The history of the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama begins on August 21, 1898, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where a group of Portuguese immigrants gathered to form a sports association initially dedicated primarily to aquatic sports, especially rowing.
Foundation and early activities The foundation of Vasco occurred in the context of the growing popularity of rowing in the late 19th century. The sport gradually gained traction in the final decades of the century, with the increasing use of beaches as recreational spaces and the emergence of a new aesthetic valuing a fit and healthy physique. In 1873, the Club Guanabarense was established, boosting rowing in Rio de Janeiro; several rowing clubs were founded in the following years, and regattas became a regular event in the 1880s and 1890s.Malhano & Malhano, 2002, pp. 34
The idea to create a rowing club originated with four young Brazilians—Henrique M. Ferreira Monteiro, Luiz Antonio Rodrigues, José Alexandre d'Avellar Rodrigues, and Manoel Teixeira de Sousa Junior—all clerks working in downtown Rio de Janeiro.According to the Michaelis Dictionary, caixeiro is an "employee responsible for sales in a commercial establishment; clerk" (http://michaelis.uol.com.br/busca?r=0&f=0&t=0&palavra=caixeiro) During their free time, the young men rented a rowboat named "Iracema" from the Grupo de Regatas Gragoatá in Niterói. The distance between Rio de Janeiro and Niterói inspired the idea to establish a rowing club in the Saúde neighborhood, where they worked.
A fifth member, Lopes de Freitas, was invited, and the initial meetings took place in January 1898, first in a townhouse where Henrique Ferreira Monteiro lived, at Rua Theóphilo Ottoni, No. 80 (to the left of the current No. 90); later, for better accommodation, the young pioneers were hosted in the hall of the Sociedade Dramática Particular Filhos de Talma. The idea of a new rowing club in the neighborhood was promoted in commercial circles, and the four founders quickly attracted new interested parties. Among those invited to the future institution were the Couto brothers, Portuguese merchants in the steam-powered sawmill business, who had the necessary capital to establish the club in its early stages.
After several preliminary meetings, the club was founded on August 21, 1898, at Rua da Saúde, No. 293 (now No. 345, Rua Sacadura Cabral).The "Rua da Saúde" no longer exists. The address at Rua Sacadura Cabral, nº 345, is provided by research from Henrique Hübner, former Director of Vasco's Memory Center. See the main text for further references. At this first meeting, the board was elected, with Francisco Gonçalves Couto Junior as the first president of the club. There were 62 founding members of the institution.According to the official Vasco website, there are no longer records of the 62 founding members of the club. For this reason, those listed in the club's application for affiliation with the Fluminense Rowing Union on October 24, 1898, are considered the founders. In this document, Vasco listed 187 "founding members" (https://www.netvasco.com.br/n/170556/vasco-divulga-documento-de-1898-com-a-relacao-dos-187-socios-fundadores-do-clube). The name chosen for the club—Vasco da Gama—was in honor of the IV centenary of the discovery of the maritime route to India, as many of the founders were Portuguese. Thus, the club was named after the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama.
The minutes of the foundation meeting recorded:
There is no controversy regarding the location where Vasco was founded, as the foundation minutes state that the founders were gathered at the "building at Rua da Saúde, No. 293," an address never occupied by the Filhos de Talma association. However, the notion that Vasco was founded at Filhos de Talma gained traction during the club's 20th anniversary celebration through a text published by the newspaper "O Paiz," perpetuating the myth since then. The club's 60th anniversary was celebrated at Filhos de Talma, where a bronze plaque was placed at its headquarters, stating that the Vasco deliberative council met there on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the institution, "founded at this location."
According to research by Henrique Hübner, former Director of Vasco's Memory Center, the street where Vasco was founded—Rua da Saúde—is now Rua Sacadura Cabral. The street name was changed on June 24, 1922, by a decree from the Rio de Janeiro City Hall. The numbering also changed—in 1907, the City Hall issued Decree No. 664, mandating a revision of street numbering in the city center, including Rua da Saúde. The current number was established in 1909. Hübner concludes that the address where Vasco was founded is now Rua Sacadura Cabral, No. 345. The foundation site is very close to the Filhos de Talma headquarters, with a distance slightly over 100 meters.
In late 2020, a group of Vasco supporters rented the property where the club was founded and restored it. A commemorative plaque was placed at the entrance, featuring the flags of Vasco, Brazil, and Portugal, with the inscription "Here was born the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama," along with an explanatory text about the historical occasion. Crosses of Christ were also placed at the entrance and in the garage. The intention is to use the site for exhibitions and events about Vasco's history. In an online vote, the name "Cândido José de Araújo Cultural Center" was chosen for the property, honoring Cândido José de Araújo, Vasco's president in 1904 and 1906, and the first black president of a sports club in Brazil.
The first Vasco president was the Portuguese merchant Francisco Gonçalves Couto Junior. Founded by many members of the less affluent classes, the club needed financial support to begin its activities. This support was provided by Couto Junior, who operated in the steam-powered sawmill business. He arranged the rental of Vasco's first temporary headquarters, located near his business, and was responsible for building the club's first shed, used as a garage for the boats.
