The History of Santa Clara

The official symbol of Santa Clara. Note the initials C.D.S.C, which is how this is differentiated from Benfica's logos.		 Santa Clara Futebol Clube was formed on January 31, 1921, in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores. The name was later changed to Clube Desportivo Santa Clara (Sporting club of Saint Clair). It's original logo was that of a lion perched on a ball, with the S.C.F.C. When the club later got affiliation with a powerhouse team, Benfica, it adopted their symbol, which can be seen to the left. 

The teams original fields were, well, wherever they could find. These included an high school, an area near the dock, and even some land by the slaughterhouse! Santa Clara currently plays at the Estadio de Sao Miguel.

 The 1922-1923 season saw Santa Clara win the local division (all Azores teams) for the first time.

1931 saw the team splinter, with a "New Santa Clara" and an "Old Santa Clara". The New Santa Clara would become the Micaelense Soccer Club.  And in 1935, Santa Clara, after much debate, decided to allow a non-town-native join the team (he must have been good!)

Santa Clara played for the first time outside of the Azores in 1934 and 1935, making the long trip to Portugal to play exhibition games against Sporting Lisbon and Benfica.

In 1938, the first Professional player joined the team (up until this point it was local armatures only), when 3 players from Madeira joined the squad.

 I'll skip ahead a bit to get to the glory years (which, lucky for us, we are in the middle of):

1995-1996: Portugal forms the 3rd Division. Santa Clara wins this the first year it exists, and climbs the ladder to the II division. All this as the club celebrated it's 75th anniversary. Not a bad year!

1998-1999 Santa Clara finishes 3rd in the Second Division by beating Aves on May 30th, 3 to 2, before a record setting 25,000 people. With this 3rd place finish, Santa Clara becomes the first team from the Azores to make it to the 1st Division in history. I still get chills thinking about it.

 

Jose Joaquin de Sousa, club founder.  

To pay for a ball and uniforms, he charged early players as soccer "students".


The CDSC Bus. I have no idea if this is the official team bus, or a tram to get fans to and from the stadium. I suspect it's the latter.

 

Santa Clara Fans are very passionate.
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