mohun Bagan. He played as center half. Hamid for the first time inspired the players to play wearing boots.

In 1936, Club’s second Secretary, Sir Rajendranata Mukherjee and 1911 team member Bijoy Das Bhaduri expired.

In 1937, Club’s third Secretary, Sir Bhupendranath Mitra, and two other important associates of Mohun Bagan, Dr.J.N.Basu and Jatindranath Mitra also expired. In the same year, at the Shield tournament, Club lost to List shire Regiment in the fourth round, during extra time. Mohun Bagan played its first international match in home country this year against Englishton Corinthians of England. It was an exhibition match and despite losing by 0-1 goals, it held a celebration party to pay tribute to the winning team. Such was Mohun Bagan’s attitude. It was not only an organized football team, it was an elite club. And still it is, the cream of the crop. That’s why, regarding the selection of the Captain of the National Football Team, Mohun Bagan’s players has been chosen a number of times.

In 1938, for the Australian Tournament, Karuna Bhattacharya was elected the Captain of the Indian team. This year, Club won the Trades Cup. Mohun Bagan and Calcutta Club combined played a match against a Burmese team.

In 1939, yet another big achievement added to Mohun Bagan’s credit. Mohun Bagan became the First Division League champion. That year there was a clash between IFA and three clubs, Kalighat, East Bengal and Mohammedan, which was later settled at the beginning of the next year. In the 20’s and 30’s, some of the valuable players who drove Mohun Bagan to the top, deserve to be mentioned. Gostho Pal, Umapoti Kumar,Robi Ganguly, R.Sen(kanai), Balaidas Chattopadhyay, Shudhangshu Basu, Mona Dutta, R.Sen, Nagen Kali, P.Dasgupta ,Santosh Dutta, A.Bhattacharya, V.Kuthari, P.Dutta, S.Banerjee, P.Pramanik,R.Das, M. Dev, Narayan, B.Sarkar, K.Banerjee, Dr.Sanmatha Dutta, Rajen Ghosh, A.Roy(Jamai), M.Sengupta, Moni Das, A.Sur, T.Shome(Bagha), Sushil Chatterjee,  Bahadur Bothra, T.Chowdhury, H.Mukherjee, Abdul Hamid, Darbari Dutta, Premlal, Jamini Banerjee, BeniPrasad, B.Mukherjee, R.C. Dafadar, S.dasgupta(Poltu), Niraj Ganguly, Fajlur Rahman, Ashu Dutta, Hemango Basu, Robi Basu, Naren Banerjee, Surya Chakraborty, Karuna Bhattacharya, Atli, Satu Chowdhury, K.K.Basu,  S.A.Samad, A.Ganguly(Poltu), S.Mitra(Langcha), S.Guin(Mana), R.Chowdhury, A.Roychowdhury and many others.

The team of 1939 League Champion comprised of

1.Bimal Mukherjee(Captain)

2.K.Dutta (Haradhon)(Goal)

3.Poritosh Chakraborty

4.Anil Dey

5.Dr.Sanmatha Dutta

6.A.Roychowdhury

7.Mohini Banerjee

8.Beni Prasad

9.Premlal,

10.S.Debroy

11.J.Ghosh

12.B.Dey

13.S.Dey

14.K.Banerjee

15.S.Seth

16.R.Sen

17.S.Dutta (Chhotu)

18.Satu Chowdhury

In 1939-40, Club went to Ceylon (Srilanka) with Cricket and Football teams with Cricket Captain Dhiren De and Football Captain Poltu Ganguly. Mohun Bagan celebrated its Golden Jubilee in the same year with great enthusiasm. Play was enacted, a match was organized with some renowned ex-players, medals and jerseys were distributed to players, by Kumar Sachindra Narayan Sanyal, son of Queen of Purtia and A.D.Kumar and many other party celebrations mark 1939 as an extremely memorable year.