When Football meant something

[oloye]

The great Leventis of Ibadan.


And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

[balo]

Great clubs, great players.

But dang they all looked rough. I wonder if Barbers used to make enough money back in the day!!

[oloye]

And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

Feeling a little bored this afternoon what better way to kill this off than putting a few nostalgic and reflective thoughts on some of the names on parade by the IICC Shooting stars team on show in this picture.
My thoughts are all based on my perceptions of these players as a kid, some of whom I will later play along with or train under them. Growing up as a kid, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be in the same room or come anywhere the level of the statuses which these guys were seen and perceived by the followers of the game. In Ibadan and among the many faithfuls of the Shooting stars family, the guys in these pictures were demi-gods, legends and heroes. This picture was taken somewhere in the late 70s(78) and early 80s(81,82).
So let us take a journey together.

Best Ogedengbe: Goal keeper, burst onto the scene in 1976, when he took over from Zion Ogunfeyinmi in post, he went on to become legend as he was in the team that won the African Cup winners cup in 76. His stock rose over the years and by 1980, he surprised everyone in the country when he was preferred over the legend Emma Okalla to man the post during the African cup of nations hosted that year. He was a lively character and his strength lies in his agility, he was very very agile. Perhaps his greatest attribute was his ability to talk and talk endlessly while issuing instructions to his defenders. He thrived in the mind games and would often be seen teasing the opposing strikers, especially when to comes to penalties. He was good at this and it was in this area that he managed to etch himself into the memory of the nations. Ended his career with Abiola babes, now deceased. He was fun to be with as my path came across his when he became the Welfare Office of Shooting star..a great talker on and off the pitch.

Rasaki Fadare : My image of him as a goalkeeper goes back to when he was with Water Corporation of Ibadan, he had what you would call an unorthodox style of keeping. Erratic and not quite as polished. Perhaps his greatest strength was in his bravery. He would throw himself at balls and at attackers not caring a hoot about his own safety. The lingering image of him I have etched in my memory was him being at the receiving end of some serious whooping (4-0) from Rangers back in the 70s, it was strange watching this keeper throw himself wildly about , but only to retrieve the ball from his net.

Felix Owolabi: Came into the Shooting stars family in 78, came into national prominence as a left full back. In the Shooting family he took over from the legend Sam Ojebode, who retired after leading the team to the glorious 76 African winners cup. He was recruited from Raccah Rovers Fc of Kano.Owoblow played for Nigeria in the 78 ANC competition hosted by Ghana, he played as a left back in that competition. But it was in the 1980 edition that he found fame and success playing as left midfielder (inside left it was called back then). Where his pairing with Adokiye in that tournament obliterated the opponents. He got his nickname from that tournament. The echo of Owoblow reverberating all around Surulere remained one of the endearing legacies of his national career. Post 1980, whenever in the colours of the GWG he touches the ball inside the mainbowl..the sound of Owoblow will echo around..you have to be there to get a feel of the effect. He was strong raw energy, left footed(Never saw him use the right), he could do magical things with that left. He was the first player I saw who passed the ball with both sides of one foot and the instep..so he never had to use the other foot. He packed bullet. I was privileged to play with him in the years when he was winding down, although gifted with natural strength, his training regime was something else. A product Unilag, he is now a Phd holder and rightly addressed as Dr Felix Akinloye Owolabi M.O.N. He played late into his 30s retiring at the age of 38, after turning down the attempt to lure him back into the SE for a last hurrah. He was part of the Shooting stars team that won the Abiola Cup (CAF), back in 1992. A legend in his own right. I was privileged to both play with him and to be coached by him..Baba Buky as we fondly call him had a never say die attitude, a stubborn streak, one which I challenged both on and off the field.

Kennedy Darpah : A Ghanaian import who featured and was part of the team that won the 76 cup. A regular feature in the team, a strong defender , one of those who inspired me in the game. The name Darpah was exotic, it was unique, as a result hearing this week in week out on the radio and on TV endears you to such. As a Rangers fan growing up, he was one of those I dreaded on the Shooting team, he looked imposing and fearsome. I was privileged to work under him, he was one of those who encouraged me when I was still trying to find my way in the league. I remember the first time I met him, he was coaching a Div 3 club side Nigermatch of Ibadan, my team Kwara Bombers had just played them , it was my first season in the Nigerian league. He walked over to me shook my hands and commended me, saying I reminded him of himself when he was my age. A massive compliment from a legend. Years later our path would cross when I joined Shooting, he was one of the coaches, and he took me under his wings. We became close, he would share with me his reckless past as a player and how God saved him and gave him a second chance. He had found God and was a calmer person. He is deceased, but his legendary status in the annals of Nigerian football was long assured. A great individual.

Sam Ashante: Baba Kofi, another Ghanaian import and also part of the team that won the 76 cup competition and a legend in his own right. The Shooting team of the 70s coached by the great Allan Hawkes had a unique way of playing, they had the Ghanaian influence , Sam Ashante was one of the inspirations behind that. Intelligent with eye and vision for clever passes. The trio of Ashante, Muda Lawal, Sam Saka Bose in the middle of Shooting’s team, together with Joe Appiah(another Breda) as the right full back and Phillip Boamah (Another one) right winger, made watching Shooting even for non-fans a grudgingly delightful experience. They kept the ball on the ground and at the heart of all that was Sam Ashante working at tandem with Muda. A quiet spoken individual, it was also a privilege to work under him when he was one of the coaches at Shooting in my time there.

Folorunsho Gambari: Aka Gambus, his legendary status as a Shooting player(also part of the 76 winning team) can best be appreciated by the way he was revered in Ilorin his home town. When he passed it was rumored that he was the victim of some diabolical shenanigans going on in Shooting camp. At that time when I was growing up in Ilorin, a player leaving to play for Shooting was deemed a reckless player, one who does not value his life. I would recollect an incident when I was with Shooting and a player by name Oba who was a senior colleague when we were together at Kwasu bombers walked over to me. He asked me what I was doing in Ibadan playing for Shooting, he had played for Shooting but did not have a good experience, which only helped to reinforce the position held about the club. He rebuked my reckless decision to play for Shooting and cautioned me to get away as soon as possible. This all had to with the Gambus death and of course with the way some of the Ilorin raised and bred players were unceremoniously discarded when they were no longer needed. Players like Moses Otolorin, Kafaru Alabi all returned to Kwara state almost in penury only to rely on Kwara state for their rehabilitation. These were used as reference points to warn others nursing the dream to play for Shooting. On Gambus, perhaps what he was more noted for was his power play. He played as left winger, but very direct and brutish in his approach. Before the Amokachi the bull, we had some raw bulls in the Nigerian league. Gambus was one of them.

Tunde Bamidele: (RIP). He was recruited from Taraba FC of Yola, back in the days when the national league was a three tier strong league. He was part of the recruitment policy in place at Shooting that encourages any Yoruba indigene and especially Oyo state seen plying their trade outside the state to come home to play for their darling team. As a kid , that a player could replace Odiye in the national team was hard to comprehend or even accept. I thought it was because Odiye left that was why Tunde Bamidele was in the national team, but when Odiye was brought back for the 1980 ANC and he still could not displace Tunde Bamidele, I began to watch him closely. Think of John Terry, the simplicity of defending and passing the ball, you have the image of Tunde Bamidele. CCC thrived on the back of work horses, first it was Odiye and now Tunde Bamidele. He was not as flamboyant as Odiye, but he was rock solid and dependable and he proved to be with the team that won the ANC 80. He had a great career with Shooting and retired with the team back in the 80s. He became a coach before his death. Privileged to meet him a pleasant personality. I still remember when he came to train with us the NUGA team for the FISU 89 hosted by the former Yugoslavia. We were having general kick about, and I tried to be cheeky with him by nutmegging him (my one and only chance to dribble a legend), although I succeeded, but he held on to me, and jokingly rebuked me for not showing respect to retired legend and an MON.

Otubusin Idowu: Aka Slow poison or simply Slow. A center half in his time. The only reason why he never had a glowing international career to his name was because of CCC. He was named slow for a reason, slow he was , but had a brain that was fitted with Pentium 4 ram and could process many moves even while it was still in its infancy. His playing style was neat, one of those defenders who would play 90 minutes without breaking a sweat..yes he was that intelligent. Watch his pants, sparkling white at the beginning and it would remain so after 90 minutes. He had others doing all the huffing and puffing. When you have Darpah a workhorse by your side, all you need to do is to wait at the end where he fails and mope up. He was also in the team that won the 76 cup, a legend in his own right. The closest I came to meeting him was playing against the teams he coached.

