century of celebration
1960s : Platinum Jubilee

In 1960, at the Pre-Olympic Match of the Rome Olympics, the Indian team included Mohun Bagan's Chuni Goswami, Jarnail Singh, Kempia and T.A.Rehman. Two matches were held at Calcutta and Jakarta. Later in the Olympics, Chuni Goswami, Jarnail Singh and Kempia were selected and T.A.Rehman was not included, as he was badly injured.

In 1961, Mohun Bagan secured an invitation from some East African countries and Mauritius. The initiative was taken by Asst. General Secretary Dhiren Dey. Chuni Goswami captained the tour and his team comprised of Narsia (Vice Captain), Sanat Seth, C.R.Das, Parimal Sarkhel, A.Rahman, Manik Goswami, Jarnail Singh, A.Banerjee, Deepu Das, A.Chakraborty, Chidanandan, Salauddin, Sushil Guha, Suhashish Guha, Sunil Ghosh, Binu Chatterjee and Arumoy Nigam. Sailen Manna and Karuna Bhattacharya became the Joint Managers of the Club. In 19 matches, Mohun Bagan won 15, lost one and the rest were drawn. Four matches were indicated as test matches, among which Mohun Bagan won two, lost one and one draw.In the total tour, Club goaled for 61 times and lost to keep goals for 21 times. In this whole tour, Mohun Bagan achieved towering admiration and popularity in East Africa .In Mauritius, though the Club did not do well but achieved equal popularity. In 1961, in Kuala Lumpur's Mardeka Football Tournament, Chuni Goswami as captain, M.Kempia, Jarnail Singh and T.A.Rehman represented India. In the meantime, the Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Binodananda Jha requested his West Bengal counterpart Dr. Bidhan Roy for participating Mohun Bagan in another charity match for the aid of Bihar Relief Fund. In the first match, Mohun Bagan defeated Mohammedan Sporting Club by three goals to nil. In the second match, Mohun Bagan defeated Bihar XI by two goals to one. In both the matches, Jha, himself, was present and the total amount of money that summed up tallied around to Rs.40, 000. In the Santosh Trophy, nine Mohun Bagan players represented the Bengal team. This was a record in football history. They were Chuni Goswami, T.A.Rehman, Jarnail Singh, Kempia, A.Chakraborty, Sunil Nandy, Deepu Das, Sukumar Samajpati and Amio Banerjee.

In 1962, the Indian national team won gold in Asian Games, which occurred at Jakarta. The team was captained by Chuni Goswami and also included Jarnail Singh and Arumoy Nigam. In the 1960 League Championship, both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal earned 40 points. A play-off match was arranged in which Mohun Bagan defeated East Bengal by two goals to one and attained Championship and recorded history by summing up to 10 victories in the League Championship. The joy doubled when Mohun Bagan once again won the IFA Shield for the third consecutive time by beating one of the best teams of India, Hyderabad XI. In this match, Mohun Bagan players showed outstanding merit. Later, in Asian Games, Chuni Goswami, Jarnail Singh and Arumoy Nigam represented the Indian team captained by Chuni. During the match, Jarnail Singh got hurt while playing as a back player. India's coach Syed Abdul Rahim, fondly known as Rahim Saheb, did not show him the way to the pavilion. Instead he was placed as centre forward. Singh showed impeccable performance which led India to Championship. This was India's last Asian Games win. In the same year, Mohun Bagan went to Hyderabad, Madras (Chennai), Bangalore (Bengaluru), Ceylon (Sri Lanka) tournaments. Among 11 matches, Club won 6, lost 1 and 4 were drawn. On 27th April, one of Mohun Bagan's iconic footballers, Gostha Paul received the Padma Shri Award from the then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad. On this occasion, the Club also felicitated him at an elegant function. At the function, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr.Bidhan Roy and existing Congress President Atulyo Ghosh were present. Unfortunately, on 1st July, Dr Bidhan Roy passed away. Roy's contribution for the Club was significant. In memoriam, Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy Memory Committee was formed. For the fund of this committee, the Club gathered Rs.1, 50,000 by playing in different places including Bihar, Assam, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mysore, Madras (Chennai), Durgapur, Burnpur, Shyamnagar etc. In 1963, once again Mohun Bagan fetched the Calcutta League title. This was their 11th triumph in the League Championship. Mohun Bagan also won the Durand Cup by defeating Hyderabad Police 2-0. But the same Hyderabad Police defeated Mohun Bagan by 1-0 goals in the Rovers Cup. Club had to quit IFA Shield Championship in the fourth round. In this year Mohun Bagan became the shareholder of the Calcutta Football Club's ground. The Calcutta Football Club was a rival of Mohun Bagan for a longtime. Club left the old joint ground of Mohun Bagan-East Bengal and built its own tent. General J.N.Chowdhury inaugurated the new tent of Mohun Bagan on the new ground.

In 1964, Mohun Bagan's legendary player Chuni Goswami was presented the 'Arjuna Award'. The Club celebrated this occasion by felicitating Chuni . In this year, Club once again lifted the Durand Cup by defeating East Bengal. Platinum Jubilee year 1964 was a very memorable year for multiple successes. This year, the Club won CAB Cricket League, Cricket Knock Out, Aga Khan Gold Cup in hockey, Invitation Gold Cup; in football, the IFA Shield, the League and Durand Cup. Besides, the Athletics Section of the Club attained recognition in West Bengal as the Champion team and won a trophy. In Rovers Cup final against BNR, the first day ended in a draw. On the second day, the Club lost as a result of a goal allowed through penalties. After winning the League Championship, in the IFA Shield, fight was against their all-time rivals, East Bengal Club. The match ended in a draw at 1-1. Mohun Bagan's P.Thangaraj, Jarnail Singh, Arumoy Nigam, M.Banerjee and Chuni Goswami were selected in the Pre-Olympic Football Tournament, for which Chuni Goswami captained the Indian Team.

