Our BE College Sports Days, 1959-63

Our BE College Sports Days, 1959-63
Contributors: (All from the 1963 batch)
• Jayanta Majumdar, Metallurgical Engineering
• Partha Ganguly, Civil Engineering
• Nirmal Chandra Banerjee, Metallurgical Engineering
• Amitava Sen (Bhola), Civil Engineering
• Salil Bhattacharya, Electrical Engineering

I am Jayanta Majumdar, 1959-63 B.E. College, Metallurgy. When you ask me to name a few star players or incident of our days, indeed a difficult task. Remembering all those now in 2023 is not that easy, the toughest task for me. Even my HOD, respected Prof. Arun Seal never gave me such a difficult assignment. But Sahityika editors, to be precise Asim asked me if I can. That “if I can” was an indirect task. Knowing Asim for the last few decades, he won’t let me go. And so, I agreed.

The first name that I remember, my hero, my sports idol, that was Subrata Mukherjee, 1954-58 batch of Electrical Engineering. He captained our college team in all the 3 major team games- Football, Hockey, and Cricket. I could not meet him at college, as he passed out before I coud take admission at BE College. However, being from the same childhood township of Ranchi, I have some brotherhood connection with him. During his working career, he shifted to UK, and also played in English local league for many years. He was a swing bowler. Later, he became the President of his hometown sports club. He was known as Sandy Mukherjee because of his skin color.

In the pictures he is at extreme right- the bowler who has clean bold the batter.

Then I would recall another senior Dada, J.S. Postwala, probably from 1956-59 batch. The handsome smiling Parsee boy. He was seen to play all the games, but he specially excelled in Hockey. He was our ever-dependable goalkeeper. We lovingly used to call him এক পোস্তওয়ালা তাও জাল (ভেজাল)।

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Nirmal Chandra Banerjee (63, Metallurgy) quotes:
My schooling began at Naihati Pathshala where I studied till class IV, and then went to Noihati Mahendra Uccho Bidyaloy, where I started playing football though we had less opportunity to play at school, compared to my local club.
I took admission in BE College in 1958, and it was my Oval ground where I could spread my wings. I became football captain in my 3rd year, and that was the eventful day in 1961 when we brought the Ashutosh Mukherjee Shield at our campus.

We won the Ashutosh Mukherjee Memorial Shield, 1961-62 beating Bangabasi College in the final. Being the captain of our college football team, it was an unforgettable moment for me. I also received the Player of the Tournament award, Ashim Som Trophy. Today, now at the age of 83, I do vividly remember all my sporting days. Our tournament structure was divided into two groups of about 10 colleges in each group, and then the group winners clashed in the final.

• Sitting, from left: Ranjan Ghosh (General Secretary, popular with the name Micky), Nirmal Banerjee (Captain, football), A.K. Mukherjee (Physical Instructor), Prof. A.K. Chowdhury (Prof-in-Charge of football), Principal A.C. Roy, Shri A.W. Mahmood (our Proctor, and President, Athletic Club), Prof. Bhupal Dutta (Prof-in-Charge of Tennis), Sri S.N. Guha (Physical Instructor), Sri K.G. Bhattacharya (Physical Instructor).
• Standing, from left: Pijush Gupta, Amit Ghosh, Samir Rudra, Kamalendu Ganguly, Samar Pal, Chandan Ghosh, Partha Ganguly, Bhola. Nandy.
• The missing one is Bidyut Chatterjee, a half back, either 1961 or 1962 batch.
• One of our regular players Amitabha Sen (Bhola) is missing in the photo. He was not fielded, though he was in the team.

Our team was:
Partha Ganguly, 1963 Civil, under the crossbar.
The defence citadel had Samir Rudra (1966), Ranjan Ghosh (Micky), and Chandan Ghosh.
The mid-field was well orchestrated by Bidyut Chatterjee, Samar Pal (1963) who was also the topper in our Mechanical and stood 3rd in I. Sc in the University before joining our B.E. College.
And the strong attacking squad had Kamalendu Ganguli (1963) in the right wing, myself Nirmal Banerjee (1963) in right inside forward, Amit Ghosh (1964) the centre forward, Pijush Gupta as left inside forward, and left wing Bhola Nandy.

I remember one of our friendly matches at our Oval, that was against the Mohan Bagan club, when the legendary Saien Manna was playing against us. We lost the match, probably by a solitary goal. Though it was friendly match, to me personally an incident was no so well taken. Sailen Manna made a dangerous foul, kicking on my right knee and I had to leave the ground immediately. The wound was so much that even after 60 years, I am carrying that mark of boot-studs on my knee. However, recognizing my excellent skill on the ground, for whatever time I was playing on the ground, Sailen Manna lifted me and that made a short coverage in the next day newspaper.

But the surprise was still waiting for me. The very next day, recruiter from two Calcutta senior division clubs Aryans and Howrah Union came to my hostel, with a proposal that I should join their club and play in Calcutta soccer. Though the opportunity came from the blue and knocked my door, I could not grab, for the obvious socio-economic reason that I should be an Engineer, not a Sportsperson.

