Dynamos F.C. - History

History

Dynamos Football Club was founded in 1963. The team's founder, Sam Dauya, was inspired to form a club for local black players in Salisbury (now Harare) by the establishment of an exclusively white club the previous year and the recent disbanding of two local black teams, Salisbury City and Salisbury United. To this end, Dauya prepared an emblem and wrote a club constitution. Former City and United players were then organised by Dauya into Dynamos, a combined team that, during its first year in existence, won the national championship ahead of white-dominated Salisbury Callies. Dynamos became the first black team to consistently challenge the predominantly white Rhodesia National Football League, winning successive championships in 1965 and 1966. A key player of the original Dynamos team was Patrick Dzvene, who became the first black Rhodesian to play outside his homeland in 1964 when he joined Zambian club Ndola United. Known as "Amato the Devil" or the "midfield magician", he was subsequently targeted by two English clubs, Arsenal and Aston Villa; however, Ndola refused to sell him.

Dynamos acquired their nickname, the Glamour Boys, through their early style of playing: Dynamos played "carpet soccer" – football based around passes along the ground – and based their game around "entertainment and winning, attacking football". The club won three more domestic titles before the replacement of the Rhodesia National Football League with the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League in 1980, and, during that year, became the first champions of Zimbabwe. Because of the recognition of Zimbabwe's independence following the end of Rhodesia (latterly Zimbabwe Rhodesia), Zimbabwean clubs were, from 1981, allowed to contest continental competitions for the first time. As Zimbabwean champions, the side therefore entered the African Cup of Champions Clubs for the first time in 1981. Dynamos won their first match in the Cup of Champions Clubs 5–0, and, as of 2010, have never lost a first-round match in continental competition. The team reached the quarter-finals during their first season in the tournament, an achievement that was matched twice more during the 1980s – in 1984 and 1987. Meanwhile, the team dominated the Zimbabwean league, winning six out of the first seven editions of the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League, including the first four. Dynamos also clinched the Cup of Zimbabwe in 1985, 1986 and 1989 as well as the 1983 Zimbabwean Independence Trophy.

The team claimed four more Zimbabwean titles during the 1990s, as well as a further Cup of Zimbabwe and three more Independence Trophies. Following the 1997 league win – the club's 17th overall – Dynamos embarked on a run in the 1998 CAF Champions League that was ended only in the final by a 4–2 aggregate defeat by ASEC Mimosas, champions of the Côte d'Ivoire. After a barren start to the 2000s during which the side did not win a single title or Cup of Zimbabwe, Dynamos won their sixth Double in 2007, and, as a result of winning the Zimbabwean title, qualified once more for the Champions League. Despite defeating ASEC earlier in the tournament, Dynamos were overcome by Coton Sport of Cameroon in the semi-finals.