Muda Lawal : (RIP). What can I say about a legend above legends. As kid the ever smiling face of Muda assaults you whenever you open a sports magazine or journal reporting on the league or national team engagements. On the radio and on the TV the name Muda Lawal assaults your ears, there was no running away from him. As a kid perhaps one image of him I can recollect was in a match, the ball was kicked up so high in the sky, many would simply head the ball away or allow it to bounce with the aim of only attempting to control it thereafter. I remember Muda taking this on his instep at the first take, the ball stuck to his feet as if there was a magnet. For years I would grow up trying to do that. It was part of the training routine I grew up on while learning to control a high ball with the instep. He had a way of spreading his arms out, his elbow bent at an angle for balance. He was magical on the ball, his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy! He was one of those players who hardly lose the ball and who knew what to do before the ball comes to them. He could also multi task as he could play as an attacker as well. In the 1980 ANC we were struggling scoring goals, we started the tournament relying on Ifeanyi Onyeadika who was on fire going into the tournament. He could not cope, Nwosu was the other, he also struggled. We struggled in the quarter finals and semi finals edging past the opposition Egypt and Morroco I think with a goal each. A state of emergency was declared in the final and Muda Lawal was drafted in, he emerged as one of the scorers. Listen you cannot mention Muda to people with a few lines and I would not even attempt that.
It was a great privilege to play against him and with him. Let me share the moment. It was in 1988 Shooting was in division 2 and we went to play them in Ibadan. Muda was deployed as an attacker, it was in the dying days of his career. I knew this so it was easy for me to become aggressive with him. I remember a particular incident during the match, it was a high ball and he tried to elbow me and tried to intimidate me as well saying..’look you this small boy, do you know who you are marking? I will injure you’.. I responded by smacking my head with both hands and I said ‘aghh thanks I have been waiting for this, it is out of respect I have not injured you since’. The next time the ball came in the air , I went through him elbow and all..he looked at me and said in Yoruba ‘Amugbo ni omode yi sha’ (This boy must be a hemp smoker). I remember he kept a safe distance from me till the end of the match. Perhaps what he did after the match was to recommend me to Shooting as a player to recruit. He was a legend , playing with him was fun. He would remind us in matches that if we lose, we would have to cough up the match bonus, since he cannot go back to Yetunde (his wife) empty handed. My success at Shooting was down to the encouragement I got from his likes, he loved my game and could never stop singing my praises.

Segun Odegbami : The legend I never got to play against or work with. The closest I came to working with him was when he volunteered to be my agent and when he was the Welfare officer with the national team in the 90s. Sad how his legendary status was compromised for something that was never his fault. He was the manager when the team was first relegated in 86, the Ibadan fans never forgave him. He ran a disco or club joint at the time, it was alleged that players converge there and it was responsible for their non-performance. He recruited most of the players, it was no coincidence that they decided to converge around him. There was something about Big Shege, for someone of his status at the time, he was easy going and easy spoken. There was no airs around him. He was polished, educated and had the aura and appeal.
Anyways let me talk about Big Sheg the great magical winger and footballer. Geez where do I start from. This man tormented the North Africans, he was strong, he was fast, he could dribble, he could score and he was big. The sight of him in full flow along the touchline remains the stuff folklores are written on. The sight of him reducing to shreds Mustapha Kouchi the petit but intelligent left full back the Algerians brought to the ANC 80 competition remains a case of abuse that the international community should be ashamed of for turning the blind eye. Segun Odegbami destroyed the lad in a brutal and merciless way, he tore him to shreds turning him over to makes sure he was well ripped apart. The following year when the Algerians came to town to play us in the 82 WC qualifiers, it was not a surprise to anyone to see them field a goliath as a left full back. The intention was clear to stop Segun Odegbami. It worked, at least long enough for them to score their goals. I think Odegbami only got the best of this brute of a guy once, but what a move that was. The ball was passed to Big Sheg on the ground, the defender had stuck to him all day long. So this time Big Sheg ran towards the ball at such a speed that the Algerian thought he was going to control the ball and try to face him. But Big Sheg allowed the ball to run , left the ball alone and took a few steps forward after the ball had gone, only to turn abruptly. The Algerian kept running…he has not returned, he was last spotted at Lawanson street looking for his way back to the national stadium. Yes a myth , but such was the beauty of that move that the whole stadium stood up. Big Sheg can be a bully when the opposition is not up to scratch, the name Mathematical was given to him by the late commentator Ernest Okonkwo. Ask yourself why would a footballer be named Mathematical…ok ok let me help you, yes Odegbami graduated as an Engineer from Ibadan Polytechnic. But it was the way he would chart his path along the line beating everything and anything in a straight line..watching closely, you could see substitution and addition taking place, plotted on a line….a mathematical equation emerges..yes he was indeed a mathematician.
Let me not exaggerate okay, but as kid the first time I saw him with my own eyes was when the Ilorin Township stadium was commissioned in 1978. Shooting stars came to town to play the best team in Ilorin then, the Super Pioneers. The decimated the Ilorin team scoring 6 goals, geez Odegbami went on a rampage, until a guy called Omolomo, a barbwire type of defender decided to take him out by planting his knees right in his chest. It was the only way to stop the carnage. Yes it was brutal, but something more brutal was being perpetuated on the hapless Ilorin boys by Odegbami.
In 1984 a retired Odegbami returned to play in the Champions club and he gave a performance against the Fez of Maghreb , a Moroccan team. Many times players wonder why they are asked to run the balls in slalom dribbles through cones..well you need to see Odegbami in action interpreting what a slalom dribble looks like. That for me was a worthy performance from a legend signing off. He destroyed the Moroccan team, they acknowledged this and thanked him for a great lesson from a legend. When you witness such a performace, you don’t need a DVD to capture it, it stays in your memory forever.

Anyways these are some of my personal recollections , I hope you enjoyed this as much I have done going through history.

[balo]

Thanks Oga Oloye. Always refreshing reading from you.

[BAP]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

[oloye]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

The year would be between 79-81 since Darpah and Ashante were in the team.
Siji and Fatai am not sure are related. I know bros Siji's junior brother Olu who went to Ife and played for IBL.
Siji played briefly for Shooting i think before crossing over to Leventis.

Rasaki never played for water ilorin,not to the best of my knowledge, he was water ibadan product.I made a typho error..i was in auto mode.

[BAP]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

The year would be between 79-81 since Darpah and Ashante were in the team.
Siji and Fatai am not sure are related. I know bros Siji's junior brother Olu who went to Ife and played for IBL.
Siji played briefly for Shooting i think before crossing over to Leventis.

Rasaki never played for water ilorin,not to the best of my knowledge, he was water ibadan product.I made a typho error..i was in auto mode.

Thanks ..yeah i just dont remember Rasaki Fadare at all at shooting. Perhaps he might have been playing backup to Best Ogedegbe. He was always one to showboat though .. My mental picture of him remains of one whom would do front flips and black flips after catching the ball before booting it upfeld

[oloye]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

The year would be between 79-81 since Darpah and Ashante were in the team.
Siji and Fatai am not sure are related. I know bros Siji's junior brother Olu who went to Ife and played for IBL.
Siji played briefly for Shooting i think before crossing over to Leventis.

Rasaki never played for water ilorin,not to the best of my knowledge, he was water ibadan product.I made a typho error..i was in auto mode.

Thanks ..yeah i just dont remember Rasaki Fadare at all at shooting. Perhaps he might have been playing backup to Best Ogedegbe

He did play for Shooting...the names on this picture was provided by non other than Ademola Adeshina...of course i am fully aware that he did play for Shooting.

[bushboy]

Oloye!! Sweet write up! I enjoyed it immensely.

[BAP]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

The year would be between 79-81 since Darpah and Ashante were in the team.
Siji and Fatai am not sure are related. I know bros Siji's junior brother Olu who went to Ife and played for IBL.
Siji played briefly for Shooting i think before crossing over to Leventis.

Rasaki never played for water ilorin,not to the best of my knowledge, he was water ibadan product.I made a typho error..i was in auto mode.

Thanks ..yeah i just dont remember Rasaki Fadare at all at shooting. Perhaps he might have been playing backup to Best Ogedegbe

He did play for Shooting...the names on this picture was provided by non other than Ademola Adeshina...of course i am fully aware that he did play for Shooting.

NP:
Wasnt disputing it per se .. more like I was thinking out loud and trying to recall

[oloye]

Oloye:
What year was this ? There is no Sam Ojebode so this must be the 80's rather than the 70's but at the same time there is no Adebambo, No Adegoke Adelabu etc

Didnt know Rasaki Fadare played for Shooting or for Water Corporation of Ilorin. I remember him at Water Corporation of Ibadan.

