The Lusitanians (Lusitani in Latin) were an Indo-European people living in the western Iberian (Spain & Portugal) Peninsula long before it became the Roman province of Lusitania (modern Portugal)  In battles with the Romans, Lusitanians gained a reputation as fierce fighters.

The Lusitanian Sporting Club was a hockey team that dominated the Indian Hockey scene during the early 1900s. Founded in 1909 by JF Pais, Dominic de Sousa & Edwin Faria, the Lusitanians were a well motivated and trained hockey team whose ambition was to put the Goans on the sporting map of India.  They transformed hockey from a sport into an art and displayed skillful stick-work, accurate passing and shrewd tactics

The first Lusitanian team comprised of :
Goal : Edwin Faria
Backs : Dominic de Souza, George de Silva
Halves : J Fernandes, JF Pais, M Pinto
Forwards : Johnny de Souza, Nelson de Sousza, Joe Sequeira, Cyriaco de Souza, Leo de Souza

In subsequent years the Lusis proved to be the nursery of Bombay as well as Indian hockey. They produced Olympians like Walter de Sousa (1948), Leo Pinto (1948), Maxi Vaz (1948), Reggie Rodrigues (1948), Lawrie Fernandes (1948), Amir Kumar (1948) and Nandi Singh. And legends like Johnny Pinto, Sacru Menezes, Francis Gama, Maurice Britto ......With legends like that it's little wonder that the Lusitanians won several tournaments:
Aga Khan : 1913, 1915, 1929, 1944 & 1953 and were runners-up in 1918, 1919, 1941, 1952, & 1955
The Bombay Gold Cup :
The Lewis Cup :

The Lusitanians were the darlings of the crowds especially of the Goans who never missed a match of their favourite team. Some of the curwallas (club for seamen, which was a distinctive feature of Goans living in Bombay) would even forgo a meal and spend that money for a ticket for the Aga Khan cup match. And the comments, in the East Stand especially, were worth going a long way to hear. And when the Lusitanians reached the final rounds of any tournament Sonapur which was home to a large Goan population would be deserted on match days.

To be continued