The Platinum Jubilee of Mohun Bagan was celebrated throughout the year. At the end of the festival, Club issued a massive book as a souvenir. It consisted of the historical events in a pictorial sequence and complimentary remarks of eminent persons of different fields from all over the country. It was evident from this book that Mohun Bagan was no more a club but an esteemed institution. General Secretary Sourindra Mohun Basu wrote all the admirable victories of the Club and mentioned that Dhiren Dey has significant involvement in the whole year celebrations. Equal efforts were made by Goshta Pal, Umapati Kumar, Balai Das Chattopadhyay, Dati Sen etc. In this matter, Dhiren Dey said that, "..in the adornment of the festival, not only did the 5,500 members provide a helping hand, but I also felt the whole country come forward for providing assistance because they consider Mohun Bagan a symbol of a national institution. My efforts were supported by a group of active workers and friends. I will remain grateful, throughout my life, to five veteran players of Mohun Bagan - Sarbashri Gostho Pal, Balai Das Chatterjee, J.Ghosh, R.Sen(Kanai Sen) and Umapati Kumar for bringing me from Aurora Club to play in the Cricket Team of Mohun Bagan. He also said that Mohun Bagan is a national institution that has garnered international fame. He also said, " In the world of sports, Mohun Bagan is an unique example in its sincerity in accepting and respecting the referee's decision as the final decision. This Club is a real democratic Club as it executes elections, keeps track of financial documents, maintains regular audits and sends to the authorities. Mohun Bagan's popularity was known but the plenty of messages sent from different countries proved that the Club is loved and respected by the whole world." Platinum Jubilee celebrations continued throughout the year like a mini-Olympic Games season. For the arrangement of various sports events, assistance came from different parts of the world. Many countries participated in these events. A Commonwealth Cricket Team visited India to participate in a match which comprised of P.E.Richardson of England as Captain, B.Mortimer, Keith Andrews, Lane Coldwall, Bryan Close, Garfield Sobers of West Indies, Collie Smith, C.Butcher, Lance Gibbs and Mustaq Mohammed of Pakistan. The manager was Ulf Gover from England. The Indian team comprised of Nawab Pataudi as Captain, Abbas Ali Beg and M.L.Jaisimha from Hyderabad; Chandu Borde, Bijay Manjrekar, Ramakant Desai, S.Sardesai and Farokh Engineer from Maharashtra; Salim Durrani and Hanumant Singh from Rajasthan; Chandrasehkar from Karnataka; Prakash Poddar and Shamsundar Mitra from West Bengal.

The Indian hockey team (which won Gold in the Tokyo Olympics) played an exhibition match with a Calcutta XI assembled team. Tatabania football club from Hungary came to participate here with seven players of its National Team, which won Gold in Olympics that year. The German Athletic team and Indian Athletic team jointly participated in a exhibition match. Also, a hockey team from France took part in some matches. In the exhibition match of tennis, Bob Hewet and Martin Mooligan of Australia, Mike Sangstar of England, Ramanathan Krishnan, Joydip Mukherjee, Premjitlal and Naresh Kumar of India participated. Year-long celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee started from the historical place of 14,Balaram Ghosh Street's house. On 5th November, a procession headed towards Club's new tent via Rajpath. Thousands of people gathered to witness the procession. They greeted with exultant screams. Afterwards, according of the thought of Dhiren Dey, for the first time ever in India, formed a relief Fund for the players, which will not be limited within the Mohun Bagan players' contributions. For this fund, Club will not depend on the Club's Finance but save a limited amount from the fund collected in the charity matches. This was the idea. Dey dreamt of making Club's own stadium. He also thought that Mohun Bagan would remain open for international front for its membership grant. Dey wanted that Mohun Bagan would not only be a national Club, but an international Club. Truly, the way Mohun Bagan celebrated the Platinum Jubilee is unparallel in the world of Sports history. It was then a Club of a country, which just achieved independence and a non-government organization. Mohun Bagan's status proved that sports was not limited in victory. Mohun Bagan succeeded in establishing a worldwide friendly atmosphere in the world of sports. In 1965, Club attained first division League Championship and Durand Cup. In 1966, on 24th May, a match between Mohun Bagan and Eastern Railway was in progress. During the match, the then Vice President of the Club and IFA, Dati Sen passed away. About 25 thousands spectators present on the ground paid respect to the deceased by standing in silence for 2 minutes. After some days, according to the plan thought out by Dhiren Dey, the Club decided to construct a concrete gallery for the Club members, because maintaining wooden gallery apart from plenty of expenses of making of football, cricket and hockey teams was difficult. The Club was under monetary pressure. The total sum of the subscription of members was not sufficient. The old wooden gallery was unsafe, and the making of concrete gallery was expensive. Besides, the permission of Fort William was pending. Mohun Bagan did not give up, though. It adjusted by decreasing the expenses of team making.

This year, Club won Rovers Cup. In 1968, Mohun Bagan again won Rovers Cup. Club also won Amritabazar Centenary Cup. Year 1969 was a precious year. This year, the Club achieved a number of triumphs. First Division League, IFA Shield, First Division Hockey League, CAB organized First Division Cricket League, First Division Cricket knock out Tournament and Aga Khan trophy, all added to Mohun Bagan's credit. In the IFA finals, Club won by 3-1 goals and one of the players, Pranab Ganguly showed an outstanding performance.

Trophies won
Kolkata Premier League1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969
IFA Shield 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1969
Durand Cup 1960, 1963, 1964, 1965
Rovers Cup1966, 1968
Amritbazar Centenary Cup 1968
facebook twitter