Also , Where is Siji Lagunju, Fatai Lagunju's brother . Was this before his time ? or could he be the one one you marked NA

The year would be between 79-81 since Darpah and Ashante were in the team.
Siji and Fatai am not sure are related. I know bros Siji's junior brother Olu who went to Ife and played for IBL.
Siji played briefly for Shooting i think before crossing over to Leventis.

Rasaki never played for water ilorin,not to the best of my knowledge, he was water ibadan product.I made a typho error..i was in auto mode.

Thanks ..yeah i just dont remember Rasaki Fadare at all at shooting. Perhaps he might have been playing backup to Best Ogedegbe

He did play for Shooting...the names on this picture was provided by non other than Ademola Adeshina...of course i am fully aware that he did play for Shooting.

NP:
Wasnt disputing it per se .. more like I was thinking out loud and trying to recall

I know my padi...doing the same thing too....years have rolled by sometines one needs extra validation as well.

[lukemana]

And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

Feeling a little bored this afternoon what better way to kill this off than putting a few nostalgic and reflective thoughts on some of the names on parade by the IICC Shooting stars team on show in this picture.
My thoughts are all based on my perceptions of these players as a kid, some of whom I will later play along with or train under them. Growing up as a kid, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be in the same room or come anywhere the level of the statuses which these guys were seen and perceived by the followers of the game. In Ibadan and among the many faithfuls of the Shooting stars family, the guys in these pictures were demi-gods, legends and heroes. This picture was taken somewhere in the late 70s(78) and early 80s(81,82).
So let us take a journey together.

Best Ogedengbe: Goal keeper, burst onto the scene in 1976, when he took over from Zion Ogunfeyinmi in post, he went on to become legend as he was in the team that won the African Cup winners cup in 76. His stock rose over the years and by 1980, he surprised everyone in the country when he was preferred over the legend Emma Okalla to man the post during the African cup of nations hosted that year. He was a lively character and his strength lies in his agility, he was very very agile. Perhaps his greatest attribute was his ability to talk and talk endlessly while issuing instructions to his defenders. He thrived in the mind games and would often be seen teasing the opposing strikers, especially when to comes to penalties. He was good at this and it was in this area that he managed to etch himself into the memory of the nations. Ended his career with Abiola babes, now deceased. He was fun to be with as my path came across his when he became the Welfare Office of Shooting star..a great talker on and off the pitch.

Rasaki Fadare : My image of him as a goalkeeper goes back to when he was with Water Corporation of Ibadan, he had what you would call an unorthodox style of keeping. Erratic and not quite as polished. Perhaps his greatest strength was in his bravery. He would throw himself at balls and at attackers not caring a hoot about his own safety. The lingering image of him I have etched in my memory was him being at the receiving end of some serious whooping (4-0) from Rangers back in the 70s, it was strange watching this keeper throw himself wildly about , but only to retrieve the ball from his net.

Felix Owolabi: Came into the Shooting stars family in 78, came into national prominence as a left full back. In the Shooting family he took over from the legend Sam Ojebode, who retired after leading the team to the glorious 76 African winners cup. He was recruited from Raccah Rovers Fc of Kano.Owoblow played for Nigeria in the 78 ANC competition hosted by Ghana, he played as a left back in that competition. But it was in the 1980 edition that he found fame and success playing as left midfielder (inside left it was called back then). Where his pairing with Adokiye in that tournament obliterated the opponents. He got his nickname from that tournament. The echo of Owoblow reverberating all around Surulere remained one of the endearing legacies of his national career. Post 1980, whenever in the colours of the GWG he touches the ball inside the mainbowl..the sound of Owoblow will echo around..you have to be there to get a feel of the effect. He was strong raw energy, left footed(Never saw him use the right), he could do magical things with that left. He was the first player I saw who passed the ball with both sides of one foot and the instep..so he never had to use the other foot. He packed bullet. I was privileged to play with him in the years when he was winding down, although gifted with natural strength, his training regime was something else. A product Unilag, he is now a Phd holder and rightly addressed as Dr Felix Akinloye Owolabi M.O.N. He played late into his 30s retiring at the age of 38, after turning down the attempt to lure him back into the SE for a last hurrah. He was part of the Shooting stars team that won the Abiola Cup (CAF), back in 1992. A legend in his own right. I was privileged to both play with him and to be coached by him..Baba Buky as we fondly call him had a never say die attitude, a stubborn streak, one which I challenged both on and off the field.

Kennedy Darpah : A Ghanaian import who featured and was part of the team that won the 76 cup. A regular feature in the team, a strong defender , one of those who inspired me in the game. The name Darpah was exotic, it was unique, as a result hearing this week in week out on the radio and on TV endears you to such. As a Rangers fan growing up, he was one of those I dreaded on the Shooting team, he looked imposing and fearsome. I was privileged to work under him, he was one of those who encouraged me when I was still trying to find my way in the league. I remember the first time I met him, he was coaching a Div 3 club side Nigermatch of Ibadan, my team Kwara Bombers had just played them , it was my first season in the Nigerian league. He walked over to me shook my hands and commended me, saying I reminded him of himself when he was my age. A massive compliment from a legend. Years later our path would cross when I joined Shooting, he was one of the coaches, and he took me under his wings. We became close, he would share with me his reckless past as a player and how God saved him and gave him a second chance. He had found God and was a calmer person. He is deceased, but his legendary status in the annals of Nigerian football was long assured. A great individual.

Sam Ashante: Baba Kofi, another Ghanaian import and also part of the team that won the 76 cup competition and a legend in his own right. The Shooting team of the 70s coached by the great Allan Hawkes had a unique way of playing, they had the Ghanaian influence , Sam Ashante was one of the inspirations behind that. Intelligent with eye and vision for clever passes. The trio of Ashante, Muda Lawal, Sam Saka Bose in the middle of Shooting’s team, together with Joe Appiah(another Breda) as the right full back and Phillip Boamah (Another one) right winger, made watching Shooting even for non-fans a grudgingly delightful experience. They kept the ball on the ground and at the heart of all that was Sam Ashante working at tandem with Muda. A quiet spoken individual, it was also a privilege to work under him when he was one of the coaches at Shooting in my time there.

Folorunsho Gambari: Aka Gambus, his legendary status as a Shooting player(also part of the 76 winning team) can best be appreciated by the way he was revered in Ilorin his home town. When he passed it was rumored that he was the victim of some diabolical shenanigans going on in Shooting camp. At that time when I was growing up in Ilorin, a player leaving to play for Shooting was deemed a reckless player, one who does not value his life. I would recollect an incident when I was with Shooting and a player by name Oba who was a senior colleague when we were together at Kwasu bombers walked over to me. He asked me what I was doing in Ibadan playing for Shooting, he had played for Shooting but did not have a good experience, which only helped to reinforce the position held about the club. He rebuked my reckless decision to play for Shooting and cautioned me to get away as soon as possible. This all had to with the Gambus death and of course with the way some of the Ilorin raised and bred players were unceremoniously discarded when they were no longer needed. Players like Moses Otolorin, Kafaru Alabi all returned to Kwara state almost in penury only to rely on Kwara state for their rehabilitation. These were used as reference points to warn others nursing the dream to play for Shooting. On Gambus, perhaps what he was more noted for was his power play. He played as left winger, but very direct and brutish in his approach. Before the Amokachi the bull, we had some raw bulls in the Nigerian league. Gambus was one of them.

Tunde Bamidele: (RIP). He was recruited from Taraba FC of Yola, back in the days when the national league was a three tier strong league. He was part of the recruitment policy in place at Shooting that encourages any Yoruba indigene and especially Oyo state seen plying their trade outside the state to come home to play for their darling team. As a kid , that a player could replace Odiye in the national team was hard to comprehend or even accept. I thought it was because Odiye left that was why Tunde Bamidele was in the national team, but when Odiye was brought back for the 1980 ANC and he still could not displace Tunde Bamidele, I began to watch him closely. Think of John Terry, the simplicity of defending and passing the ball, you have the image of Tunde Bamidele. CCC thrived on the back of work horses, first it was Odiye and now Tunde Bamidele. He was not as flamboyant as Odiye, but he was rock solid and dependable and he proved to be with the team that won the ANC 80. He had a great career with Shooting and retired with the team back in the 80s. He became a coach before his death. Privileged to meet him a pleasant personality. I still remember when he came to train with us the NUGA team for the FISU 89 hosted by the former Yugoslavia. We were having general kick about, and I tried to be cheeky with him by nutmegging him (my one and only chance to dribble a legend), although I succeeded, but he held on to me, and jokingly rebuked me for not showing respect to retired legend and an MON.

