Old Boys

Basler Sportclub Old Boys, commonly known as BSC Old Boys, Old Boys Basel or simply Old Boys or when written just OB, is a Swiss sports club based in Basel. The club is mainly known for its football but it also has track, swimming and tennis sections. The association's colors are yellow and black.

History

In 1876 the gymnastics teacher at the then secondary school, Adolf Glaz, founded the RTV/Realschuler-Turnverein (secondary school student gymnastics club). In 1893 he introduced his students to the new football game. From then some members of the club met regularly during the summer and autumn holidays and the RTV had a football team. When the students finished school, they could no longer be members of the student association. That is why they founded their own football club in 1894. Since they founded the club because they had become too old for the school club, they called the new club the "Old Boys".

Although the first national championship in Switzerland took place in 1897–98 it is considered as unofficial because it was not organized by the Swiss Football Association (SFA; founded in 1895 with OB as founder member). OB did not participate in this first championship, but did in the second edition during the following season.

The first edition of the official Swiss championship was played in the 1898–99 season as a knock out competition, divided into three regional groups, an east (region Zurich), a central (regional north-west Switzerland) and west group (Romandy). The winners of each group played the finals in a round-robin tournament. OB played against FC Basel in the central group semi-final, at the Landhof on 13 November 1898 and drew 1–1 with their local rivals. It therefore required a replay. This was also drawn, despite an agreed two times 20 minutes extra time.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Олд Бойз (russian)