Profiling Oly’s gallant League winning squad of 1974 (Part 2)
This series features the quintuplets from Accra Hearts of Oak, Seth Amartey, Kissi Adofo, Abeka Ankrah, Pee Lartey and Christian Madus (Gabo).
The first two were recruited in 1973, whilst the last three joined the club during the period under review (1974).
There was a massive recruitment drive backed by a solid technical team headed by a German, Karl Loweston, with Superintendent B.K Mends of the Ghana Police Service, an ex- international athlete, as the Team Manager in 1974 (The Seth Roger Tetteh Ocansey’s factor).
Seth Amartey lost his position to the relatively younger player, Joe Amartey (Shime).
Adofo Kissi, more often than not, played the striking role with the legendary George Alhassan for the reserve side, Dade.
The duo, Pee Lartey and Christian Madus, were an integral part of the winning team. They were a delight to watch on the field of play. Very astute defensive and offensive midfielders, respectively.
The superlative performance of Pee Lartey earned him a place in the national team, the Black Stars.
But for nationality issues, Christian Madus (a Nigerian) was over qualified to be in the national team, the Black Stars.
Christian Madus in 1976, joined Enugu Rangers International Club of Nigeria, the very team which eliminated Olympics from the 1975 African Clubs Championship Competition.
Pee Lartey kept faith with the club until the 1980 debacle when he joined the Ten Prominent Directors, Messrs Evans Teye, Sydney Brown, Jimmy Alarah, Martin Donkor, Camfour Dumas, Prince Agbogan, Harry Mouzalas, M O Tetteh, J.Y Tamakloe, and Colonel Seth Kwawu to form Accra Super Standfast.
Christian Mudus is now domiciled in Nigeria.
However, Pee Lartey died late last year at Teshie, Accra.
Ironically, this squad was also associated with sets of siblings. In my earlier epistle, I profiled the Akorli brothers, Mike and Albert.
Today’s edition will feature another sets of siblings, the Hammond and the Nai brothers.
The Hammond brothers have won the toss of the day. For that matter, their profiles will kick start the show.
Sarban, the elder of the two affectionately called Dr Hammond, was a good penalty taker. Indeed, his name stands tall in the annals of Ghana football in respect of an astute penalty takers.
In 1974, he was arguably the longest serving player in the club. He joined the club in the early 1960s, but left to pitch camp with Tema Hurricanes Football Club briefly, and returned to his mother club.
Earlier on, he was in a pole position to be made as the Captain of the club, but his stint with Hurricanes prevented him from getting the nod.
However, he was not a regular player in the team during this period under review (1974), but he occasionally came in to perform when the need arose.
The younger brother, Oblie, also started his top flight football career with Olympics in the late 1960s.
After six round of matches in the season, our top striker, Yakubu Ahmed (aka Olu Mohammed), unceremoniously left the club to seek greener pastures in Nigeria. Indeed, he pitched camp with Mighty Jets Football Club.
A huge vacuum was thus created in this department and the young Oblie was brought in to fill this void.
Indeed, he lived up to the billing, scoring a lot of important goals to the admiration of all.
The winning goal he scored against Akotex when an ace goalkeeper, Ebenezer Adjei, was then in posts at the Akosombo Stadium, will forever remain in my memory until the end of time.
This was a ‘ Do or Die’ encounter, a cagey match and a must win game for Olympics to keep our dreams of winning the ultimate alive. Great Olympics won the game 2-1.
Please be informed that, he was the player to have scored Olympics’ last goal recorded in the CAF Champions League (then African Club Championship) in Surelere Sports Stadium, Lagos , Nigeria, close to 50 years ago (March 1975).
In 1976, an impasse ensured between the duo of the then management and efforts to resolve it proved futile. They, therefore, left the club pitched camp with our arch rivals, Accra Hearts of Oak.
Let me conclude this segment of the series with another set of siblings, the Nai brothers, Ago and Abba.
They also started their top flight football careers with Accra Great Olympics at various points in time.
As usual, they all started with the reserve side, Dade, and gained promotions to the regular side at various times.
Ago was the first to earn promotion in 1971. He was groomed to take over from the veteran Oman Mensah (Captain Nada), then at the twilight of his carrier. Ago played regularly in the 1974 squad. In fact, he, together with Kissi Adofo and Jonas Adjei were on target when Accra Great Olympics beat Kumasi Asante Kotoko 3- 0 in the penultimate fixture at the Accra Sports Stadium.
In 1979, Ago Nai left the club, and joined Tema Complex Stars where he retired after a few years of playing.
Abban gained promotion to the regular team in 1974, but he rather made a niche for himself when playing the outside left position for the reserve side, Dade. He formed a fearful forward line force with the likes of Victor Armah, George Otinkrang (Dade Mantse), legend George Alhassan, and Kissi Adofo.
NB: The first part of this article was published in the Friday, May 16 edition of this paper
By Joseph Boye
