Belgrano Athletic Club is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

amateur

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

from

Belgrano, Buenos Aires Belgrano is a northern ''Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio'' or neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is made up of Middle class, middle and upper class people. Belgrano has three distinct areas: the main one that is made up of apartment buil ...

. One of Argentina's oldest institutions still in existence, Belgrano was one of the four clubs that founded the

Argentine Rugby Union The Argentine Rugby Union (, abbreviated "UAR") is the governing body for rugby union in Argentina. It is a member of World Rugby, with a seat on that body's Executive Council, and a founding member of Sudamérica Rugby. The UAR organises all the ...

in 1899. The senior team currently competes at Top 12, the first division of the

Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires The Buenos Aires Rugby Union (), usually referred as URBA, is the Argentina, Argentine governing body that organises and controls rugby union in the Buenos Aires Province (including the main district, Buenos Aires autonomous city and one team from ...

league system. Belgrano Athletic was one of the most prominent teams during the first years of

football in Argentina Association football is the most popular sport in Argentina and part of the culture of Argentina, culture in the country. It is the one with the most players (2,658,811 total, 331,811 of which are registered and 2,327,000 unregistered; with 3,37 ...

, having won three domestic league titles, one

national cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League. For most of th ...

and two international cups. Belgrano's arch-rival during those years was

Alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

, also from Belgrano neighborhood. Belgrano disaffiliated from the Argentine Association in late 1910s, focusing on rugby union and other sports. Football is no longer practised at the club. Belgrano's

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

team currently takes part of Metropolitano championships organised by the

Buenos Aires Hockey Association The Buenos Aires Hockey Association ("Asociación de Hockey de Buenos Aires" - AHBA) is the Argentine amateur governing body that regulates the practice of field hockey over the Buenos Aires autonomous city and its urban sprawl, Greater Buenos Air ...

. The club's facilities are divided between two locations: its main building (Sede Virrey del Pino) sited in Belgrano and another one located in Pilar (Anexo Pinazo). Apart from the sports mentioned above, several activities are practised at the club nowadays, such as

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two Team game, competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each othe ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, squash,

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

History

The beginning: Football

The club was formed from the merger of Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway A.C. and St. Lawrence Club (a neighbour institution which had been formed shortime ago) on 17 August 1896. The recently created "Belgrano Athletic Club" took over the land (and field) rented by the BA&RR on Virrey del Pino and Superí to set their headquarters.Historia
on BAC Belgrano AC participated in the Primera División from

1896 Events January * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

. The squad won three league titles in

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

and

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

, and also won a number of other tournaments including domestic cup Copa de Honor and international competitions

Tie Cup The Tie Cup Competition (also known as Copa de Competencia Chevallier Boutell) was an international Association football, football tournament played between representatives of the Argentine Football Association, Argentina and Uruguayan Football Ass ...

(in 1900) and

Copa de Honor Cousenier The Copa de Honor Cusenier was an international football club competition which was played 13 times between representatives of the Argentina and Uruguay associations between 1905 and 1920. History The trophy was donated by "E. Cusenier Fils Auné ...

(1907). Belgrano Athletic played one of the earliest football

rivalries A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

against Belgrano neighbours

, the most successful team of Argentine until its dissolution in 1911. Both teams were so strong that they won all of the thirteen league titles contested between 1899 and 1911 (that was the last year of Alumni football team competing in Argentine league, being officially dissolved in 1913). Belgrano AC would achieve a historic victory over River Plate, defeating the ''Millonario'' 10–1 in

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

. That was the worst defeat of River Plate in club's history. Despite being one of the most notable football teams during the first years of that sport in Argentina, Belgrano was relegated from the Argentine Primera División, along with

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

. Belgrano never returned to the first division, and the club later disaffiliated from the Argentine Association, focusing on the practise of other sports, mainly

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

.Trece décadas (1891-2016). El otro Belgrano campeón
by Oscar Barnade on ''Clarín'', 26 Oct 2016

Rugby union

Belgrano Athletic rugby union team is one of the most successful teams in the

, having won a total of 10 provincial titles. In 1899, along with club

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Lomas ''Lomas'' (Spanish for "hills"), also called fog oases and mist oases, are areas of fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert of Peru and northern Chile. About 100 lomas near the Pacific Ocean are identified between 5°S and 30°S latitude, a ...

