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 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 provided for us.