Club Atlético Porteño is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club sited in

San Vicente, Buenos Aires San Vicente is a town and administrative centre of San Vicente Partido, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The southernmost town in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, San Vicente is from downtown Buenos Aires, and can be acces ...

. The club was founded on July 28, 1895 by

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

immigrants as a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team, which participated in tournaments organized by the

Argentine Football Association The Argentine Football Association ( es, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, ; AFA) is the governing body of football in Argentina based in Buenos Aires. It organises the main divisions of Argentine league system (from Primera División to Torn ...

until

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

when the sport became professional in Argentina. The senior squad plays in Tercera, the sixth division of the

URBA Orbe (; la, Urba; older german: Orbach, ; frp, Orba) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the former district of Orbe and is now part of the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois. History Orbe is first mentioned about 2 ...

league system. Porteño also has a women's rugby section. The club has also a women's rugby team competing in "Torneo Femenino", organised by the same body.

History

The beginning

In 1895 Cavanagh, Geogeham, Kenny and O’Farrel were just a group of boys who wanted to form a football team, but they had no money. On July 28, 1895, they met in the

Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo The Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo is a horse racing course located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and one of the most important in the country, hosting 120 days of racing and 1,400 races every year. Races are hosted three days a week, with about ni ...

and founded the "Club Atlético Capital" designing Tomas Hagan as president. A few months later, those immigrants bet the money they had saved to a horse called ''Porteño'', which finally won the race paying a hugh amount of money. With the money won in the race, the boys bought the equipment necessary to play football: balls, jerseys, shorts, socks and shoes and they renamed the club as a tribute to that horse, so "Club Atlético Porteño" was the name chosen.

The football years (1907-31)

The football team debuted in the top division, Primera División, in 1907, where it played until

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

when the club was relegated to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. The first Porteño stadium was located on Alvear (current Del Libertador) avenue and Godoy Cruz in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. Nevertheless, the National Government expropriated the land to built the "Industrial Pavillion" there, as part of the celebrations of the 100th. anniversary of the

May Revolution The May Revolution ( es, Revolución de Mayo) was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the terri ...

in 1910. Porteño moved to a land on Valentín Alsina avenue, near Hipódromo Argentino, also in Palermo. Its stadium was the first (in the city of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

) to have its official stands built in concrete. In 1931 Porteño disaffiliated from the Football Association, due to the club refused to participate in a professional league, being the team subsequently disbanded. Porteño's football team won a total of 2 championships between

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

and

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

and two

Copa de Competencia Jockey Club The Copa de Competencia Jockey Club was an official Argentine football cup competition contested between 1907 and 1933. The winner of this Cup was allowed to play the Tie Cup against the Uruguayan champion of Copa de Competencia. History The Co ...

, in 1915 and 1918.''Historia del Fútbol Amateur en la Argentina'', Jorge Iwanczuk, Buenos Aires, 1992Copa de Competencia 1918 at RSSSF.com
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The rise of rugby

Although the football team was disbanded, Porteño kept other sports active, such as

, which is currently practised at the club facilities located in San Vicente. The reason why Porteño went off football was that the club wanted to keep as amateur, and rugby union is not a professional sport in Argentina. Porteño affiliated to Unión de Rugby del Río de la Plata in 1932. The team debuted that season in the third division, finishing 6th. In 1935 Porteño promoted to the second division and in 1939 the team won the first division championship organized by the Federación Católica Argentina de Rugby. In 1944 the Government of the City of Buenos Aires notified Porteño it had to leave its lands in Palermo, which were finally expropriated in 1945. In 1951 Porteño won the long-awaited promotion to Primera División, but the team remained there just one season so the following year was relegated after losing its match at the hands of Estudiantes de Paraná. After playing in different fields, the club finally could acquire a land located in Magallanes and Pardo streets of San Vicente in 1971. Porteño still has its facilities there. The same year the club formed its first women's

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

team, which has been developing as years went by.

Colors

While the football team colors were blue and white in vertical stripes, it is said that rugby jersey adopted its colors in the 1930s, when a group of players of Sportive Francaise joined Porteño to play for the club. Club Porteño members, in recognition of this gesture, designed the shirt combining the light blue color from the

flag of Argentina The national flag of the Argentine Republic is a triband (flag), triband, composed of three equally wide horizontal bands coloured light blue and white. There are multiple interpretations on the reasons for those colors. The flag was created by ...

, and the french blue from France's.

Notable players

Juan José Rithner Juan José Rithner (1889 – c.1950) was an Argentine footballer, who played as goalkeeper for Club Atlético Porteño and the Argentina national team. Rithner had a long tenure on Porteño, with 200 matches played for the club during his 13 ye ...

(1907–19), also goalkeeper of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Played 200 matches for the club, scoring 11 goals.

Honours

Football

* Primera División (2): 1912 FAF, 1914 FAF *

(2): 1915, 1918 *

Copa Bullrich The Copa de Competencia Adolfo Bullrich, or simply Copa Bullrich, was an official football tournament held from 1903 to 1934 in Argentina. From 1905 to 1915 the championship was contested by clubs playing in the second division of Argentine league ...