In its very first year, the new club from Ga Mashie beat Accra Hearts of Oak to win a trophy. That is how Great Olympics introduced itself to Accra football in 1954, and it explains why the club has never been content to be the capital’s second team.
Founded in Ga Mashie
The Ghanaian Times records that Great Olympics was founded on 21 April 1954 in Ga Mashie, the old heart of Accra that takes in James Town and Ussher Town. Its founding fathers, according to that history, included S.O. Glover, S.A. Okwabi, E.C. Oblietey, Adja Provencal, W.P. Tetteh, Amos Josiah and J.K. Ameka.
The first trophy was the Temogen Cup, won by beating Hearts of Oak. For a club born in the same streets as Hearts’ supporters, there could not have been a better start.
Oly Dade
Supporters call the club “Oly Dade”. Olympics plays its home games at the Accra Sports Stadium, the same ground Hearts uses, which means an Accra derby can feel like a family argument conducted in front of the neighbours.
Champions of Ghana
Olympics won the Ghana league title in 1970 and again in 1974. Only Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak and Ashanti Gold have won more league titles, and Olympics shares the two-title mark with Aduana Stars. The 1970s side was strong enough to reach the semi-finals of the African Clubs Championship, the competition now called the CAF Champions League, where it lost to Asante Kotoko.
Cups
The club has won the FA Cup three times, in 1975, 1983 and 1995. Africa-Press also credits it with Guinness Gala titles in 1977, 1992 and 1997. These trophies sit unevenly across five decades, which tells the story of a club that has risen and fallen and risen again.
Cecil Jones Attuquayefio
No name is more closely tied to Olympics than Cecil Jones Attuquayefio. He played for the club and later coached it, and when he died in 2015 Graphic reported the club’s tribute that it had lost one of its best. Attuquayefio also led Ghana’s Black Stars and coached Hearts of Oak to the 2000 CAF Champions League, but Olympics people always counted him as theirs.
Relegation and return
Olympics has spent spells outside the top flight, a painful experience for a founding power of Accra football. It has fought back to the Ghana Premier League, and in recent seasons the club’s coaches have spoken openly about challenging for the title again.
Why it matters
Ghana’s league is dominated in the public imagination by Kotoko and Hearts. Great Olympics is a reminder that Accra football is older and more varied than that rivalry. The club was built by a Ga Mashie community that wanted its own team, and seventy years later its supporters still sing in Ga at the Accra Sports Stadium.
