The Roots of United Kurseong Football Club

United Kurseong Football Club, popularly known as UKFC, was established by a group of young people, some who had barely walked out of school and some who had just walked into the threshold of college. All these young men had one thing in common, the immense love for the beautiful game of football and the immense desire to do well in the field. Many of these young folks had dreamt of becoming professionals, represent clubs in the ‘Mecca of Indian football’, Kolkata, erstwhile Calcutta, and possibly represent the national team. Such was the desire and ambition of the bunch of young fellows who were the founders of UKFC.

However, to put things into perspective UKFC was not born out of nowhere. These guys had played together at many junior tournaments. (At that time, to be precise before the Gorkhaland Agitation disrupted the social life in the hills of Darjeeling, many junior tournaments used to happen. The only criterion to qualify was the height specified by the organisers). So when these players had grown up to participate at the senior level tournaments, the agitation had disrupted all these tournaments. Subsequently participation in any of these tournaments was difficult. Sunagava Sporting Club was one of the most popular and strong team of Kurseong prior to the agitation days and their players were all household names. So when for the first time after the agitation Independence Cup was being held, all decided to join this club so that we would play together as a team. However, the senior players were reluctant to concede their places to these players who had not yet established themselves, as a result on a few made it to the team. Meanwhile the newly formed Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, initiated ‘Inter Constituency Football Tournament. It was the fortune of all these young guys that they were from the same constituency and their selection was inevitable. Some other players were also selected and the Kurseong team performed really well and could have done better with a little bit of experience.    

After this tourney some of the players with whom these young guys gelled while offered them to be part of their club, Naya Bazar Sporting Club and promised that all would be treated at par and no privileges would be conferred upon the senior players. This attracted this group. However, after a few months it was noticed that there was differences of opinion among the office bearers of the club. The better players, of NBSC, who wanted to play the game of football at the best possible level and whose opinion matched with the group, together decided to forfeit the membership of this club and form a new club. Now, and new club Supernova was established entirely by the players with the help of some officials of the NSBC, who thought that they could be in a better position with us, with some other enthusiast. However, this club had some locality centric officials and wanted the club to be their representative. This created a cleavage in the club. The unhappiness among the members of the group who had greater ambitions and desires now decided that they would form a club representing the entire town of Kurseong and UKFC was established.

When the club was established in 1991, however, officially it is dated as 1989 to honour the contributions of many who were not part of the club when it was officially registered, it did not have any fund. The club had entered a tournament at Rangu, a small cinchona plantation village. The organizers had promised that on winning the tournament some money would be given to the winners. The lure of the money and the possibility of winning the tournament and also to test the team, before the very big Mahakal Tournament in Darjeeling, the team had entered into the fray.  As expected the team did very well defeating the rivals by big margins and reached the finals. However, on the eve of the finals it was informed that the organizers would not give any money to the winners of the tournament. The team left the village without playing the finals.

The club was accused of being money driven and wanted to blackmail the sentiments of the people. However, it needs to be clarified here that the organizers had promised money, but when the team was informed about the absence of money, the officials of the team had requested the organizers to arrange for vehicles after the finals so that we could reach our base the same day. Why the team insisted on this was the fact that the next day after the final match, the first round match of the team in the Mahakal Tournament was scheduled. It was a very big tournament for the club not because famous clubs were participating but because the winners of the tournament would be richer by 200,000 rupees. Till then probably it was the only tournament in the entire country to pay so much of much of money to the winners. As a newly established club with huge ambitions, it was decided by the entire contingent on the floor of the school building which was provided to the club as their room by the organizers in Rangu, to be much more precious than participating in the finals.

Though the club did not win the final, reaching the semi finals of that tournament was a huge step towards fulfilling the set desire. Soon, the club started winning almost all tournaments it played. The highlight of the club’s achievement being defeating the team from Hitauda, Nepal, as the actual team was the Nepal U-23 team which had just returned from Germany where it had undergone training (This can be disputed as everyone has their own pick regarding the greatest victories). Other was, to name only a few, receiving invitation from the coach of the Indian national team to play a friendly game with them in Darjeeling and Malda Sports Association inviting the club to play an exhibition game with East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting Club.

The team went on from strength to strength and also started paying attention to its administration. It roped in senior players like Ranjit Gurung as the President of the club and Dhurba Jung Tewari was brought in as Secretary General. They contributed a lot to the club highlight being roping in a sponsorship for the club. They negotiated with Makaibari Tea Estate to sponsor the club and they agreed to give 100,000 rupees every year.

The club managed to reach a certain level of standard with the contribution of Mr. Indra Lama, who took up the mantle of being the club’s first coach. He emphasized on physical fitness and made the players fit enough to run for more than 120 minutes without any hint of tiredness to compensate for the limited technical knowledge of the game. Later came Mr. Shesmani Rumba who stressed on technicalities. Both of them were not qualified coaches but gave us inputs based on their experience of having played the game. Though later Rumba started reading a lot on the technicalities of the game and improved the team tremendously. So the team moved up from one level to the next higher level. One very important thing which the club did was to scout for players. In this endeavour even organized local level tournaments to scout for local talents. Many players came from this endeavour. Megarj Thapa, Santosh Lama Jr. (Cobra), Kishore Pradhan (to name a few) and many others, selected from these tournaments, became part of the team in the years to follow.

The strength of the team was self belief, discipline, dedication and determination which are the values associated with any sports. However, the one thing that stood distinctly that helped the club reach the level was the mutual respect for one another. This helped in building a relationship which later was to be useful in personal life as well. All helped all. The team was like a family with strong bonds and it still exists today. Holistic development of the individual was emphasized. Education was also emphasized, so that people would not have to struggle after their playing days. So many achieved, even if partially, what they had desired and it is a proud part of history for the club.  Deenkar Chettri played for East Bengal, Jeten Rai and Chrispen Chettri went on to represent India under 19 and played for many big clubs of the country. Many of the junior players represented Prayag United in the under 19 league and humbly yours represented Eastern Railways, before going to JNU to study and complete Ph.D. Many got into the army and other police forces and many were helped into getting jobs.

The contributions made by many people are the strength of the club and these contributions are very close to all associated with the club. Ladup Lama, the best stopper back I have played with, Kishore Pradhan, Sagar Lama, Chand Pradhan, the first team manager, and the one loved most by the players, Depen Rai, the most obedient and loyal person I have ever come across in life and a very dear friend who roped in a sponsorship deal from a English person he was guiding in a trek, have made the foundations, on which the club rests, very strong. Their souls can rest in peace as the club is still in the right direction though there have been vested interests trying to defame it.  

(Next will on those people whose contributions have not been recognized outside the club)