Bournabat Football and Rugby Club was founded in Bornova, an upscale suburb of Smyrna, inhabited mainly by Greeks and Levantines, in late 1880s.

[2] The club's players also competed in other sports as every year at St George celebrations at the Bornova Stadium, such as a competition called the Panionian Games organized by Panionios F.C..

This team consisted of English and French players with the Greek language used as means of communication: MJ Whithall, Ed.

[3] In 1889 Bournabat played against Constantinople FC and there is a report from that historical match, according to historian Mehmet Yüce from 2012: The squads were: Bournabat Football Club: Walter E. Lawson, Charles Wilkinson, Edgar Giraud, Harry Giraud, Charles Giraud, J. Wilkinson, Richard Whittall Junior, Horald Lawson, Reginald Lawson, Louis Senn, Francis Barker, F. Le Bailly, James Joly, Godfrey Barker, Robert Wakeford.

Bournabat FC had five members of the Whittall family that won the 1906 Olympic football silver medal.

[4] In 1907 and 1908 two more clubs were founded in Bornova, Ermis and Thiseas, both of Greek background, but none was as dominant as Bournabat FC.

Following the next years until 1922, the club changed its name to Barbarian and competed in the Smyrna football league sanctioned by the Hellenic Athletics Federation.