Mohun Bagan

The Mohun Bagan club was founded in the 1880s when the neighborhood youth of present-day Fariapukur Lane in Shyambazar set out in search of an ideal place to establish a football club, and came across a marble palace, Mohun Bagan Villa, owned by the family of a leading jute trader, Kirti Chandra Mitra.

On 15 August 1889, after a meeting of three prominent ruling Bengali families of North Kolkata – the Mitra family, the Basu family, and the Sen family – presided over by Bhupendra Nath Basu himself, Mohun Bagan Sporting Club was formed. Bhupendra Nath Basu became the first president of the newly founded club and Jyotindra Nath Basu its first secretary.

During the initial years, the meager ground inside the palace was used by the club for hosting matches, including their first match that was played against the team of Eden Hindu Hostel students, and lost 1–0. The club management hugely emphasized providing memberships to the youth and maintained a strict code of conduct with an avowed objective of producing excellent sportsmen and imbuing them with impeccable moral and social values.

At the first-anniversary assembly, the Presidency College students and members of the club invited their professor, F. J. Rowe, to attend. Rowe pointed out the inappropriate naming of the club and suggested replacing "Sporting" with "Athletic" since the club didn't indulge in sporting activities, like angling or rifle shooting. Thus, the members agreed and renamed the club as Mohun Bagan Athletic Club.

The second-anniversary assembly was presided by Sir Thomas Holland, who later became a member of the Executive Council of Governor-General of India. In 1891, with the help of the Maharaja Durga Charan Laha of Shyampukur, the club ground was relocated within his residential estate, now known as Laha Colony. The club ground was later relocated to Shyam Square in Bagbazar, with the help of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation chairman, Henry Lee. In 1900, Mohun Bagan became the partner of Presidency College and shared their ground at Maidan, where they would continue to play for 15 years.