Later on, I continued my love of football with my Noihati Sporting Club, even after my completion of studies.
I would bring the end of my words, recalling the two names of Prof. Bhupal Dutta and Prof. Anil Kumar Chowdhury (more popular with the ornamental name of Anarkoli). If we have done well, it is also because of their patronage.

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Our Partha Ganguly, the goalkeeper says:
I had a wonderful chat full of reminiscence with Nirmalda. He was delighted to get together albeit on the phone. We talked about our two wins in the Inter College tournaments. He told me about an incident in the friendly game against Mohan Bagan where the great Mannada was playing in midfield – and in return I told him about an incident in the Semi Final match in 1961 when we were down 3-0 in the first half and then went on to score 4 consecutive goals in the second half – to get thru to the finals. I will narrate both these incidents on a later date. Just wanted to specially thank Debabrata and Jayanta for re- establishing this contact. Much obliged. Just a brief comment – my humble opinion for what it is worth: I firmly believe that the two footballers from our team who were outstanding speedy dribblers with full control were Nirmal Bannerji and Amitava (Bhola) Sen. Time and again these two teammates of mine have out played many defenders that we have faced – and remember this: lot of the teams we beat had first division players playing for them. Cudos where it is due even after 60 years!

In one of the tournaments, we won against The Calcutta Technical School, SN Banerjee Road in the final at the Maidan. We had a serious feast fight between students of the 2 institutions after the match. They had a East Bengal regular as their captain, and so thought they would not lose.

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Bhola (Amitava Sen) writes to Arun Hazra (’63, Civil):
How nice to hear from you after so many years. Yes, what a lovely time we all had. We miss those days very badly. Of course, we were eating at Aminia when the words started coming that the Polytechnic boys were waiting for us outside Aminia. We hurriedly finished eating and headed outside behind Micky-da and Biswapati-da (most probably, Biswapati Bhattacharya). Micky-da started a dialogue with them but Biswapati-da who was a strongman (he used to do head stands on the railing of our hostel veranda) as well as a head-strong muscled man started the fight by hitting one of the Polytechnic boys (perhaps their leader). No sooner had he hit the boy, chaos started all over the street. The shopkeepers on both sides of the very busy street (forgetting the name) started pulling the shutters down and to close their shops. What a scary but interesting scene it was. I had never witnessed such a scene either before or after that incident. I heard Micky-da shouting “Pala, Pala”. As soon as I heard that, I started running and got into a bus going to Gol Park. I felt bad that I did not know nor had the courage to find out who else were where.
Late in the evening, l called Micky-da and came to know that everybody was safe.
What an experience!!! Thanks for reminding me of this memorable experience. Such things do not happen anymore. What a pity!!!

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Salil Bhattacharya (‘63 Electrical) writes:
Dear Bhola, I also did not know of you becoming University Blue. I suppose it was in Hockey.
Recapitulating about old days. Were you present during the fight between BEC and Jadavpur Polytechnic in front of Aminia Restaurant? It happened after we lost to JP. As a supporter I was there. Biswapati (surname not known), a Senior BEC supporter and Mickey, our captain were heroes of the evening assisted by supporters like me. Fortunately, we all had left the spot before the police arrived. Good old days!!

Our Amitava Sen (Bhola) was a University Blue in hockey. Ashok Basak of Tele-comm stream was our university hurdle champion. Also, an excellent Basketball and volleyball player. After graduation, he became a Sadhu (Ashokananda Swamy) and set up his own ashram near Kharagpur.

We had the B.E. College tennis team of Inderjit Singh (‘62 Electrical), Sourin Majumdar (’63 Civil) and Bhaskar Sarkar (’63, Civil). While Sourin represented the Calcutta University Tennis Team, The Inderjit-Bhaskar pair represented and made Calcutta University all India University tennis champion, (however today after 50 long years, I am not sure if it was 1961 or 1962). All the 3 players were invited to play in the Asian Lawn Tennis Championship that was usually held at the Calcutta South Club. Sourin and Bhaskar are our batchmates. Sourin (Civil) now settled in Chicago, came to India before Covid era and a few of us had a family dinner at his Kolkata apartment. Retired Col. Bhaskar Sarkar (’63, Civil) is settled at Alwar Rajasthan.

We are the witness of many interesting exhibition matches in the campus used to be between the 2 Indian Davis Cup players – Premjit Lal and Jaideep Mukherjee. It also resulted in a courtship between Premjit and our Principal’s daughter then. They got married later on, and the couple also won the “All India Wills Made for Each Other” title.

Very few teachers were ACTIVE participants with students in games. The games watcher’s actual name we did not know. He was known as গেছি’রে গেছি. Once he was demonstrating Javeline throw, and his right shoulder got locked. He threw away the javeline on the ground, sat down and started crying: গেছি’রে গেছি, গেছি’রে গেছি and thus earned hid nick name.