GUWAHATI, July 19 - Till the year 1934, there was no organised sports association in Guwahati (then Gauhati). Sports activities of the town were then organised by the Gauhati European Club (now Guwahati Club), Gauhati Town Club, Cotton College, Earl Law College (now Bishnu Ram Medhi Law College) and Cotton Collegiate School, according to noted writer Kumudeswar Hazarika.
Hazarika said that later in the 1930s, the Gauhati Football Association was founded with the then Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup as its president and late JK Barua as its secretary. The Gauhati Football Association was reconstituted in 1944 with Dr Jyotish Chandra Das, an eminent physician, as its president and late Prof Radhakanta Das of Cotton College as its secretary. That year, the Gauhati Football Association took part in the IFA Shield.
In 1917, the Gauhati Town Club, Earl Law College and the Gauhati Municipal Board jointly organised the MC Borooah Shield Football Tournament at the Judge�s Field, followed by the Sarawgi Shield Football Tournament, organised by the Gauhati Football Association in 1933 at the same venue.
The Cotton College started both football and cricket tournaments, called Prasenjit Cup Tournaments, in 1907. Prasenjit was the son of late Prof PC Roy of Cotton College. This was the first cricket tournament in Guwahati, may be in the whole of NE region, said Hazarika.
Prior to this, festival cricket matches were held during Christmas between the Gauhati European Club and the District Magistrate�s Eleven, he said.
From the early part of the 1940s, the Judge�s Field was under the occupation of the Allied Forces till 1945 and during this period of about five years, there was no sporting activity on the field, said Hazarika.
In the pre-Independence period, that is, in the decade of 1930, the Kamrup Olympic Games were organised at the Judge�s Field, with Latasil and Church Field as additional venues. In the Kamrup Olympic sports events, apart from the Assam districts, the neighbouring Manipur also used to take part. From those events, the Assam athletes were selected for the Indian Olympic Games held at Lahore, now in Pakistan.
During this period, that is, the pre-World War II period, other remarkable football matches at the Judge�s Field included the matches between Cotton College and Rajshahi Government College from the erstwhile East Bengal; Cotton College and Berry White Medical School, Dibrugarh; Gauhati Town Club and Mymensingh Eleven from the erstwhile East Bengal; Shillong Army Eleven and Gauhati Town Club, among others, said the writer.
The pre-World War II period soccer and cricket teams of Guwahati were � Gauhati Town Club, Maharana AC, Cotton College, Cotton Collegiate School, Sonaram High School, Silver Jubilee Anglo-Bengali High School (now Bengali Boys� Higher Secondary School), Victoria Sporting, Sudden Attack, Earl Law College, Weaving School (now Assam Textile Institute), Saraswati Club and Union AC, said the octogenarian writer.
