Real Sociedad Gimnástica Española
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Real Sociedad Gimnástica Española (RSGE), also known as Gimnástica de Madrid, was a
sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...
based in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
,
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. It was officially founded as an
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...
club on 2 March 1887 by Narciso Masferrer under the name "Sociedad Gimnástica Española". The club's
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
section started activities in 1907, winning four Centro Championships (1910, 1911, 1912, 1914). In 1915 King of Spain,
Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...
, granted the club Royal title, therefore the institution changed its name to "Real Sociedad Gimnástica Española". The football section was dissolved in 1928, and the whole club years later. Apart from the sports mentioned above, Sociedad Gimnástica hosted a large list of activities such as
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), competitio ...
,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
,
fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
,
field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
,
mountaineering Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...
,
Olympic weightlifting Weightlifting (often known as Olympic weightlifting) is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with the aim of successfully lifting t ...
,
road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The ...
,
rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...
,
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
, and
wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
.


History


Early years

The sports club was founded on 2 March 1887 in Madrid by Narciso Masferrer, one of the greatest pioneers of
sport in Catalonia Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...
. Although the club was founded in 1887, Gimnástica was not officially established until 1889. Its partners grew to 25 in the first year and its initial headquarters were in a small gym owned by Mariano Ordax in Prado, later moving to a basement at Marqués de Leganés, which was known as "the cave" since that was the name of the street until 1894. In June 1894 the Sociedad Gimnástica Española (SGE) adhered by letter to the first-ever Olympic Games meeting held in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in November 1894 convened by
Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; 1 January 1863 – 2 September 1937), also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic ...
. It was the only Spanish sports society to do so, being one of only two Spanish representatives together with the three delegates sent by the
University of Oviedo The University of Oviedo (, Asturian: ''Universidá d'Uviéu'') is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón and Mieres. History Th ...
. The connection of some members of the SGE (such as Narciso Masferrer) with the Olympic committee would be a constant in their lives. In addition to Masferrer, a key figure in the SGE was Marcelo Sanz, its director, general secretary of the Spanish Gymnastics Federation, director of the Physical School of Madrid and in 1912, he became Secretary of the
Spanish Olympic Committee The Spanish Olympic Committee (, COE) is responsible body for Spain's participation in the Olympic Games. Members of the committee are 35 sports federations, which elect the Executive Council composed of the president and 23 members. History ...
.


Football team

The SGE was born with gymnastics as its center of interest, but with a clear multi-sports
vocation A vocation () is an Work (human activity), occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity. ...
that was reflected in the following years as they created sections for several sports:
fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
,
wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
,
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
,
weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...
,
cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...
,
hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...
and
mountaineering Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...
, rugby,
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), competitio ...
,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
,
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
,
rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...
and, of course, football, whose section was formed in mid-1907, and it quickly became one of Madrid's benchmarks. Previously there was a company called Club Retiro that turned out to be the embryo of the SGE's football section, with Gimnástica incorporating several of its most prominent athletes and footballers such as Miguel Pradilla and Julián Valls. On 19 February 1908, the Sociedad Gimnástica Española absorbed Hispania FC, a football team founded in 1902 who was struggling to survive, and the newly created SGE's football section took advantage of it to incorporate several of its most prominent players, and moreover, the ''Campo de los Altos del Hipódromo'' began to be used exclusively by Gimnástica, a venue that due to its size, was also used for the rest of the entity's
outdoor sports Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...
. At this point, the football section was ready to face the big Madrid clubs, playing its first federated competition match in the 1907–08 Centro Championship at the ''Campo de la Avenida de la Plaza de Toros'', losing to Madrid FC (now
Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
) by four goals to one, with the section's first-ever goal being netted by Manuel Morales. This result proved to be decisive in the outcome of the tournament since the SGE's football team ended as runner-ups to Madrid FC by just one point. In the first excursion that the section made outside the province of Madrid, they traveled to
Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...
to dispute the ''Iberian Contest of the Count of Torre Cedeira'', which they won. Sociedad Gimnástica was among the founders of the Spanish Football Federation on 14 October 1909, with four of its members accepting managerial positions at the federation: Emilio Coll was elected vice president and Narciso Masferrer a member, while José Manuel Kindelán was elected as General Secretary and Ramón Paz as
treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...
. At the end of August 1910, the football section of the SGE was established. The elected board of directors was as follows: President, Joaquín Rodríguez; Accounting Secretary, Sócrates Quintana; Treasurer, Ramón Paz; Members: first, José Manuel Kindelán; second, Julio Barrena; third, Tomás González; fourth, Francisco Baonza and fifth, Felipe Monis. At the turn of the decade Sociedad Gimnástica, propelled by the likes of José Carruana, the Uribarri brothers ( Eulogio and Ricardo) and Sócrates Quintana, began to disrupt the monopoly of Madrid FC and Athletico Madrid, competing head-to-head with them and winning the Centro championship on four occasions, three of which in a row between 1910 and 1912 and a fourth in 1913–14. As the champions of Madrid, Sociedad Gimnástica represented the capital in the
national cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League. For most of th ...
twice, reaching the final in the 1912 Copa del Rey, which ended in a 0–2 loss to
FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...
. The Gimnástica football team continued disputing the Regional Championships until 1927–28, but with much less glory and splendor. In the 1926–27 season, Gimnástica and Unión Sporting occupied the penultimate and last places respectively of the Central Regional Championship, and between the two they had to dispute who would play against the champion of Category B, CD Nacional de Madrid. The unionists won after 3 games and Gimnástica had to play two qualifying games against Nacional, being defeated and relegated. The Gimnástica football team broke up in 1928 after the advance of
professionalism Professionalism is a set of standards that an individual is expected to adhere to in a workplace, usually in order to appear serious, uniform, or respectful. What constitutes professionalism is hotly debated and varies from workplace to workplac ...
in Spain, as the entity was unable to bear the costs of the players.


Later years

In 1916 King
Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...
granted the club the title of Real (Royal). When the
outdoor sports Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...
sections arrived, it was necessary to leave “the cave” and acquire a sports field on Hilarión Eslava street, on the land now occupied by the Casa de las Flores, previously they had used another in ''Altos del Hippodrome'' (1908). In 1932 the RSGE was also among the architects of the refoundation of the Spanish gymnastic federation, which was formed in 1898 but dissolved years later. The rugby team was the Spanish champion of the sport in 1935 after winning the '' Copa del Rey de Rugby'' which at the time was valid as a national championship, beating the university team of
Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
11–3 in the final.


Decline and Collapse

In 1950 Sociedad Gimnástica won the ''Copa Stadium'', a recognition established in 1923 to reward those who have distinguished themselves for the promotion of sport in the country. However, Gimnástica had already ceased to exist by then, as its aims and structure were no longer compatible with the
Francoism Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
that was reshaping Spanish sport. In fact, there is no mention of the club after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


Notable players

* Apolinario Rodríguez * Sócrates Quintana * Severiano Goiburu


Honours


Football

*
Campeonato Regional Centro The Campeonato Regional Centro ( Spanish for Central Regional Championship) was an annual association football competition for clubs based primarily in the Castile region of Spain, including the Community of Madrid, during the first half of the 2 ...
**Winners (3): 1909–10, 1910–11, 1913–14 *
Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...
**Runners-up (1):
1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...


Rugby

* Copa del Rey de Rugby **Winners (1): 1935


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gimnastica Espanola Football clubs in Madrid Defunct football clubs in the Community of Madrid Association football clubs established in 1907 1907 establishments in Spain Association football clubs disestablished in 1928 1928 disestablishments in Spain