The San Sebastián Recreation Club was the name of the football section of the Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián club based in San Sebastián, Basque Country,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It was the first football club in the city and in 1905, they participated in the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

History

The San Sebastián Recreation Club was founded on 28 August 1904 as part of a multi-sports club known as Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián, which had numerous other sports such as

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

, but the most important of which being

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, hence the entity's name. Football had been introduced to San Sebastián in the early 1900s by students and workers returning from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, and this new sport soon gained a lot of followers in the city and among the young athletes of the Real Club de Tenis, hence the founding of the football section on 28 August 1904, being this the first formally established football club in San Sebastián.

1905 Copa del Rey

The Recreation Club then become the first club in the city, and also the first

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

n club, to participate in a national championship, when it entered the

1905 Copa del Rey The Copa del Rey 1905 was the 3rd staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spain, Spanish Association football, football cup competition. The competition started on 16 April 1905, and concluded on 20 April 1905, with the last group stage match, in which ...

with a team that had the likes of Juan Arzuaga and

Alfonso Sena Alfonso Sena Manterola (5 October 1886 - 6 August 1958) was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender for Real Sociedad. He is one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of Real Sociedad from San Sebastián, having been the ...

. The tournament was played in a triangle format with the finalists of the first-ever Copa del Rey final in

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having bee ...

Madrid FC Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

and Athletic Club, the power of

Spanish football Football is the most popular sport in Spain. Spain has some of the most important teams in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Seville, Valencia, and others). It also has a high number of players (most of them being unprofession ...

at the time. In the first match against the hosts, Madrid FC, they lost by 3–0, who then became champions after beating Athletic Club 1–0 in the second game, meaning that the third game between Recreation Club and Athletic would decide the runner-up, but the former refused to play for silver and went back to

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, so Recreation Club should appear as runner-up in the tournament. However, given that the decisive match of the tournament was the one between Madrid and Athletic, as recognized by the federation itself, this match is considered as the 1907 final and as a result, the team from Bilbao is considered the runner-up. In 1906, the president of the Recreation Club, Jorge Satrústegui, along with Madrid FC president, Carlos Padrós, and Narciso Masferrer of the

Catalan Football Federation The Catalan Football Federation ( ca, Federació Catalana de Futbol, es, Federación Catalana de Fútbol; FCF) is the football association responsible for administering football in Catalonia. It was formed on 11 November 1900 as the Football Ass ...

, wrote the statutes of the

Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

, which shows the importance that the team had in national football. Also in 1906, Recreation Club inaugurates the Ondarreta Stadium, the city's first-ever football stadium.

Legacy

Although the football section of the Real Club de Tenis was short-lived, it played a great role in contemporary football. An internal conflict towards the end of 1907 caused the team to split and several players (such as Miguel and

, Domingo Arrillaga and Bonifacio Echeverría) left to create a new club in 1908, the San Sebastián Football Club, with Federico Ferreirós as its first president. This team, which continued to play in Ondarreta, adopted the classic blue and white colors of the city flag rather than the striking half-yellow and green shirt of the Recreation Club. At the time, the teams who had not been legally registered for more than a year could not play official matches, so to play the

1909 Copa del Rey The 1909 Copa del Rey was the 7th staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. The competition started on 4 April 1909, and concluded on 8 April 1909, with the final, held at the O'Donnell, in Madrid, in which Club Ciclista d ...

, they borrowed the license from the

Club Ciclista de San Sebastián Club Ciclista de San Sebastián was a cycling club based in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain. In 1909 the football section won the Copa del Rey. A few months after this victory, the players who had won the tournament founded the club that w ...

, under whose name they presented themselves and won the tournament. A few months after this victory, the players who had won the tournament founded the Sociedad de Football (now known as Real Sociedad) on 7 September 1909, definitively disassociating themselves from the Cycling Club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Sebastián Recreation Club Defunct football clubs in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Real Sociedad Association football clubs established in 1904 Association football clubs disestablished in 1909 1904 establishments in Spain 1909 disestablishments in Spain Sports clubs and teams in San Sebastián