adminCharles Mabika Special Correspondent
HIGHLANDERS will turn 100, in just six years’ time, and preparations for the Centennial Celebrations should be starting in the next few years.
The country’s oldest football club was established in 1926. Along the way, Bosso have transformed themselves into one of the country’s two biggest football clubs and command a huge following at home and in many parts of the world where the nation’s diaspora community lives.
The Bulawayo giants have also been a success story on the field, winning a number of league championships and knock-out competitions, and have provided this country with some of its finest football sons.
The legendary Peter Ndlovu leads the cast of the superstars who have emerged from Bosso to make a huge impression on the domestic football landscape. But, there are a lot of things many fans probably don’t know about this football giant. Here, I will just deal with 20 things a lot of fans probably don’t know when it comes to Bosso.
1. Bosso are the oldest football club in the country after having been founded in 1926 by two brothers, Albert and Rhodes who were the grandsons of King Lobengula.
2. The club have changed their name, at least, three times starting off as Lions, then Matabeleland Highlanders and then just Highlanders.
3. In 1974, Highlanders bought six star players — Bruce Grobbelaar, Barry Daka, Itai Chieza, Stanley Nyika, Isaac Mafaro and Peter Zimuto for a then total record fee of approximately Z$18 000.
4. Bosso suffered their worst and heaviest defeat in 1970, going down 7-0 to Salisbury Callies in a home league match at White City Stadium.
5. While playing in the then South Zone Soccer League, the club recorded its highest win, walloping Plumtree United 16-0 in 1968.
6. For many years Highlanders nursed a team in the Bafa Area Zone called Matabeleland High City, which they used to groom players for the tough top league.
7. The club’s late midfielder, Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo, has made the most number of finalist appearances for Highlanders (a total of five) on the Castle Soccer Stars competition and finished as runner-up twice but never won the award.
8. Hollywod actor/producer, Andrew Shue from the hit drama series “Melrose Place” (he played one of the leading characters Billy), played for Highlanders (as a right winger) in the early 90s, while on a United States-Zimbabwe student exchange programme’s working visit.
9. In the 2001 season, Highlanders contributed almost 30 percent of the total Premier League gate receipts; meaning the other 15 teams on average each contributed about 5 percent.
10. The man largely credited for the club’s resurgence during the post-Independence era is forgotten, former Scotland national team goalkeeper, Bobby Clark, who fine-tuned the club’s highly acclaimed junior policy in the early ‘80s. Clark later left for another coaching job in the US. The 74-year-old Scotsman is now retired and paid a courtesy call on his old club in Bulawayo last year before flying back to Scotland.
11. The Ndlovu siblings — Madinda, the late Adam and Peter — are the only brothers from the same Zimbabwean household to play in Europe.
12. Three former chairmen of the club “graduated” to the post of Vice-Chairman at ZIFA House — the late Chief Ngumane (Douglas Mkhwananzi), Ndumiso Gumede and Rodger Muhlwa who also served as the Vice Chairman of the Premier Soccer League.
13. Tshilamoya are the only local club so far to tour a European country on a football “holiday” having done that in 1987 when the club went to Germany for three weeks.
14. Former Board of Directors member, Mtshena Sidile, served as Bosso chairman for an incredible eight-year consecutive stint, from 1966 to 1973.
15. The late iconic statesman, Father Zimbabwe (Dr Joshua Nkomo) personally advised Bosso to change the club’s name from Matabeleland Highlanders to just Highlanders upon his release from detention in 1976.
16. In August 1980, Highlanders were the first club to play outside the country after Independence when they toured Zambia, going as far north as Luanshya, as a reciprocal visit to that done by City of Lusaka FC, a few months earlier.
17. The club’s most famous legend, Peter Ndlovu holds the joint record for the youngest ever scorer in the top-flight league after he netted once in a 2-2 draw with arch-rivals Dynamos at the National Sports Stadium in 1990 when he was just 17 years old (a record he now jointly shares with young Herentals forward, Tino Benza, who also scored for his club at the same age two years ago at the same venue in a league clash against Ngezi Platinum where he scored the only goal of the match).
18. The first player to join Bosso’s biggest rivals Dynamos was a gangling centre striker named Raymond Makanda who made the trek from the City of Kings and Queens to the Sunshine City in 1972.
19. In 2012 the club finished the league season tied on top of the table with Dynamos on 69 points each but the Bulawayo giants surrendered the title to their rivals on goal difference.
20. The club owns a Club House on the outskirts of the city centre where there are playing fields and courts for football and other disciplines such as netball, volleyball, tennis, netball, volleyball, rugby, chess and a sports bar.
Senior Sports Editor’s note — the impressive compilation of this article by our special correspondent, Charles “CNN’’ Mabika, who is widely considered the most influential voice in Zimbabwean football, would not have been possible without the assistance of Bosso legend, Ndumiso Gumede. Watch out for the 20 things you probably didn’t know about Dynamos.
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