Otubusin Idowu: Aka Slow poison or simply Slow. A center half in his time. The only reason why he never had a glowing international career to his name was because of CCC. He was named slow for a reason, slow he was , but had a brain that was fitted with Pentium 4 ram and could process many moves even while it was still in its infancy. His playing style was neat, one of those defenders who would play 90 minutes without breaking a sweat..yes he was that intelligent. Watch his pants, sparkling white at the beginning and it would remain so after 90 minutes. He had others doing all the huffing and puffing. When you have Darpah a workhorse by your side, all you need to do is to wait at the end where he fails and mope up. He was also in the team that won the 76 cup, a legend in his own right. The closest I came to meeting him was playing against the teams he coached.

Muda Lawal : (RIP). What can I say about a legend above legends. As kid the ever smiling face of Muda assaults you whenever you open a sports magazine or journal reporting on the league or national team engagements. On the radio and on the TV the name Muda Lawal assaults your ears, there was no running away from him. As a kid perhaps one image of him I can recollect was in a match, the ball was kicked up so high in the sky, many would simply head the ball away or allow it to bounce with the aim of only attempting to control it thereafter. I remember Muda taking this on his instep at the first take, the ball stuck to his feet as if there was a magnet. For years I would grow up trying to do that. It was part of the training routine I grew up on while learning to control a high ball with the instep. He had a way of spreading his arms out, his elbow bent at an angle for balance. He was magical on the ball, his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy! He was one of those players who hardly lose the ball and who knew what to do before the ball comes to them. He could also multi task as he could play as an attacker as well. In the 1980 ANC we were struggling scoring goals, we started the tournament relying on Ifeanyi Onyeadika who was on fire going into the tournament. He could not cope, Nwosu was the other, he also struggled. We struggled in the quarter finals and semi finals edging past the opposition Egypt and Morroco I think with a goal each. A state of emergency was declared in the final and Muda Lawal was drafted in, he emerged as one of the scorers. Listen you cannot mention Muda to people with a few lines and I would not even attempt that.
It was a great privilege to play against him and with him. Let me share the moment. It was in 1988 Shooting was in division 2 and we went to play them in Ibadan. Muda was deployed as an attacker, it was in the dying days of his career. I knew this so it was easy for me to become aggressive with him. I remember a particular incident during the match, it was a high ball and he tried to elbow me and tried to intimidate me as well saying..’look you this small boy, do you know who you are marking? I will injure you’.. I responded by smacking my head with both hands and I said ‘aghh thanks I have been waiting for this, it is out of respect I have not injured you since’. The next time the ball came in the air , I went through him elbow and all..he looked at me and said in Yoruba ‘Amugbo ni omode yi sha’ (This boy must be a hemp smoker). I remember he kept a safe distance from me till the end of the match. Perhaps what he did after the match was to recommend me to Shooting as a player to recruit. He was a legend , playing with him was fun. He would remind us in matches that if we lose, we would have to cough up the match bonus, since he cannot go back to Yetunde (his wife) empty handed. My success at Shooting was down to the encouragement I got from his likes, he loved my game and could never stop singing my praises.

Segun Odegbami : The legend I never got to play against or work with. The closest I came to working with him was when he volunteered to be my agent and when he was the Welfare officer with the national team in the 90s. Sad how his legendary status was compromised for something that was never his fault. He was the manager when the team was first relegated in 86, the Ibadan fans never forgave him. He ran a disco or club joint at the time, it was alleged that players converge there and it was responsible for their non-performance. He recruited most of the players, it was no coincidence that they decided to converge around him. There was something about Big Shege, for someone of his status at the time, he was easy going and easy spoken. There was no airs around him. He was polished, educated and had the aura and appeal.
Anyways let me talk about Big Sheg the great magical winger and footballer. Geez where do I start from. This man tormented the North Africans, he was strong, he was fast, he could dribble, he could score and he was big. The sight of him in full flow along the touchline remains the stuff folklores are written on. The sight of him reducing to shreds Mustapha Kouchi the petit but intelligent left full back the Algerians brought to the ANC 80 competition remains a case of abuse that the international community should be ashamed of for turning the blind eye. Segun Odegbami destroyed the lad in a brutal and merciless way, he tore him to shreds turning him over to makes sure he was well ripped apart. The following year when the Algerians came to town to play us in the 82 WC qualifiers, it was not a surprise to anyone to see them field a goliath as a left full back. The intention was clear to stop Segun Odegbami. It worked, at least long enough for them to score their goals. I think Odegbami only got the best of this brute of a guy once, but what a move that was. The ball was passed to Big Sheg on the ground, the defender had stuck to him all day long. So this time Big Sheg ran towards the ball at such a speed that the Algerian thought he was going to control the ball and try to face him. But Big Sheg allowed the ball to run , left the ball alone and took a few steps forward after the ball had gone, only to turn abruptly. The Algerian kept running…he has not returned, he was last spotted at Lawanson street looking for his way back to the national stadium. Yes a myth , but such was the beauty of that move that the whole stadium stood up. Big Sheg can be a bully when the opposition is not up to scratch, the name Mathematical was given to him by the late commentator Ernest Okonkwo. Ask yourself why would a footballer be named Mathematical…ok ok let me help you, yes Odegbami graduated as an Engineer from Ibadan Polytechnic. But it was the way he would chart his path along the line beating everything and anything in a straight line..watching closely, you could see substitution and addition taking place, plotted on a line….a mathematical equation emerges..yes he was indeed a mathematician.
Let me not exaggerate okay, but as kid the first time I saw him with my own eyes was when the Ilorin Township stadium was commissioned in 1978. Shooting stars came to town to play the best team in Ilorin then, the Super Pioneers. The decimated the Ilorin team scoring 6 goals, geez Odegbami went on a rampage, until a guy called Omolomo, a barbwire type of defender decided to take him out by planting his knees right in his chest. It was the only way to stop the carnage. Yes it was brutal, but something more brutal was being perpetuated on the hapless Ilorin boys by Odegbami.
In 1984 a retired Odegbami returned to play in the Champions club and he gave a performance against the Fez of Maghreb , a Moroccan team. Many times players wonder why they are asked to run the balls in slalom dribbles through cones..well you need to see Odegbami in action interpreting what a slalom dribble looks like. That for me was a worthy performance from a legend signing off. He destroyed the Moroccan team, they acknowledged this and thanked him for a great lesson from a legend. When you witness such a performace, you don’t need a DVD to capture it, it stays in your memory forever.

Anyways these are some of my personal recollections , I hope you enjoyed this as much I have done going through history.

Wasn't Zamalek Segun Odegbami came out of retirement to play against in 1984 and lost 1-nil ?

[olu]

Thanks Oloye! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up. I never got the chance to watch those greats, but I'm curious, how does Muda Lawal compare to our modern midfielders (such as Oliseh, John Obi Mikel, or even Okocha)? Sound like Muda was a two way midfielder. Was he primarily used as a DM, and in your opinion who was the better player, Muda or Oliseh?

[oloye]

And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

Feeling a little bored this afternoon what better way to kill this off than putting a few nostalgic and reflective thoughts on some of the names on parade by the IICC Shooting stars team on show in this picture.
My thoughts are all based on my perceptions of these players as a kid, some of whom I will later play along with or train under them. Growing up as a kid, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be in the same room or come anywhere the level of the statuses which these guys were seen and perceived by the followers of the game. In Ibadan and among the many faithfuls of the Shooting stars family, the guys in these pictures were demi-gods, legends and heroes. This picture was taken somewhere in the late 70s(78) and early 80s(81,82).
So let us take a journey together.

Best Ogedengbe: Goal keeper, burst onto the scene in 1976, when he took over from Zion Ogunfeyinmi in post, he went on to become legend as he was in the team that won the African Cup winners cup in 76. His stock rose over the years and by 1980, he surprised everyone in the country when he was preferred over the legend Emma Okalla to man the post during the African cup of nations hosted that year. He was a lively character and his strength lies in his agility, he was very very agile. Perhaps his greatest attribute was his ability to talk and talk endlessly while issuing instructions to his defenders. He thrived in the mind games and would often be seen teasing the opposing strikers, especially when to comes to penalties. He was good at this and it was in this area that he managed to etch himself into the memory of the nations. Ended his career with Abiola babes, now deceased. He was fun to be with as my path came across his when he became the Welfare Office of Shooting star..a great talker on and off the pitch.

Rasaki Fadare : My image of him as a goalkeeper goes back to when he was with Water Corporation of Ibadan, he had what you would call an unorthodox style of keeping. Erratic and not quite as polished. Perhaps his greatest strength was in his bravery. He would throw himself at balls and at attackers not caring a hoot about his own safety. The lingering image of him I have etched in my memory was him being at the receiving end of some serious whooping (4-0) from Rangers back in the 70s, it was strange watching this keeper throw himself wildly about , but only to retrieve the ball from his net.

