Santa Cruz

Early history

On 3 February 1914, eleven young men aging from 14 to 16 years founded a football society. Because the boys used to play football on the streets by the yard of the Santa Cruz Church, the club was named after that church, which is situated on Santa Cruz Street in Recife. At the first meeting, they decided the position of each member, the name of the club "Santa Cruz Foot-Ball Club", and the society's colors.

The original colors were black and white. Some time after, the color pattern was changed because another local team (Sport Club Flamengo) already had those colors. Therefore, the club included the red color by suggestion of Teófilo Batista de Carvalho, also known as Lacraia. Lacraia has participated in all major early events of Santa Cruz's history, except the foundation.

Many people came to see the first match at Derby plains. The "team of boys" as Santa Cruz was called at the time beat Rio Negro (Black River) by 7–0. Rio Negro demanded revenge in another match. Curiously, the terms of the revenge stated that Sílvio Machado (he scored five goals in the first match) could not play. Despite that, Santa Cruz accepted the challenge. Carlindo, who substituted Sílvio Machado, scored six goals and Santa Cruz won again by 9–0. A subsequent victory over the Western Telegraph Company team, very famous at the time, made the popularity of Santa Cruz increase even more.

The club was almost closed in its very first year. Some members proposed to use the club funds to buy a sugarcane juice extractor. Alexandre Carvalho (see members above) violently disapproved of such an offensive proposal and effectively saved the club. In early 20th century Recife, football was regarded as an elite sport. It was played mostly by upper-class boys and by the workers of English companies that operated in Recife. At that time racism was common and Afro-Brazilians were not allowed to play football. Santa Cruz, however, was the first team in Pernambuco to accept them. Lacraia, was the first one. This fact contributed to the popularity of the team, as black people are numerous in Brazilian population.

In 1915, there was Brazilian football's greatest comeback. At Aflitos stadium, Santa Cruz was trailing América (Pernambuco), 5–1, but in the bottom 15 minutes of the match the score changed, 6–5. In 1917, the club was accepted into the Pernambucan Sport League, the precursor name of the Pernambucan Football Federation.On 30 January 1919, Santa Cruz beat Botafogo 3–2 on the Malaquias field. Alberto Santos-Dumont, the airplane pioneer, was in Recife, but was unnoticed: Santa Cruz's victory took everyone's attention. On 31 January, the Jornal Pequeno (Small Newspaper) printed in the headlines: "Botafogo Futebol Clube is beaten by the home boys by 3–2." It was the first time that a northern-northeastern team beat a team from the south-eastern region of Brazil.

On 13 December 1931, Santa Cruz with Tará and Sherlock as the most important contributors successfully pursued its first Campeonato Pernambucano against Torre, 2–0. On 10 October 1934, the Brazil national team, newly home from the 1934 World Cup in Italy, played some friendlies against the major teams of Pernambuco: Sport Recife was defeated 4–2; Náutico was beaten 8–3, and Santa Cruz was defeated 3–1. A ship delay on return to Rio de Janeiro enabled Santa Cruz to equalize the initial loss, 3–2.

Suicidal Tour

In 1943, faced with financial hardship, the club arranged for 5 friendly matches against local-club Transviário Esporte Clube in Belém, Pará to promote Santa Cruz's image and a payday of five million Brazilian réis. Their travel to Belém was marked by fears of attacks by German U-boats, as the tour began during World War II. This resulted in their steamboat, Pará, being escorted by two Brazilian Naval ships and the steamboat having to sail with its lights off.

After the five friendly matches, the club was invited to extend their club tour into Amazonas by Olímpico Clube. This resulted in the team traveling by steamboat up the Amazon River at a speed of ten nautical miles per day, resulting in a two-week travel time to reach Manaus. During their stint in Amazonas, the head of the delegation and six players contracted dysentery after their match against Rio Negro, to which those effected recovered before their next matches.

After the matches in Amazonas, the delegation aimed for an international stint in Peru and Guyana, but was blocked by the Brazilian Sports Federation at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for clubs to not leave the country during World War II. Facing a 90-day suspension if they continued on, the delegation gave up and returned to Belém via steamboat. During this return, two of the players, Goalkeeper King and striker Papeira, were diagnosed with typhoid fever, resulting in hospitalization and, eventually, their deaths.