It all started in a garden, with a group of young men doing gymnastics. According to the club's archives, Beşiktaş was founded on 3 March 1903 in Istanbul. On 3 March 2027 the club turns 124 years old, and its black and white shirt has plenty of stories to tell.

Gymnastics in a Serencebey garden

In autumn 1902, 22 young men began exercising in the garden of Osman Pasha's mansion, in the Serencebey neighbourhood of Beşiktaş. Among them were the pasha's two sons, Mehmet Şamil and Hüseyin Bereket. After the second son, the group became known as the Bereket Gymnastics Club.

The club was founded under special permission in 1903. In the early years its members practised wrestling, boxing and gymnastics, not football.

From Bereket to Beşiktaş

After the political changes of 1909, Fuat Balkan and Mazhar Kazancı reorganised the members. The club took the name of its neighbourhood, on the European shore of the Bosphorus, and became the Beşiktaş Ottoman Gymnastics Club. On 13 January 1910 it became the first Turkish sports club to be officially registered.

Football arrived in 1911, when two smaller teams, Valideçeşme and Basiret, joined the club. The initials of its name (Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü) give the famous BJK.

Black and white: two versions of the colours

Sources disagree about the black and white. According to the club, Mehmet Şamil proposed a pin like the one he wore at his French school. The founding committee chose two natural colours in full contrast.

Old club publications told a different story: that the original colours were red and white, and that red turned to black in mourning for members lost in the Balkan Wars. More recent research doubts that red and white was ever worn in an official match. The first pin, dated 1906, carried the name "Beşiktaş" in Arabic script and a six-pointed star.

The flag on the crest

Beşiktaş is the only club with the Turkish flag inside its emblem, with the red crescent and star. But why? There are two versions, and neither has been confirmed.

The most popular says that in 1952 the team represented Turkey in a friendly against Greece, and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes rewarded it with the right to carry the flag. Historian Vâlâ Somalı argues instead that the right comes from Beşiktaş being the first officially founded Turkish club.

The Black Eagles

The nickname Kara Kartallar, the Black Eagles, has its own story too. According to club tradition, on 19 January 1941, during a 6-0 win over Süleymaniye, a fan named Mehmet Galin loudly cheered the players on from the stands. The team's fierce attacking play that day earned it the nickname, and the eagle has been its symbol ever since.

The greatest season was 1991-92, when Beşiktaş became champions without a single defeat, something that has never happened again in the Süper Lig. That was the era of the MAF trio, Metin Tekin, Ali Gültiken and Feyyaz Uçar. Later the shirt was worn by Sergen Yalçın, Ricardo Quaresma and Mario Gómez, who scored 26 league goals in 2015-16.

The historic İnönü closed in 2013 and a new stadium was built in its place. It opened on 11 April 2016 with a 3-2 win over Bursaspor, and in its stands the tone is set by Çarşı, the legendary fan group whose slogan is "Çarşı is against everything".

Celebrate with us

A garden, a pin from a French school and a fan cheering in the stands one winter afternoon in 1941. That is how the story of the Black Eagles of the Bosphorus was written.

Happy 124th birthday, Beşiktaş! May you always fly high in black and white.

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Beşiktaş's new stadium on its opening night, 11 April 2016 – Sakhalinio, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.