Felix Owolabi: Came into the Shooting stars family in 78, came into national prominence as a left full back. In the Shooting family he took over from the legend Sam Ojebode, who retired after leading the team to the glorious 76 African winners cup. He was recruited from Raccah Rovers Fc of Kano.Owoblow played for Nigeria in the 78 ANC competition hosted by Ghana, he played as a left back in that competition. But it was in the 1980 edition that he found fame and success playing as left midfielder (inside left it was called back then). Where his pairing with Adokiye in that tournament obliterated the opponents. He got his nickname from that tournament. The echo of Owoblow reverberating all around Surulere remained one of the endearing legacies of his national career. Post 1980, whenever in the colours of the GWG he touches the ball inside the mainbowl..the sound of Owoblow will echo around..you have to be there to get a feel of the effect. He was strong raw energy, left footed(Never saw him use the right), he could do magical things with that left. He was the first player I saw who passed the ball with both sides of one foot and the instep..so he never had to use the other foot. He packed bullet. I was privileged to play with him in the years when he was winding down, although gifted with natural strength, his training regime was something else. A product Unilag, he is now a Phd holder and rightly addressed as Dr Felix Akinloye Owolabi M.O.N. He played late into his 30s retiring at the age of 38, after turning down the attempt to lure him back into the SE for a last hurrah. He was part of the Shooting stars team that won the Abiola Cup (CAF), back in 1992. A legend in his own right. I was privileged to both play with him and to be coached by him..Baba Buky as we fondly call him had a never say die attitude, a stubborn streak, one which I challenged both on and off the field.

Kennedy Darpah : A Ghanaian import who featured and was part of the team that won the 76 cup. A regular feature in the team, a strong defender , one of those who inspired me in the game. The name Darpah was exotic, it was unique, as a result hearing this week in week out on the radio and on TV endears you to such. As a Rangers fan growing up, he was one of those I dreaded on the Shooting team, he looked imposing and fearsome. I was privileged to work under him, he was one of those who encouraged me when I was still trying to find my way in the league. I remember the first time I met him, he was coaching a Div 3 club side Nigermatch of Ibadan, my team Kwara Bombers had just played them , it was my first season in the Nigerian league. He walked over to me shook my hands and commended me, saying I reminded him of himself when he was my age. A massive compliment from a legend. Years later our path would cross when I joined Shooting, he was one of the coaches, and he took me under his wings. We became close, he would share with me his reckless past as a player and how God saved him and gave him a second chance. He had found God and was a calmer person. He is deceased, but his legendary status in the annals of Nigerian football was long assured. A great individual.

Sam Ashante: Baba Kofi, another Ghanaian import and also part of the team that won the 76 cup competition and a legend in his own right. The Shooting team of the 70s coached by the great Allan Hawkes had a unique way of playing, they had the Ghanaian influence , Sam Ashante was one of the inspirations behind that. Intelligent with eye and vision for clever passes. The trio of Ashante, Muda Lawal, Sam Saka Bose in the middle of Shooting’s team, together with Joe Appiah(another Breda) as the right full back and Phillip Boamah (Another one) right winger, made watching Shooting even for non-fans a grudgingly delightful experience. They kept the ball on the ground and at the heart of all that was Sam Ashante working at tandem with Muda. A quiet spoken individual, it was also a privilege to work under him when he was one of the coaches at Shooting in my time there.

Folorunsho Gambari: Aka Gambus, his legendary status as a Shooting player(also part of the 76 winning team) can best be appreciated by the way he was revered in Ilorin his home town. When he passed it was rumored that he was the victim of some diabolical shenanigans going on in Shooting camp. At that time when I was growing up in Ilorin, a player leaving to play for Shooting was deemed a reckless player, one who does not value his life. I would recollect an incident when I was with Shooting and a player by name Oba who was a senior colleague when we were together at Kwasu bombers walked over to me. He asked me what I was doing in Ibadan playing for Shooting, he had played for Shooting but did not have a good experience, which only helped to reinforce the position held about the club. He rebuked my reckless decision to play for Shooting and cautioned me to get away as soon as possible. This all had to with the Gambus death and of course with the way some of the Ilorin raised and bred players were unceremoniously discarded when they were no longer needed. Players like Moses Otolorin, Kafaru Alabi all returned to Kwara state almost in penury only to rely on Kwara state for their rehabilitation. These were used as reference points to warn others nursing the dream to play for Shooting. On Gambus, perhaps what he was more noted for was his power play. He played as left winger, but very direct and brutish in his approach. Before the Amokachi the bull, we had some raw bulls in the Nigerian league. Gambus was one of them.

Tunde Bamidele: (RIP). He was recruited from Taraba FC of Yola, back in the days when the national league was a three tier strong league. He was part of the recruitment policy in place at Shooting that encourages any Yoruba indigene and especially Oyo state seen plying their trade outside the state to come home to play for their darling team. As a kid , that a player could replace Odiye in the national team was hard to comprehend or even accept. I thought it was because Odiye left that was why Tunde Bamidele was in the national team, but when Odiye was brought back for the 1980 ANC and he still could not displace Tunde Bamidele, I began to watch him closely. Think of John Terry, the simplicity of defending and passing the ball, you have the image of Tunde Bamidele. CCC thrived on the back of work horses, first it was Odiye and now Tunde Bamidele. He was not as flamboyant as Odiye, but he was rock solid and dependable and he proved to be with the team that won the ANC 80. He had a great career with Shooting and retired with the team back in the 80s. He became a coach before his death. Privileged to meet him a pleasant personality. I still remember when he came to train with us the NUGA team for the FISU 89 hosted by the former Yugoslavia. We were having general kick about, and I tried to be cheeky with him by nutmegging him (my one and only chance to dribble a legend), although I succeeded, but he held on to me, and jokingly rebuked me for not showing respect to retired legend and an MON.

Otubusin Idowu: Aka Slow poison or simply Slow. A center half in his time. The only reason why he never had a glowing international career to his name was because of CCC. He was named slow for a reason, slow he was , but had a brain that was fitted with Pentium 4 ram and could process many moves even while it was still in its infancy. His playing style was neat, one of those defenders who would play 90 minutes without breaking a sweat..yes he was that intelligent. Watch his pants, sparkling white at the beginning and it would remain so after 90 minutes. He had others doing all the huffing and puffing. When you have Darpah a workhorse by your side, all you need to do is to wait at the end where he fails and mope up. He was also in the team that won the 76 cup, a legend in his own right. The closest I came to meeting him was playing against the teams he coached.

Muda Lawal : (RIP). What can I say about a legend above legends. As kid the ever smiling face of Muda assaults you whenever you open a sports magazine or journal reporting on the league or national team engagements. On the radio and on the TV the name Muda Lawal assaults your ears, there was no running away from him. As a kid perhaps one image of him I can recollect was in a match, the ball was kicked up so high in the sky, many would simply head the ball away or allow it to bounce with the aim of only attempting to control it thereafter. I remember Muda taking this on his instep at the first take, the ball stuck to his feet as if there was a magnet. For years I would grow up trying to do that. It was part of the training routine I grew up on while learning to control a high ball with the instep. He had a way of spreading his arms out, his elbow bent at an angle for balance. He was magical on the ball, his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy! He was one of those players who hardly lose the ball and who knew what to do before the ball comes to them. He could also multi task as he could play as an attacker as well. In the 1980 ANC we were struggling scoring goals, we started the tournament relying on Ifeanyi Onyeadika who was on fire going into the tournament. He could not cope, Nwosu was the other, he also struggled. We struggled in the quarter finals and semi finals edging past the opposition Egypt and Morroco I think with a goal each. A state of emergency was declared in the final and Muda Lawal was drafted in, he emerged as one of the scorers. Listen you cannot mention Muda to people with a few lines and I would not even attempt that.
It was a great privilege to play against him and with him. Let me share the moment. It was in 1988 Shooting was in division 2 and we went to play them in Ibadan. Muda was deployed as an attacker, it was in the dying days of his career. I knew this so it was easy for me to become aggressive with him. I remember a particular incident during the match, it was a high ball and he tried to elbow me and tried to intimidate me as well saying..’look you this small boy, do you know who you are marking? I will injure you’.. I responded by smacking my head with both hands and I said ‘aghh thanks I have been waiting for this, it is out of respect I have not injured you since’. The next time the ball came in the air , I went through him elbow and all..he looked at me and said in Yoruba ‘Amugbo ni omode yi sha’ (This boy must be a hemp smoker). I remember he kept a safe distance from me till the end of the match. Perhaps what he did after the match was to recommend me to Shooting as a player to recruit. He was a legend , playing with him was fun. He would remind us in matches that if we lose, we would have to cough up the match bonus, since he cannot go back to Yetunde (his wife) empty handed. My success at Shooting was down to the encouragement I got from his likes, he loved my game and could never stop singing my praises.

