Bihor Oradea

Early years, on the road (1910–1940)

The game of football had arrived to Nagyvárad (Oradea) in 1902 together with inhabitants that returned from study or work, from abroad or from Budapest. The first football match that was ever played on the banks of Crișul Repede river was a friendly one and was held in the Rhédey Garden. The game was gaining in popularity fast, but there was not yet an organized club to represent the town in matches against other towns. This organizational problem led to the establishment of Nagyváradi Sport Egyesület (NSE), then appeared Nagyváradi Torna Club (NTK), both multi-sport clubs, but none focused mainly on football. Then, eight years after that first football match played in Oradea's history, Nagyváradi Atlétikai Club (NAC) – in Romanian: Club Atletic Oradea (CAO) was established, also a multi-sport club, but with the football section as the "pearl of the crown".

The constituent assembly was held on 25 May 1910, in the EMKE Café (today Astoria Hotel), a place that also had an important contribution in the identity, bohemianism and cosmopolitanism of the football club. EMKE (Erdélyi Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület) Café, translated as the Coffee Shop of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transylvania Coffee Shop, was the place where the Oradea's cultural elite spent much of its time, one of the main clients being the well-known poet Endre Ady. Back to the football club, the first board of directors was formed of: Dr. Emil Jonas (chairman), Béla Mikló (executive president), Andor Szabo (secretary) and Dr. Kálmán Kovács (cashier), one of the decision took also in that first day was to submit the documents for registration at the Hungarian Football Federation.

On 31 July 1910, NAC played its first game, against KVSC, and in January 1912 a home ground was secured, in the Rhédey Garden. The next month, a touring team from England came to town: Bishop Auckland, the Northern League champions that season, NAC won with an incredible 8–0. Before World War I, the club activated only on local and a regional level, they joined the eastern division of the Southern Hungarian League and in 1913 NAC won 25 out of 31 matches. One of the most important games for the local community, in this period, was the match against Hungarian giant, Ferencváros, played in Nagyvárad, on 6 July 1913 and lost honorable by NAC, with the score of 2–4.

During World War I (1914–1918), the football competitions were suspended, and the club suffered from the lack of activity. However, friendly matches and different sporting activities were held, even in that tough situation and with all the problems generated by world conflagration.

After the war, by the Treaty of Trianon Nagyvárad became part of Romania and officially became Oradea. The club and the city were still dominated by Hungarians. One of the most talented local players unearthed during this period was Elemér Berkessy (future FC Barcelona midfielder and Grimsby Town manager – in 1954 he became the first foreign manager in the English league).

The team joined the Romania national championship in 1921–22, but NAC – now also known as Clubul Atletic Oradea – was beaten in the "fight" for Town of Oradea champion title by Stăruința Oradea and then by Înțelegerea Oradea for the first few seasons, thus did not qualify for the national finals until 1923–24. They beat Universitatea Cluj and Jahn Cernăuți, before it was defeated in the final by Chinezul Timișoara – who would win the first six Romanian titles after the Great Union.

In 1932–33, after another spell confined to the regional tournament, CAO appeared in an expanded national competition, organized as two parallel leagues of seven teams; they finished second in their division, while local rivals Crișana Oradea came third in the other one. Two years later,

with the national league reorganized into one division, CAO finished as runners-up, sandwiched between the two dominant clubs of the period, Ripensia Timișoara and Venus București. In 1938–39 the club was relegated to a restructured Divizia B, where they remained until the next war brought a strange upturn in fortunes.

In 1932, the management of the club decided that contact with football in other countries would help the development of the sport in Oradea. So, they undertook a twelve-match tour in France and Switzerland, during which they beat (score 5–2) Olympique Lillois, who would become in that season the inaugural French national champions, and obtained a 3–3 draw against Marseille. In the following year, the tour was in France and its North African colonies, and Oradea was spreading its fame with 21 victories and 4 draws, 110 goals scored and only 23 conceded. During the interwar period, CAO supplied eighteen Romanian internationals, however the majority were still ethnic Hungarians, Jews and Germans.

Players who starred in CAO's green and white stripes in this period included: Ferenc Rónay, the first ever goalscorer for the Romania national football team (against Yugoslavia in 1922); Nicolae Kovács, a forward who was one of only five men to play at the first three World Cups; Iuliu Baratky, a Hungarian from Oradea who opted to stay in Romania throughout the World War II, becoming a legend at Rapid București and Iuliu Bodola, a prolific goalscorer throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s. Bodola was transferred to Venus București in the Romanian capital in 1937.