The return of Rangers

I am not a football buff, which is why my son, who has caught the bug, occasionally dons  the jersey of Manchester United , may see me as ‘ old school’. But he is in the wrong company because his mother is even more antithetical to the game than me. When the spirit hits me, I raise my flag for Chelsea  Football club, if the coach gives Mikel Obi opportunity to make the line up. There is  no debate about the channel to watch on television whenever I have the luxury of time. we oscillate  between news, movies and christian programs. The boy simply goes to his friends or locks himself in the room and searches for live streaming of matches on his computer.
How times change. Anyone who grew up in the eastern parts of Nigeria,  in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s would certainly be caught by the football bug. Local football clubs had a rather imposing presence and the local league had great follower-ship. You could not but know that names of such clubs as Calabar Rovers, Sharks of Port Harcourt, Mighty Jets of Jos, Shooting stars of Ibadan, Stationary Stores of Lagos, Kano Pillars and a hand full of others. There was another club that rose from the ashes of the Nigerian civil war in the east and became a rallying point for football buffs from that zone. Rangers Football club was an avenue for the people of South east to quickly  reintegrate into a nation they left for fear of mass extermination. The team competed with the avowed entrepreneurial spirit of the people as the fastest way of bringing them back to the larger polity. It became a rallying point for a people that needed a link back into the nation. Late Justice Ikpeazu was first chairman of the team and, probably, its founder.  The team was, and is still, based in Enugu.
The team became the new symbol of resilience, and never-say-die spirit of the people, which was why it reached  the finals of the FA cup in 1970, the same year it was founded. The team, according to reports, lost the cup narrowly.
Football has remained one of the strongest unifying factors in the land. There were reports that at the peak of the civil war, both warring sides agreed on a ceasefire to enable them to listen to radio commentary of a game between between Santos FC of Brazil and a Nigerian select side at the King George V stadium, Onikan, Lagos that featured the legendary Pele. It was a clear indication that both sides love the game.
Rangers, therefore, became a household name in the country. The team’s exploits in the field of soccer accentuated its popularity. Rangers became a rallying point for the people, a situation that made its players, household names in the land, especially the eastern parts.
In 1975 and 76 Rangers supplied 7 of the 11 players in the starting line up of the Green Eagles. In 1980, ‘ ‘Chairman’  Christian Chukwu, one of the best defenders to come out of these shores, was captain of the   team and  of the Nigerian Green Eagles squad that won the African cup of nations that year.
Rangers was the club to beat. From 1971, the team bestrode the game like a colossus, such that the fear of Rangers became the beginning of wisdom for virtually all football clubs in the land. It won the FA cup almost endlessly, extending its prowess to the continental level. An Egyptian strong team, named Mehala FC, met its match in one leg of the continental clubs finals, promting late ace football commentator, Ernest Okonkwo, to declare that ‘Mehala saw wahala’ in Enugu.
The team produced some of the greatest names in Nigerian football at the time – ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu (MVP of the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations);  ‘the tallest’ Emmanuel Okala (ASJU’s African Player of the Year); ‘Block buster’ Alloysius Atuegbu; ‘speedster’ Emeka Onyeadika; ‘Captain of Captains’ Godwin Achebe;  ‘Alhaji’ Dominic Nwobodo; ‘Dan Vadis’ Nwabueze Nwankwo; ‘Chief Justice’ Adokiye Amiesimaka; and many more, a long list of legendary footballers that changed the face of football in Nigeria. I remember that Dominic Nwobodo conducted a football clinic in my school, Sacred Heart College, Aba, when he retired from active football. As school boys we were excited to see him and have him tell us rudiments of the game.
National teams seem to have lost their steam, which is why my son would  know and support more teams in the English Premiership than the ones here. Rangers virtually declined with the local teams. Enyimba and some other teams came to the fore but did not do as much as Rangers in its hey days. The team virtually fizzled out. The reason for its decline could be  matter for another day.
The news that Rangers International won the Nigerian league this year, after the cup had eluded it for 32 years, was cheery. It is the power of determination. The team may have got the right support or its handlers decided to break the elusion jinx. Whatever happened, the team has returned to the limelight and must show that winning the cup was no fluke. Up Rangers, as we used to say, in those hey days. We hope this will not be a chance win.