During his time with the Black & Whites he played alongside group of legendary players like Zakaria Pintoo, Protap Sanker Hazra, Mohamed Kaikobad and Golam Sarwar Tipu.

He spent six years in Mohammedan, winning three First Division League titles and one Aga Khan Gold Cup (1968) trophy.

[2] In 1971, after witnessing the massacre caused by Operation Searchlight, Nurunnabi alongside Mohammedan SC teammate Pratap Shankar Hazra, crossed the border to Agartala, India, and then to Kolkata, where he joined the Shadhin Bangla football team.

After the game, he met another one of his Mohammedan colleagues, Hafizuddin Ahmed, who helped Nurunnabi join the Bangladesh Liberation War.

[5] After returning to East Pakistan from India with Hafizuddin Ahmed, Nurunnabi trained as a member of the Bangladesh Army, and was later ordered to take up arms at Kushtia of Sector Eight, under Major Muhammed Abul Manzur, as a sub-sector commander.