Segun Odegbami : The legend I never got to play against or work with. The closest I came to working with him was when he volunteered to be my agent and when he was the Welfare officer with the national team in the 90s. Sad how his legendary status was compromised for something that was never his fault. He was the manager when the team was first relegated in 86, the Ibadan fans never forgave him. He ran a disco or club joint at the time, it was alleged that players converge there and it was responsible for their non-performance. He recruited most of the players, it was no coincidence that they decided to converge around him. There was something about Big Shege, for someone of his status at the time, he was easy going and easy spoken. There was no airs around him. He was polished, educated and had the aura and appeal.
Anyways let me talk about Big Sheg the great magical winger and footballer. Geez where do I start from. This man tormented the North Africans, he was strong, he was fast, he could dribble, he could score and he was big. The sight of him in full flow along the touchline remains the stuff folklores are written on. The sight of him reducing to shreds Mustapha Kouchi the petit but intelligent left full back the Algerians brought to the ANC 80 competition remains a case of abuse that the international community should be ashamed of for turning the blind eye. Segun Odegbami destroyed the lad in a brutal and merciless way, he tore him to shreds turning him over to makes sure he was well ripped apart. The following year when the Algerians came to town to play us in the 82 WC qualifiers, it was not a surprise to anyone to see them field a goliath as a left full back. The intention was clear to stop Segun Odegbami. It worked, at least long enough for them to score their goals. I think Odegbami only got the best of this brute of a guy once, but what a move that was. The ball was passed to Big Sheg on the ground, the defender had stuck to him all day long. So this time Big Sheg ran towards the ball at such a speed that the Algerian thought he was going to control the ball and try to face him. But Big Sheg allowed the ball to run , left the ball alone and took a few steps forward after the ball had gone, only to turn abruptly. The Algerian kept running…he has not returned, he was last spotted at Lawanson street looking for his way back to the national stadium. Yes a myth , but such was the beauty of that move that the whole stadium stood up. Big Sheg can be a bully when the opposition is not up to scratch, the name Mathematical was given to him by the late commentator Ernest Okonkwo. Ask yourself why would a footballer be named Mathematical…ok ok let me help you, yes Odegbami graduated as an Engineer from Ibadan Polytechnic. But it was the way he would chart his path along the line beating everything and anything in a straight line..watching closely, you could see substitution and addition taking place, plotted on a line….a mathematical equation emerges..yes he was indeed a mathematician.
Let me not exaggerate okay, but as kid the first time I saw him with my own eyes was when the Ilorin Township stadium was commissioned in 1978. Shooting stars came to town to play the best team in Ilorin then, the Super Pioneers. The decimated the Ilorin team scoring 6 goals, geez Odegbami went on a rampage, until a guy called Omolomo, a barbwire type of defender decided to take him out by planting his knees right in his chest. It was the only way to stop the carnage. Yes it was brutal, but something more brutal was being perpetuated on the hapless Ilorin boys by Odegbami.
In 1984 a retired Odegbami returned to play in the Champions club and he gave a performance against the Fez of Maghreb , a Moroccan team. Many times players wonder why they are asked to run the balls in slalom dribbles through cones..well you need to see Odegbami in action interpreting what a slalom dribble looks like. That for me was a worthy performance from a legend signing off. He destroyed the Moroccan team, they acknowledged this and thanked him for a great lesson from a legend. When you witness such a performace, you don’t need a DVD to capture it, it stays in your memory forever.

Anyways these are some of my personal recollections , I hope you enjoyed this as much I have done going through history.

Wasn't Zamalek Segun Odegbami came out of retirement to play against in 1984 and lost 1-nil ?

Zamalek was the final and he did not play ruled out by knee injury.

[BAP]

And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

Feeling a little bored this afternoon what better way to kill this off than putting a few nostalgic and reflective thoughts on some of the names on parade by the IICC Shooting stars team on show in this picture.
My thoughts are all based on my perceptions of these players as a kid, some of whom I will later play along with or train under them. Growing up as a kid, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be in the same room or come anywhere the level of the statuses which these guys were seen and perceived by the followers of the game. In Ibadan and among the many faithfuls of the Shooting stars family, the guys in these pictures were demi-gods, legends and heroes. This picture was taken somewhere in the late 70s(78) and early 80s(81,82).
So let us take a journey together.

Best Ogedengbe: Goal keeper, burst onto the scene in 1976, when he took over from Zion Ogunfeyinmi in post, he went on to become legend as he was in the team that won the African Cup winners cup in 76. His stock rose over the years and by 1980, he surprised everyone in the country when he was preferred over the legend Emma Okalla to man the post during the African cup of nations hosted that year. He was a lively character and his strength lies in his agility, he was very very agile. Perhaps his greatest attribute was his ability to talk and talk endlessly while issuing instructions to his defenders. He thrived in the mind games and would often be seen teasing the opposing strikers, especially when to comes to penalties. He was good at this and it was in this area that he managed to etch himself into the memory of the nations. Ended his career with Abiola babes, now deceased. He was fun to be with as my path came across his when he became the Welfare Office of Shooting star..a great talker on and off the pitch.

Rasaki Fadare : My image of him as a goalkeeper goes back to when he was with Water Corporation of Ibadan, he had what you would call an unorthodox style of keeping. Erratic and not quite as polished. Perhaps his greatest strength was in his bravery. He would throw himself at balls and at attackers not caring a hoot about his own safety. The lingering image of him I have etched in my memory was him being at the receiving end of some serious whooping (4-0) from Rangers back in the 70s, it was strange watching this keeper throw himself wildly about , but only to retrieve the ball from his net.

Felix Owolabi: Came into the Shooting stars family in 78, came into national prominence as a left full back. In the Shooting family he took over from the legend Sam Ojebode, who retired after leading the team to the glorious 76 African winners cup. He was recruited from Raccah Rovers Fc of Kano.Owoblow played for Nigeria in the 78 ANC competition hosted by Ghana, he played as a left back in that competition. But it was in the 1980 edition that he found fame and success playing as left midfielder (inside left it was called back then). Where his pairing with Adokiye in that tournament obliterated the opponents. He got his nickname from that tournament. The echo of Owoblow reverberating all around Surulere remained one of the endearing legacies of his national career. Post 1980, whenever in the colours of the GWG he touches the ball inside the mainbowl..the sound of Owoblow will echo around..you have to be there to get a feel of the effect. He was strong raw energy, left footed(Never saw him use the right), he could do magical things with that left. He was the first player I saw who passed the ball with both sides of one foot and the instep..so he never had to use the other foot. He packed bullet. I was privileged to play with him in the years when he was winding down, although gifted with natural strength, his training regime was something else. A product Unilag, he is now a Phd holder and rightly addressed as Dr Felix Akinloye Owolabi M.O.N. He played late into his 30s retiring at the age of 38, after turning down the attempt to lure him back into the SE for a last hurrah. He was part of the Shooting stars team that won the Abiola Cup (CAF), back in 1992. A legend in his own right. I was privileged to both play with him and to be coached by him..Baba Buky as we fondly call him had a never say die attitude, a stubborn streak, one which I challenged both on and off the field.

Kennedy Darpah : A Ghanaian import who featured and was part of the team that won the 76 cup. A regular feature in the team, a strong defender , one of those who inspired me in the game. The name Darpah was exotic, it was unique, as a result hearing this week in week out on the radio and on TV endears you to such. As a Rangers fan growing up, he was one of those I dreaded on the Shooting team, he looked imposing and fearsome. I was privileged to work under him, he was one of those who encouraged me when I was still trying to find my way in the league. I remember the first time I met him, he was coaching a Div 3 club side Nigermatch of Ibadan, my team Kwara Bombers had just played them , it was my first season in the Nigerian league. He walked over to me shook my hands and commended me, saying I reminded him of himself when he was my age. A massive compliment from a legend. Years later our path would cross when I joined Shooting, he was one of the coaches, and he took me under his wings. We became close, he would share with me his reckless past as a player and how God saved him and gave him a second chance. He had found God and was a calmer person. He is deceased, but his legendary status in the annals of Nigerian football was long assured. A great individual.

Sam Ashante: Baba Kofi, another Ghanaian import and also part of the team that won the 76 cup competition and a legend in his own right. The Shooting team of the 70s coached by the great Allan Hawkes had a unique way of playing, they had the Ghanaian influence , Sam Ashante was one of the inspirations behind that. Intelligent with eye and vision for clever passes. The trio of Ashante, Muda Lawal, Sam Saka Bose in the middle of Shooting’s team, together with Joe Appiah(another Breda) as the right full back and Phillip Boamah (Another one) right winger, made watching Shooting even for non-fans a grudgingly delightful experience. They kept the ball on the ground and at the heart of all that was Sam Ashante working at tandem with Muda. A quiet spoken individual, it was also a privilege to work under him when he was one of the coaches at Shooting in my time there.