Eight days after its foundation, the board was sworn in at the hall of Estudantina Arcas, at Rua São Pedro, No. 152, in the former Largo do Capim (now part of Avenida Presidente Vargas, opposite the Central Bank of Brazil headquarters). On the same date, a committee was elected to draft the first statute, which was approved on September 10 of the same year.
Once the club was founded, a temporary headquarters was established by renting an old townhouse at Rua da Saúde, No. 127 (now No. 167, Rua Sacadura Cabral), opposite Largo da Imperatriz, now Praça Jornal do Comércio. Today, only the facade of the building that served as Vasco's first headquarters remains standing.
In November 1898, three months after its foundation, the club moved to a permanent headquarters at Praia Formosa, located on Ilha das Moças in an area already filled in with material from the dismantling of Morro do Senado. To facilitate access to the headquarters, Vasco members built a wooden bridge for rowers and a boardwalk for rainy days. Ilha das Moças no longer exists, having been filled in with the completion of the Port of Rio de Janeiro. It is now near the Novo Rio Bus Terminal. The Formosa Beach bordered what is now Rua Pedro Alves, which was filled in and connected to Ilha das Moças with the dismantling of Morro do Senado.
Choice of colors, symbols, and uniforms The first Vasco uniform was chosen on September 6 in a board meeting. At the proposal of the founding president, Francisco Gonçalves Couto Junior, Vasco's first attire was unanimously approved. The minutes of the meeting state that the uniform would consist of a black cap, a black shirt with a collar and a wide white sash, featuring a red Maltese Cross on the chest, half over the white and half over the black. The belt would be white; the shorts of "black cashmere," the socks black, and the shoes white, with the use of shoes and socks "mandatory only during regattas."
According to João Ernesto da Costa Ferreira, former Director of Vasco's Historical Heritage, "the black represents the unknown of the seas, through which the great navigations passed"; the diagonal white sash, from one corner to another, "represented the victorious route of those great Portuguese navigations," as poetically described by Professor Castro Filho, a former club president. The cross symbolized "Christian faith, as many founders were Portuguese, coming from an essentially Christian nation." Mário Filho stated that the black color was chosen over the preferred white shirt because it was "more economical," as "a black shirt looks clean, even if it is dirty."
Although the minutes state that the symbol would be the Maltese Cross, it was actually the Cross of Christ used in Vasco's uniforms. The use of the Cross of Christ was due to its connection with the navigator Vasco da Gama and Portuguese ships: Vasco da Gama was knighted by the Order of Christ, and Portuguese ships bore the Cross of Christ on their sails. During the IV centenary celebrations of the discovery of the maritime route to India, the Cross of Christ was depicted without the white Greek cross (or voided) inside it; in colored representations, the cross was usually shown in red or crimson. This depiction was popularized by the Portuguese painter Alfredo Roque Gameiro in two famous works about the departure of the Portuguese fleet and the arrival in Calicut.
These works inspired the club's choice of the cross—hence the reference in the minutes to the "crimson Maltese Cross." Henrique Hübner, former Director of Vasco's Memory Center, argues that this is a metonymy due to a popular interpretation of the term "Maltese Cross" as a nickname for all heraldic designs of crosses pattée (crosses with open and equal arms). According to Hübner, there are numerous published examples in the press where, unrelated to C.R. Vasco da Gama, the Cross of Christ (proper name) is referred to as the Maltese Cross (nickname).
Due to popular tradition, the Maltese Cross became associated with Vasco since its foundation, and the club is often called cruzmaltino. The club's popular anthem, composed by Lamartine Babo, begins by stating, "the Maltese Cross is my flag." In 2010, Vasco launched a third kit that "corrected history," in the club's words, featuring the Cross of Christ.
According to Mário Filho, the white sash was adopted because it was inconceivable to place the Cross of Christ on a black background. The solution was to insert a white sash at the height of the cross. The first Vasco uniform featured a horizontal sash, not a vertical one. The traditional vertical sash was introduced the following year. At a general assembly on July 16, 1899, it was decided that the shirt would be "black with a wide white sash across the shoulder"; in other words, diagonal. Thus, it is not true that Vasco "copied" or was "inspired" by the shirt of River Plate, as it adopted the diagonal sash before the Argentine club was even founded. This notion began with a comparison made by O Globo and became popular, even appearing for a time on the club's official website. Another change concerned the position of the cross: in the original uniform, it was placed half on the black and half on the white of the shirt. In November 1898, in the affiliation document to the Fluminense Regatta Union, the club stipulated that the cross should be centrally positioned on the sash.
The sash on Vasco's traditional uniform typically starts from the left shoulder. However, there is a photographic record of a shirt with the sash starting from the right shoulder in 1900. There are no official records about this shirt; Hübner theorizes that it was used by the boat's coxswain, who faced the opposite direction of the other rowers, so the reverse sash would be symmetrical with the others.