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 Galatasaray
Sports Club takes the characteristic of its being pioneer in the Turkish
sports history from the Galatasaray Lycee, from which it was born and
which is also a pioneer by its own. The strong connection between the
school and the club is an undeniable reality and a source of pride.
The school was founded in 1482 by II. Beyazit in order to educate
statesmen of the future. It took its name from the place it was
established and called "Galata Place" (Galata Sarayi). The
school became a modern lycee in 1 September 1868 during the reign of
Sultan Abdulaziz. With the restructuring of the school, the first
sportive activities started in its real meaning and Monsieur Curel began
to give Physical Education classes in the lycee. These steps were
revolutionary. While making the students to work with modern equipments,
Curel also organized an Exercise Festival in Kagithane. The year was
1870. At the end of the festival, successful sportsmen got various
awards and medals and "rice meal with lamb" were given to the
students. This was the start of a tradition in later years.
Foreign physical education teachers after Curel (such as M. Moiroux,
Signor Martinetti, Stangali) attached importance to different branches
(swimming, rowing, gymnastics with tools) as well as gymnastics and
athleticism and thus started other new branches in Turkey. Soon these
attempts breeds its fruits and, as well as Faik Üstünidman who made
his name written down Turkish sports, Commander Mazhar Kazanci,
Abdurrahman and Ahmet Robenson brothers took responsibility in
Galatasaray Lycee and made the students to interest in sports like
scouting, tennis, hockey. With the initiative of especially Ustunidman,
the students got acquainted with football. But this was a different type
of football, which resembled the blinds' row and had no rules. However,
football once entered Galatasaray Lycee and got a big outbreak.
In 1901 two Englishmen living in Istanbul, James Lafontaine and Horace
Armitage, founded Kadikoy Football Club consisting of Greek and English
players. But the English players broke away from the club because of a
disagreement and founded Moda Club in 1903. In 1904 these two clubs
agreed with Imogen, Elpis, and Strugglers clubs to establish Istanbul
Football Union and play regular matches in "Union Club" which
was in the area that Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium is
rising today. As you can see, these clubs were either foreign or
minority clubs. The first football matches played among the non -
Turkish teams disappointed the students of Galatasaray Lycee. From that
time on their aim was to found their own football clubs, to learn the
rules of the game they love so much from beginning to end and to measure
swords with foreigners.
To beat the non - Turkish teams
The founder of Galatasaray Sports Club, Ali Sami Yen, writes in his book
"50th Year" as follows:
"In 1905, we were in the fifth grade of Lycee and we decided to
found a Football Club in Galatasaray during a lesson of our literature
teacher, the late Mehmet Ata. The first co - founders were the ones who
were keen to do this sport, such as Asim Tevfik Sonumut, Reşat
Şirvani, Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu, Abidin Daver and Kamil.
Among the other Bulgarian and Serbian students in the school, the strong
and agile ones also joined us. I became the president and assigned Asim
as accountant and Cevdet as vice - president. Asim was assigned as
accountant because he was skillful in collecting a penny from our
friends each week. I got the presidency by greasing and blowing up the
ball. I cared for our ball as if it was my son. Anyway, it was all we
got. On the way to school, I passed along the pig street and bought pig
oil. I greased the ball with pig oil and blew it up. I cut its patching
from my new shoes. My friends saw that and gave more credit to me than
anyone else. In those times, the one who worked most, got the presidency
and other credits. Cevdet became the vice - president because he was
washing the shirts."
"Our aim is to play together like Englishmen, to have a color
and a name and to beat the non - Turkish teams"
There were different views about the name to be given to the club. Some
proposed the names of Gloria (Victory) or Audace (Courage), but it was
agreed on the name "Galatasaray". According to the Researcher
Cem Atabeyoglu, the name Galatasaray was born in its first match with a
Greek team. In this match, the team beat its rival 2 - 0 and the
spectators called them "the masters of Galata Sarayi". The
founders accepted that name and said, "our name would be Galata
Sarayi".
Founders' Lists
The president of Galatasaray Sports Club between the years 1905 and 1919
and student of Galatasaray Lycee with the number 889, Ali Sami Yen kept
the Counting and Statistics Book of the Galatasaray Sports Club with his
pearl - like handwriting. On pages 181 and 182 of the Book, he wrote
down the names of 13 founding members as follows: 1 - Ali Sami Yen 2 -
Asim Sonumut 3 - Emin Bülent Serdaroğlu 4 - Celal Ibrahim 5 - B.
Nikolof 6 - Milo Bakis 7 - Pol Bakis 8 - Bekir Sıtkı Bircan 9
- Tahsin Nahit 10 - Reşat Şirvanizade 11 - Hüseyin Hüsnü 12
- Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu 13 - Abidin Daver.
As there weren't any laws for associations in the Ottoman Empire in
1905, Galatasaray Sports Club couldn't be officially registered. After
the Law of Association dated 1912, the club took a legal status. Since
it was necessary to present the names and addresses of the founding
members as well as the statute of the club, a new founders list was
created with removal of the names of the members who resigned or went
back to their countries after their completing their education. The new
founders list, presented on 1 September 1913, was as follows: 1 - Ali
Sami Yen 2 - Asim Sonumut 3 - Emin Bülent Serdaroğlu 4 - Celal
Ibrahim 5 - Bekir Sıtkı Bircan 6 - Reşat Şirvanizade
7 - Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu 8 - Abidin Daver.
Story of the colors
At first, the colors of the Galatasaray Sports Club were red and white.
The colors inspired by the Turkish flag made the repressive
administration of the day feel uncomfortable and the administration
hounded the footballers. For this reason, the colors were changed to
yellow and black. But these colors were soon changed, too and
Galatasaray got the colors that it uses today: yellow and red. Let's
listen to the story of the colors from Ali Sami Yen.
"After visiting many places, we went to the shop of Yanko, the Fat,
in Bahcekapi and we saw two elegant woolen cloths. One was a sweet and
dark red near to purple brown and the other was a thick yellow carrying
traces of orange. The shopkeeper combined the waves of two cloths with
an incredible hand move. Brightness similar to the color that resembles
the head and neck of a goldfinch occurred. It was as if we were watching
games of color in the fire. We were imagining brightness of yellow - red
fire over our team and thinking that it would carry us from one victory
to another. And so it did." However Bekir Sitki, one of the
founders of the club, argued that colors in question were inspired from
the yellow and red roses, which the Father Rose gave to II. Beyazid.
We owe thanks to Galatasaray magazine for the content they have
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