Folorunsho Gambari: Aka Gambus, his legendary status as a Shooting player(also part of the 76 winning team) can best be appreciated by the way he was revered in Ilorin his home town. When he passed it was rumored that he was the victim of some diabolical shenanigans going on in Shooting camp. At that time when I was growing up in Ilorin, a player leaving to play for Shooting was deemed a reckless player, one who does not value his life. I would recollect an incident when I was with Shooting and a player by name Oba who was a senior colleague when we were together at Kwasu bombers walked over to me. He asked me what I was doing in Ibadan playing for Shooting, he had played for Shooting but did not have a good experience, which only helped to reinforce the position held about the club. He rebuked my reckless decision to play for Shooting and cautioned me to get away as soon as possible. This all had to with the Gambus death and of course with the way some of the Ilorin raised and bred players were unceremoniously discarded when they were no longer needed. Players like Moses Otolorin, Kafaru Alabi all returned to Kwara state almost in penury only to rely on Kwara state for their rehabilitation. These were used as reference points to warn others nursing the dream to play for Shooting. On Gambus, perhaps what he was more noted for was his power play. He played as left winger, but very direct and brutish in his approach. Before the Amokachi the bull, we had some raw bulls in the Nigerian league. Gambus was one of them.

Tunde Bamidele: (RIP). He was recruited from Taraba FC of Yola, back in the days when the national league was a three tier strong league. He was part of the recruitment policy in place at Shooting that encourages any Yoruba indigene and especially Oyo state seen plying their trade outside the state to come home to play for their darling team. As a kid , that a player could replace Odiye in the national team was hard to comprehend or even accept. I thought it was because Odiye left that was why Tunde Bamidele was in the national team, but when Odiye was brought back for the 1980 ANC and he still could not displace Tunde Bamidele, I began to watch him closely. Think of John Terry, the simplicity of defending and passing the ball, you have the image of Tunde Bamidele. CCC thrived on the back of work horses, first it was Odiye and now Tunde Bamidele. He was not as flamboyant as Odiye, but he was rock solid and dependable and he proved to be with the team that won the ANC 80. He had a great career with Shooting and retired with the team back in the 80s. He became a coach before his death. Privileged to meet him a pleasant personality. I still remember when he came to train with us the NUGA team for the FISU 89 hosted by the former Yugoslavia. We were having general kick about, and I tried to be cheeky with him by nutmegging him (my one and only chance to dribble a legend), although I succeeded, but he held on to me, and jokingly rebuked me for not showing respect to retired legend and an MON.

Otubusin Idowu: Aka Slow poison or simply Slow. A center half in his time. The only reason why he never had a glowing international career to his name was because of CCC. He was named slow for a reason, slow he was , but had a brain that was fitted with Pentium 4 ram and could process many moves even while it was still in its infancy. His playing style was neat, one of those defenders who would play 90 minutes without breaking a sweat..yes he was that intelligent. Watch his pants, sparkling white at the beginning and it would remain so after 90 minutes. He had others doing all the huffing and puffing. When you have Darpah a workhorse by your side, all you need to do is to wait at the end where he fails and mope up. He was also in the team that won the 76 cup, a legend in his own right. The closest I came to meeting him was playing against the teams he coached.

Muda Lawal : (RIP). What can I say about a legend above legends. As kid the ever smiling face of Muda assaults you whenever you open a sports magazine or journal reporting on the league or national team engagements. On the radio and on the TV the name Muda Lawal assaults your ears, there was no running away from him. As a kid perhaps one image of him I can recollect was in a match, the ball was kicked up so high in the sky, many would simply head the ball away or allow it to bounce with the aim of only attempting to control it thereafter. I remember Muda taking this on his instep at the first take, the ball stuck to his feet as if there was a magnet. For years I would grow up trying to do that. It was part of the training routine I grew up on while learning to control a high ball with the instep. He had a way of spreading his arms out, his elbow bent at an angle for balance. He was magical on the ball, his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy! He was one of those players who hardly lose the ball and who knew what to do before the ball comes to them. He could also multi task as he could play as an attacker as well. In the 1980 ANC we were struggling scoring goals, we started the tournament relying on Ifeanyi Onyeadika who was on fire going into the tournament. He could not cope, Nwosu was the other, he also struggled. We struggled in the quarter finals and semi finals edging past the opposition Egypt and Morroco I think with a goal each. A state of emergency was declared in the final and Muda Lawal was drafted in, he emerged as one of the scorers. Listen you cannot mention Muda to people with a few lines and I would not even attempt that.
It was a great privilege to play against him and with him. Let me share the moment. It was in 1988 Shooting was in division 2 and we went to play them in Ibadan. Muda was deployed as an attacker, it was in the dying days of his career. I knew this so it was easy for me to become aggressive with him. I remember a particular incident during the match, it was a high ball and he tried to elbow me and tried to intimidate me as well saying..’look you this small boy, do you know who you are marking? I will injure you’.. I responded by smacking my head with both hands and I said ‘aghh thanks I have been waiting for this, it is out of respect I have not injured you since’. The next time the ball came in the air , I went through him elbow and all..he looked at me and said in Yoruba ‘Amugbo ni omode yi sha’ (This boy must be a hemp smoker). I remember he kept a safe distance from me till the end of the match. Perhaps what he did after the match was to recommend me to Shooting as a player to recruit. He was a legend , playing with him was fun. He would remind us in matches that if we lose, we would have to cough up the match bonus, since he cannot go back to Yetunde (his wife) empty handed. My success at Shooting was down to the encouragement I got from his likes, he loved my game and could never stop singing my praises.

Segun Odegbami : The legend I never got to play against or work with. The closest I came to working with him was when he volunteered to be my agent and when he was the Welfare officer with the national team in the 90s. Sad how his legendary status was compromised for something that was never his fault. He was the manager when the team was first relegated in 86, the Ibadan fans never forgave him. He ran a disco or club joint at the time, it was alleged that players converge there and it was responsible for their non-performance. He recruited most of the players, it was no coincidence that they decided to converge around him. There was something about Big Shege, for someone of his status at the time, he was easy going and easy spoken. There was no airs around him. He was polished, educated and had the aura and appeal.
Anyways let me talk about Big Sheg the great magical winger and footballer. Geez where do I start from. This man tormented the North Africans, he was strong, he was fast, he could dribble, he could score and he was big. The sight of him in full flow along the touchline remains the stuff folklores are written on. The sight of him reducing to shreds Mustapha Kouchi the petit but intelligent left full back the Algerians brought to the ANC 80 competition remains a case of abuse that the international community should be ashamed of for turning the blind eye. Segun Odegbami destroyed the lad in a brutal and merciless way, he tore him to shreds turning him over to makes sure he was well ripped apart. The following year when the Algerians came to town to play us in the 82 WC qualifiers, it was not a surprise to anyone to see them field a goliath as a left full back. The intention was clear to stop Segun Odegbami. It worked, at least long enough for them to score their goals. I think Odegbami only got the best of this brute of a guy once, but what a move that was. The ball was passed to Big Sheg on the ground, the defender had stuck to him all day long. So this time Big Sheg ran towards the ball at such a speed that the Algerian thought he was going to control the ball and try to face him. But Big Sheg allowed the ball to run , left the ball alone and took a few steps forward after the ball had gone, only to turn abruptly. The Algerian kept running…he has not returned, he was last spotted at Lawanson street looking for his way back to the national stadium. Yes a myth , but such was the beauty of that move that the whole stadium stood up. Big Sheg can be a bully when the opposition is not up to scratch, the name Mathematical was given to him by the late commentator Ernest Okonkwo. Ask yourself why would a footballer be named Mathematical…ok ok let me help you, yes Odegbami graduated as an Engineer from Ibadan Polytechnic. But it was the way he would chart his path along the line beating everything and anything in a straight line..watching closely, you could see substitution and addition taking place, plotted on a line….a mathematical equation emerges..yes he was indeed a mathematician.
Let me not exaggerate okay, but as kid the first time I saw him with my own eyes was when the Ilorin Township stadium was commissioned in 1978. Shooting stars came to town to play the best team in Ilorin then, the Super Pioneers. The decimated the Ilorin team scoring 6 goals, geez Odegbami went on a rampage, until a guy called Omolomo, a barbwire type of defender decided to take him out by planting his knees right in his chest. It was the only way to stop the carnage. Yes it was brutal, but something more brutal was being perpetuated on the hapless Ilorin boys by Odegbami.
In 1984 a retired Odegbami returned to play in the Champions club and he gave a performance against the Fez of Maghreb , a Moroccan team. Many times players wonder why they are asked to run the balls in slalom dribbles through cones..well you need to see Odegbami in action interpreting what a slalom dribble looks like. That for me was a worthy performance from a legend signing off. He destroyed the Moroccan team, they acknowledged this and thanked him for a great lesson from a legend. When you witness such a performace, you don’t need a DVD to capture it, it stays in your memory forever.

