History of CR Vasco da Gama

Although it was an association initially founded due to the practice of rowing, over time it added several new sports and is currently one of the most popular and traditional multi-sport entities in Brazil and South America.

[4] In their free time, young people rented a rowing boat, called "Iracema", at Grupo de Regatas Gragoatá, in Niterói.

The distance between Rio de Janeiro and Niterói brought the idea of creating a rowing club in the Saúde neighborhood, where they worked.

[4][5] A fifth member was called, Lopes de Freitas, and the first meetings were held in January 1898, first in a two-story house that Henrique Ferreira Monteiro lived in, at Rua Theóphilo Ottoni, no.

[4] The idea of a new rowing club in the neighborhood began to be publicized in the commercial media, and the four quickly managed to attract new interested parties.

[3] Among those invited to the future new institution were the Couto brothers, Portuguese merchants, who worked in the "steam sawmill" branch, and who had the necessary capital to put the club on its feet in its beginnings.

[3] The name chosen for the club - Vasco da Gama - was due to the fact that the fourth centenary of the discovery of the sea route to India was celebrated in that year, with many Portuguese among the founders.

[8] According to João Ernesto da Costa Ferreira, who was director of Vasco's Historical Heritage, "the black represents the unknown of the mares, through which the great navigations passed"; the white diagonal band, from one corner to the other, "represented the luminous victorious route of these great Portuguese navigations", according to a poetic description by professor Castro Filho, former president of the club.

[14] Vasco's popular anthem, composed by Lamartine Babo, right at the beginning states "a Cruz de Malta é o meu pendão" (the Maltese Cross is my pennon).

[20] This team is still remembered today as the Camisas Negras (Black Shirts), and is considered one of Vasco da Gama's most important football squads.

President of the Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Atléticos The resolutions released today by the press, taken in a meeting yesterday by the highest authorities of the Association which you so dignifiedly preside, place the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama in such a situation of inferiority, which absolutely cannot be justified even by the deficiency of the our field, nor for the simplicity of our headquarters, nor for the modest condition of the great number of our associates.

The privileges granted to the five founding clubs of the AMEA and the way in which the right to discuss and vote will be exercised, and future classifications will be made, oblige us to register our protest against the aforementioned resolutions.

We are certain that Your Excellency he will be the first to recognize that it would be an undignified act on our part to sacrifice to the desire to join the AMEA some of those who fought for us to have, among other victories, the soccer championship in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1923.

These are twelve young players, almost all Brazilian, at the beginning of their careers, and the public act that could stain them will never be practiced with the solidarity of those who run the house that welcomed them, nor under the pavilion that they, with so much gallantry, covered of glories.

[36] The team, which would later become known as Expresso da Vitória (Victory Express), was composed of the goalkeeper Barbosa, striker Ademir de Menezes, midfielders Jair, Lelé, Isaías, Ely and Djalma and winger Chico, among others.

[43] The dispute, which took place at Estádio São Januário, was attended by the Vice-President of the Republic, Nereu Ramos, at the time President-in-Office,[42] as well as the Ambassador of Great Britain,[43] and an estimated audience of 60,000 people, an unofficial record for the stadium to this day.

Jornal A Noite reported that Vasco, "consecrated in so many international fights, on national and foreign lawns (...) demolished the fortress", in reference to Arsenal's defensive sector, stating that the team had performed "magnificently, as we had never witnessed".

Of the starting team, five played for Vasco: Moacyr Barbosa, Ademir de Menezes, Augusto da Costa, Danilo Alvim and Chico.

At the beginning of 1953, Vasco won the Quadrangular Internacional do Rio de Janeiro, a tournament it played against its rival Flamengo and Argentine teams Boca Juniors and Racing.

[51] Vasco was chosen to participate in the 1957 Tournoi de Paris, in which they beat European champions Real Madrid in the final 4–3 in front of more than 65,000 spectators.

Vida Deportiva magazine, writing about the defeat of Barcelona, stated that "Vasco won with an ease that calls into question the real value of our football".

[64] The vice-president of equity Eurico Miranda, 25 years old, was accused of turning off the power supply at Vasco's nautical headquarters to postpone the conclusion of the vote, as he was in favor of Reis.

[68] Roberto Dinamite would be instrumental in leading the team in winning the 1974 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Vasco da Gama's first national title, in which he finished as the tournament's top scorer with 16 goals.

However, pressured by the closeness of the agreement between Roberto and his rival, Vasco president Olavo Monteiro de Carvalho sent Eurico Miranda to Barcelona to negotiate.

[76][78] In 1982, Vasco would win the Campeonato Carioca again, with coach Antônio Lopes removing seven starters players from the team in the final due to lack of commitment.

[89] In 1994, Vasco had agreed on loan with Portuguesa to sign the biggest Brazilian promise of the time, Dener, who was called by many "the new Pelé" and who had enchanted Diego Maradona during a pre-season match.

[90][91] Dener played some of the games for Vasco during the 1994 Campeonato Carioca, but died during the final stretch of the competition in a car accident while traveling to sign a contract with VfB Stuttgart.

[92] In the 1997 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the club would win its third national league title, with a team led by the competition's then top scorer Edmundo, with 29 goals, the historical record of the tournament before the era of round-robin system.

[94] In 1998, in the club's centenary year, the team won another Campeonato Carioca, as well as its first Copa Libertadores, defeating Barcelona SC in the final 4–1 on aggregate.

Starting with the 2000 Copa Mercosur, in a final game that became known as "A Virada do Século" (The Turn of the Century), as Vasco reversed a 0–3 score in the first half to 4–3 against Palmeiras, with Romário's hat-trick.