By Ken Bediako
Accra Hearts of Oak supporters call their darling team the Premier Club of Ghana. Even though Cape Coast Excelsior born in 1903 preceded the 1911 born Hearts, the Phobians can legitimately be referred to as Premier club since they are currently the oldest existing club in the country.
“Time tested, proven experienced, the glorious star of the capital, ancient Hearts of Oak,” this is an appellation by Ohene Djan, Ghana’s legendary sports administrator that gives a true colour of Accra Hearts of Oak. In my view Hearts are arguably the club with the most vociferous supporters and perhaps the most attractive combination of colours of red, blue and yellow. For a very long time, Hearts had won every available national honours but were found wanting for international recognition till 2000 when they became champions of Africa to emulate their traditional rivals Asante Kotoko.
The list of their domestic honours is fantastic. The first league champions, twice double champions Ga Mantse Cup Winners, Gala champs, four times SWAG cup winners, 12 FA Cup winners, 21 times league champs and last but not the least a record six time back to back league champions.
Hearts have a challenging motto “Never Say Die” and this is what has been keeping them on their toes on occasions when the battle is almost lost.
The club is always looking for a challenge. Indeed, historians say it is the urge to challenge that motivated a group of youngsters from Ussher Town to form Hearts of Oak in 1911 to rival Invincibles, the first football club to be formed in Accra in 1910 based at James Town.
Hearts started collecting honours as far back as 1956 when they were awarded the gold medal in a rather poorly organized national league, the
brain child of football enthusiast Mr Ken Harrison, an Englishman domiciled in Ghana.
Most of the competing clubs led by Kotoko, boycotted the competition for various reasons so it lacked the competitive spirit.
In 1957, Hearts then headed by the reputed “Grey haired Soccer philosopher”, H. P. Nyemitei, made history by sponsoring a tour of the country by Stanley Matthews that, English football legend.
On a personal note, my old school Abuakwa State
College, Kyebi, was privileged to host Stanley Matthews in an exhibition match. We got to know later that we got that privilege because the Okyenhene Nana Ofori Atta II was a patron of Hearts of Oak, the sponsors.
Excuse the diversion.
Then in 1958 Hearts became the first winners of the first successfully organised national league in the country.
They won the cup again in 1961 but faded out completely for a decade, surfacing again in 1971.
Prior to this, Hearts had made an ill-prepared tour of England where they played ten matches in two weeks. Incidentally, I was on the trip, my first visit to the UK. The African Cup for champion clubs was in vogue when Hearts won the national league in 1971 and they made their Africa debut in 1972 but crashed out in the semi-finals against Simba Club of Uganda.
This baptism of fire toughened Hearts and in 1973 they won all available trophies at home You name them- League, FA Cup, SWAG Cup and all.
They entered the Africa Cup once more in 1974 and were beaten again by another Simba club, this time from Tanzania in the quarter finals.
Hearts were in Africa again in 1977 and those were the days they paraded the famous fearsome
forward line of Robert Hammond, Anas Seidu, Peter Lamptey, Mama Acquah and Mohammed Polo.
They reached the final but lost the cup to Hafia in
Conakry Guinea. Hearts in top form unluckily lost the cup final one more time in 1979 to Union Douala in Yaonde on nail biting penalties. Still undaunted Hearts entered the novelty Cup Winners Cup in 1981 but were eliminated by ultimate winners Arab Contractors at the semi-final stage.
Despite all these mishaps Hearts fans continued to
style themselves Continental Club Masters till the turn of the century when they became real Africa champions at the expense of Tunisian club Esperance, then sweetly winning the Confederation Cup by beating age old rivals Asante Kotoko in Kumasi for the Confederation Cup and ultimately being the super champs of Africa.
Unfortunately, the past three seasons have seen the Phobians at their worst output in decades but there seem to be encouraging signs that things would gladly improve.
Meanwhile let’s join the old folks down the memory lane to 1984 when the Oak tree was really unshakeable.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
