Few people know that Brazil's most popular club was born… in a boat. Flamengo was founded on 17 November 1895 as a rowing club in Rio de Janeiro, and this year it marks 131 years. Football arrived sixteen years later, but the red and black colours were already there. And before them came a blue and gold that did not last even a year.

Oars on Flamengo beach

A group of rowers met at the house of Nestor de Barros, next to Flamengo beach, and set up the Grupo de Regatas do Flamengo. A few weeks later the name became Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, which it keeps to this day. There is also a quirk about the date. The founders decided to celebrate the club's birthday on 15 November, Proclamation of the Republic Day and a public holiday in Brazil. So the club has one founding date and one celebration date, while in 2007 the state of Rio declared 17 November "Flamengo Day".

Why they dropped blue and gold

The first colours were blue and gold, for Rio's sky and the country's riches. The first year, however, brought no regatta wins, and rivals started calling them the "bronze club". The colours were considered unlucky, and the fabric also had to be imported and was expensive. A year after the founding, the club switched to red and black. That gave rise to its best-known nickname, Rubro-Negro.

Three shirts in four years

The football department started in December 1911, when ten unhappy Fluminense players moved to Flamengo. The first official match, on 3 May 1912, ended 16-2. The first shirt was divided into four red and black quarters and was called the "papagaio de vintém", after a type of kite, but it too was seen as unlucky. In 1913 came horizontal red and black stripes with thin white lines, the "cobra coral", or coral snake, in which the club won its first Carioca title in 1914. In 1916, during the First World War, the white lines were removed because they resembled the German flag. That is how the classic red and black striped shirt with white shorts was born.

Zico and Tokyo 1981

Nobody became more linked with this shirt than Zico. He scored 508 goals for Flamengo, a club record, and 333 at the Maracanã alone. 1981 was his year. He scored twice in the Copa Libertadores final in Montevideo, and on 13 December in Tokyo the team beat Liverpool 3-0 in the Intercontinental Cup, with him named man of the match. For anyone who wants something from that era, there is the red Zico retro tee. In the same period, from 1984 to 1992, the Petrobras logo sat on the chest.

The vulture, the CRF and the Maracanã

In 1969, at a match against Botafogo, the fans adopted the vulture (Urubu), turning a rivals' taunt into a mascot. On the shirt the badge takes the form of the CRF monogram, last refreshed in 2018. The team's home since 1950 has been the Maracanã, where almost 195,000 spectators gathered for the 1963 Fla-Flu. Surveys put its fans at more than 40 million, which is why it is also called "O Mais Querido", the most loved.

Four South American stars

After 1981, Flamengo won the Libertadores again in 2019 and 2022. On 29 November 2025, in Lima, it beat Palmeiras 1-0 with a Danilo header and reached four titles. A few days later, on 3 December, it also celebrated the 2025 Brazilian league title.

From the oars of 1895 to Lima in 2025, the red and black shirt has written its own story. Parabéns, Mengão, and happy birthday to the whole Nação Rubro-Negra!

See Flamengo shirts and merchandise at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Maracanã – Boaventuravinicius, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.