The first “Home Ground” of the Club on the spacious ground of Mohun Bagan Villa

Kirti Mitter, the father of Priyanath Mitter owned a famous marble palace named ‘Mohun Bagan Villa’ near Shyambazar area. The Villa and adjacent grounds were surrounded by Fariapukur Street on the north, Upper Circular Road on the east, Kirti Mitter Lane on the west and Mohun Bagan lane in the south. During that time the students of ‘Dukhiram Majumder Students’ Union’ used to play in the medium sized ground in front of the Villa. After a short spell at Villa Mr. Majumder shifted his base to Laha’s ground and changed the name of the union to ‘Aryans’. Some players from Mohun Bagan Villa went to Shyam Square where ‘Bagbazar Club’ was formed under the leadership of Young brigade from the Sen family of Bagbazar. However the players who still continued to play in the Mohun Bagan Villa ground could not compete with the rest of the clubs as they didn’t have a club of their own anymore. To provide support to these players, three famous families of Kolkata- Basu family, Mitra family and Sen family came forward.
On the eve of 15th of August 1889 a meeting was held in the house of the then famous lawyer, Mr. Bhupendra Nath Basu (who later became the President of the Indian National Congress) at 14, Balaram Ghosh Street. In the meeting, the unanimous decision to form ‘Mohun Bagan Sporting Club’ with the existing players playing in the Mohun Bagan Villa was taken.
The first President and Secretary of Mohun Bagan club were Mr. Bhupendra Nath Bose and Mr. Jyotindra Nath Bose respectively. Mr. Monilal Sen was the first captain of the club. He was the first Indian cricketer in Bengal to have taken the round arm bowling. Some of the famous people who were present on that very auspicious moment were—
Bhupendra Nath Bose, Jyotindra Nath Bose, Monilal Sen, Jyotindra Nath Mitra, Roy Bahadur Chunilal Bose, Sir Nripendra Nath Sarkar, Maharaja Durga Charan Laha (Maharaja of Shyam Pukur), Dr. Manindra Nath Bose, Sir Brajendralal Mitra, Major S.K Ghosh, Maharaja Rajendra Bhup Bahadur (Maharaja of Coochbehar), Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra, Dr.Ganendra Nath Mitra, Sir Rajendra Nath Mukhopadhyay, C. C. Dutta, Pramatha Nath Chattopadhyay, Ram Goswami, Sir Prabhash Mitra, Prafulla Bose, Nalin Chandra Bose, Hemnath Sen, Girin Bose, Upen Ghosh, Monmohan Pande, C. K. Sarkar, Sir Brojendralal Mitter, Satish Chandra Mitra, Sushil Chandra Mitra, Sarat Chandra Mitter.
The Mohun Bagan Club got its first playground inside the Mohun Bagan Villa (1889-1892). The intent of being part of the club gathered a lot of momentum under the able guidance of eminent personalities like Mr. Bhupendra Nath Bose and Mr. Jatindra Nath Bose. At the inception except for a limited few on the top it was the convention to accept only students as members. But being a member of the Club wasn’t easy as the club officials were not only careful about the quality of play but also the etiquette and education of the members.
One of the first football matches the club played on the Mohun Bagan Villa grounds was against the students of ‘Hindu Hostel’. That year, among others, the following played for the club —
Girin Bose, Pramatha Chatterjee, Sachin Banerjee, Ram Goswami, Sarat Mitter, Hem Nath Sen, Nalin Bose, Upen Ghosh, Manindra Nath Bose, Manomoham Pande, Provas Mitter, Manilal Sen.
At the first anniversary of the club, on the invitation of some of the student-members who were in the Presidency College, Prof. F. J. Rowe presided over the meeting. He suggested the name of the club as ‘Mohun Bagan Athletic Club’. The suggestion was accepted with immediate effect.
By 1892, the club ground relocated to Laha’s field— the second playground of Mohun Bagan (1892–1894). During that period, the main opponent teams of Mohun Bagan were National AC, Town Club, Aryans, Calcutta Medical College, Shibpur Engineering College, Fort Wiiliams, Kumartuli and Sovabazar Club.
Next year Mohun Bagan invited the European team Sussex Regiment “C” Company for a friendly football match. The main objective was to learn some good techniques from the foreign team. Although Mohun Bagan lost the match, the aim was fulfilled.
Mohun Bagan played their first tournament in the year 1893 in Coochbehar Cup. But they did not perform well. The morale of the team was very low but the club officials came forward and backed up the players.
After that, Mohun Bagan started playing in different tournaments like Coochbehar Cup, Trades Cup, etc. but was unable to get the all-important victory. After the opening by the Calcutta Corporation of the public square known as Shyam Square, the club was alloted space there along with Aryans and Baghbazar Club. Thus Shyam Square was the third playground of Mohun Bagan (1895–1900). Some administrative changes took place that time. In 1895, Jyotindra Nath Mitra became the Honorary Secretary and Jyotindra Nath Basu became the Vice-President. Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra took over the role of secretary from Jyotindra Nath Mitra in 1898 and continued until 1900.
In 1900, Mohun Bagan club officials again felt the pressing need to change to the bigger ground and decided to move to Kolkata Maidan area. The first home of the club on the maidan was on the site of Presidency College ground which the club shared with the college till 1915. Major Sailendra Nath Bose took the responsibility of secretary post of the club from 1900 up to 1914. Mr. Bose was very strict about the rules and regulations of the club. The players who were part of the team during that time were —Prabodh Das (Goalkeeper), Dr. Girish Ghosh (Back), Annada Das (Back), Prafulla Roy (Half Back), Donga Dutta (Half Back), Khitish Singha (Half Back), Bhola Ghosh (Half Back), Anath Das (Half Back), Ramdas Bhaduri (Forward), Dwijadas Bhaduri (Forward), Bijoydas Bhaduri (Forward), Shibdas Bhaduri (Forward), Dwijendra Nath Basu (Forward)