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

Fundación del River Plate Rugby Union Championship
on Atlético del Rosario website, 10 Apr 2019 and Rosario AC, Belgrano became a founding member of the "River Plate Rugby Championship", the origin of today's

."Hechos históricos de la Unión" at UAR website
/ref> The first title obtained in rugby union was in 1907, playing 16 matches with 13 victories, 1 drew and only 2 lost. The team scored 233 points and only received 29 at the end of the tournament. That same year the club built the stadium's grandstands (commonly made of woods by the time) with a capacity of 600. In 1909 the Government of Argentina approved the statute (rules) of the club. Its main rivals are Belgrano district's other big club,

. In 2016, Belgrano won its 11° URBA championship after 48 years without league titles. Belgrano defeated former champion Hindú at the final, played in San Isidro.

Field hockey

Belgrano is founding member of the Argentine Hockey Association, established in 1908. The club has more than 400 registered female players that are part of 25 teams. Club teams play their home matches at the two

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

pitches in Sede Pinazo, while the Virrey del Pino Field is used only for training sesions.

Team image

Uniform evolution

It is believed that the first Belgrano A.C. football squad wore black (or dark grey) and gold shirts, as they were depicted in early team photos. In 1907 the club adopted the

Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway The Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway (BA&R) was a Great Britain, British-owned railway company that built and operated a Indian gauge, broad gauge railway network in Argentina, where it was known as the "Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Rosario". Origi ...

corporate colours (red, green and silver) as most of the club members were employees of that company. In 1919 Belgrano A.C. changed its colours again, adopting the brown (specifying "

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

" tone according to the statute of that time) and gold of the FC Central Argentino's coaches."Hoy celebramos 115 años" – Belgrano AC official blog
/ref>

Football

Rugby

;Notes:

Venue

Belgrano's home venue (popularly known as "Virrey del Pino" because of its location on Virrey del Pino and Superí streets in Belgrano) host rugby and cricket match. After some time playing on Pampa and Melián streets, the club acquired that land in 1902 to two of its members, Charles Dickinson (who was also a notable footballer of the club) and Roberts. The first grandstands were built with wood from surplus railway material. By 1910, the field had an official grandstand, with roof,"Belgrano" on Viejos Estadios named "Donald Forester", which has remained up to present days.

Honours

Cricket

* Primera División (45): 1902–03, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1914–15, 1918–19, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1953–54, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1958–59, 1961–62, 1965–66, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1991–92, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2015–16, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23

Football

National

* Primera División (3):

* Copa Honor MCBA (1):

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

International

(1):

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

(1):

Rugby union

Torneo de la URBA The URBA Top 12 (formerly "Torneo de la URBA")Metropolitano Primera División (4): 1942, 1946, 1949, 1974

Notable athletes

* Charles Edgard Dickinson, former football captain that scored the first Argentina national team goal ever in an official match. It was against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

on 20 July 1902. Argentina won 6–0. * Arturo Forrester, the first Argentine footballer to score against a British team. It was in the match v

Southampton FC Southampton Football Club is a professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, England. The club competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, befor ...

, when the English side toured on South America in 1904. * A.C. Addecott, former football captain. *

Arnold Watson Hutton Arnold Pencliffe Watson Hutton (20 August 1886 – 29 July 1951) was an Argentine footballer who played as a striker for Alumni and Belgrano A.C. As an international, he played for the Argentina national team. Other sports practised by Hutto ...

(1911–14), forward, previously in

, also international with Argentina. * Jeannette Campbell, silver medalist swimmer at the 1936 Olympics. *

Lisandro Arbizu Lisandro Arbizu (born September 29, 1971 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine rugby union footballer. He plays at fly-half or inside centre. He began playing for the local traditional club Belgrano Athletic Club and was one of the first Argentine play ...

, rugby union footballer for

Los Pumas The Argentina national rugby union team (Spanish: ''Selección de rugby de Argentina'') represents Argentina in men's international competitions, The Argentine Rugby Union (). Officially nicknamed ''Los Pumas'', they play in sky blue and white j ...

. * Magdalena Aicega,

captain of

Las Leonas The Argentina women's national field hockey team () is governed by the Argentine Hockey Confederation (CAH). The current coach is Fernando Ferrara, who was appointed after Carlos Retegui was let go in late 2021. The team is currently second in t ...

. * Rosario Luchetti, field hockey player of

.Perfil de Rosario Lucchetti
on ESPN.ar

Notes

References

External links

*
Fans blog
(outdated) {{Argentine Primera División former clubs Belgrano Athletic Club B Rugby clubs established in 1896 Association football clubs established in 1896 B Field hockey clubs in Buenos Aires Cricket teams in Argentina 1896 establishments in Argentina 1899 in Argentine sport