ABSTRACT
Football received institutional foundation in India in the 1870s when the Dalhousie Club, acknowledged as the oldest football club in India, was established in Calcutta. The pre-eminent role of the muscular moral missionary in the introduction of football in India was most evident in Kashmir. In the early 1890s, Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe, a missionary of the Church Missionary High School of Srinagar, fought hard against indigenous religious customs and social habits to introduce soccer to his Hindu schoolboys. Sporting activities at Presidency College started in 1856 when a Gymnasium was established for the students. However, it was soon closed down, to be opened again in 1879. The importance given to soccer is evident from the detailed reports published in the college magazines soon after the publication of the first edition in 1914. The foundation of the Sovabazar Club in 1887 was the culmination of Nagendra-prasad’s efforts at club formation.