Anyways these are some of my personal recollections , I hope you enjoyed this as much I have done going through history.

Wasn't Zamalek Segun Odegbami came out of retirement to play against in 1984 and lost 1-nil ?

Zamalek was the final and he did not play ruled out by knee injury.

Oloye he played agaisnt Zamalek Oh .. in fact he put the ball in the net when the goalie put the ball down but the goal was called back .. But he did play with a bandaged Knee ..

Lukemana:

He came out of retiremnet way ebfore the Zamalek game.. in fact he featured in the whole campaign.

Forgot the team they played in the first round i think they were Senegalese. May have been AS Police of Senegal but may be wrong and Shooting beat them like 7-1 on aggregate.
Thereafter they faced Tonerre Kalala of Yaounde (featuring George Weah yes the same George Weah) whom Shooting beat 4-0 at home with Owo Blow doing a hat trick but the Camerounians returned the favor in Yaounde winning 4-1 .
Anyway the next round was agaisnt Fez Maghreb and then finally Zamalek

[oloye]

And the king of Oluyole IICC Shooting with the legends.
Standing r-l, Segun Odegbami aka Mathematical,Idowu Otubusin aka Slow Poison,NA, Rasaki Fadare, Moses Otolorin aka Authority,Folorunsho Gambari, Nathaniel Adewole, Kehinde Jeyifous, Kennedy Darpah
Squatting l-r Best Ogedengbe, Fatai Lagunju, Biodun Ogunjimi,Tunde Bamidele, Sam Ashante, Felix OWOBLOW Owolabi,Muda Lawal.

Feeling a little bored this afternoon what better way to kill this off than putting a few nostalgic and reflective thoughts on some of the names on parade by the IICC Shooting stars team on show in this picture.
My thoughts are all based on my perceptions of these players as a kid, some of whom I will later play along with or train under them. Growing up as a kid, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be in the same room or come anywhere the level of the statuses which these guys were seen and perceived by the followers of the game. In Ibadan and among the many faithfuls of the Shooting stars family, the guys in these pictures were demi-gods, legends and heroes. This picture was taken somewhere in the late 70s(78) and early 80s(81,82).
So let us take a journey together.

Best Ogedengbe: Goal keeper, burst onto the scene in 1976, when he took over from Zion Ogunfeyinmi in post, he went on to become legend as he was in the team that won the African Cup winners cup in 76. His stock rose over the years and by 1980, he surprised everyone in the country when he was preferred over the legend Emma Okalla to man the post during the African cup of nations hosted that year. He was a lively character and his strength lies in his agility, he was very very agile. Perhaps his greatest attribute was his ability to talk and talk endlessly while issuing instructions to his defenders. He thrived in the mind games and would often be seen teasing the opposing strikers, especially when to comes to penalties. He was good at this and it was in this area that he managed to etch himself into the memory of the nations. Ended his career with Abiola babes, now deceased. He was fun to be with as my path came across his when he became the Welfare Office of Shooting star..a great talker on and off the pitch.

Rasaki Fadare : My image of him as a goalkeeper goes back to when he was with Water Corporation of Ibadan, he had what you would call an unorthodox style of keeping. Erratic and not quite as polished. Perhaps his greatest strength was in his bravery. He would throw himself at balls and at attackers not caring a hoot about his own safety. The lingering image of him I have etched in my memory was him being at the receiving end of some serious whooping (4-0) from Rangers back in the 70s, it was strange watching this keeper throw himself wildly about , but only to retrieve the ball from his net.

Felix Owolabi: Came into the Shooting stars family in 78, came into national prominence as a left full back. In the Shooting family he took over from the legend Sam Ojebode, who retired after leading the team to the glorious 76 African winners cup. He was recruited from Raccah Rovers Fc of Kano.Owoblow played for Nigeria in the 78 ANC competition hosted by Ghana, he played as a left back in that competition. But it was in the 1980 edition that he found fame and success playing as left midfielder (inside left it was called back then). Where his pairing with Adokiye in that tournament obliterated the opponents. He got his nickname from that tournament. The echo of Owoblow reverberating all around Surulere remained one of the endearing legacies of his national career. Post 1980, whenever in the colours of the GWG he touches the ball inside the mainbowl..the sound of Owoblow will echo around..you have to be there to get a feel of the effect. He was strong raw energy, left footed(Never saw him use the right), he could do magical things with that left. He was the first player I saw who passed the ball with both sides of one foot and the instep..so he never had to use the other foot. He packed bullet. I was privileged to play with him in the years when he was winding down, although gifted with natural strength, his training regime was something else. A product Unilag, he is now a Phd holder and rightly addressed as Dr Felix Akinloye Owolabi M.O.N. He played late into his 30s retiring at the age of 38, after turning down the attempt to lure him back into the SE for a last hurrah. He was part of the Shooting stars team that won the Abiola Cup (CAF), back in 1992. A legend in his own right. I was privileged to both play with him and to be coached by him..Baba Buky as we fondly call him had a never say die attitude, a stubborn streak, one which I challenged both on and off the field.

Kennedy Darpah : A Ghanaian import who featured and was part of the team that won the 76 cup. A regular feature in the team, a strong defender , one of those who inspired me in the game. The name Darpah was exotic, it was unique, as a result hearing this week in week out on the radio and on TV endears you to such. As a Rangers fan growing up, he was one of those I dreaded on the Shooting team, he looked imposing and fearsome. I was privileged to work under him, he was one of those who encouraged me when I was still trying to find my way in the league. I remember the first time I met him, he was coaching a Div 3 club side Nigermatch of Ibadan, my team Kwara Bombers had just played them , it was my first season in the Nigerian league. He walked over to me shook my hands and commended me, saying I reminded him of himself when he was my age. A massive compliment from a legend. Years later our path would cross when I joined Shooting, he was one of the coaches, and he took me under his wings. We became close, he would share with me his reckless past as a player and how God saved him and gave him a second chance. He had found God and was a calmer person. He is deceased, but his legendary status in the annals of Nigerian football was long assured. A great individual.

Sam Ashante: Baba Kofi, another Ghanaian import and also part of the team that won the 76 cup competition and a legend in his own right. The Shooting team of the 70s coached by the great Allan Hawkes had a unique way of playing, they had the Ghanaian influence , Sam Ashante was one of the inspirations behind that. Intelligent with eye and vision for clever passes. The trio of Ashante, Muda Lawal, Sam Saka Bose in the middle of Shooting’s team, together with Joe Appiah(another Breda) as the right full back and Phillip Boamah (Another one) right winger, made watching Shooting even for non-fans a grudgingly delightful experience. They kept the ball on the ground and at the heart of all that was Sam Ashante working at tandem with Muda. A quiet spoken individual, it was also a privilege to work under him when he was one of the coaches at Shooting in my time there.

Folorunsho Gambari: Aka Gambus, his legendary status as a Shooting player(also part of the 76 winning team) can best be appreciated by the way he was revered in Ilorin his home town. When he passed it was rumored that he was the victim of some diabolical shenanigans going on in Shooting camp. At that time when I was growing up in Ilorin, a player leaving to play for Shooting was deemed a reckless player, one who does not value his life. I would recollect an incident when I was with Shooting and a player by name Oba who was a senior colleague when we were together at Kwasu bombers walked over to me. He asked me what I was doing in Ibadan playing for Shooting, he had played for Shooting but did not have a good experience, which only helped to reinforce the position held about the club. He rebuked my reckless decision to play for Shooting and cautioned me to get away as soon as possible. This all had to with the Gambus death and of course with the way some of the Ilorin raised and bred players were unceremoniously discarded when they were no longer needed. Players like Moses Otolorin, Kafaru Alabi all returned to Kwara state almost in penury only to rely on Kwara state for their rehabilitation. These were used as reference points to warn others nursing the dream to play for Shooting. On Gambus, perhaps what he was more noted for was his power play. He played as left winger, but very direct and brutish in his approach. Before the Amokachi the bull, we had some raw bulls in the Nigerian league. Gambus was one of them.

Tunde Bamidele: (RIP). He was recruited from Taraba FC of Yola, back in the days when the national league was a three tier strong league. He was part of the recruitment policy in place at Shooting that encourages any Yoruba indigene and especially Oyo state seen plying their trade outside the state to come home to play for their darling team. As a kid , that a player could replace Odiye in the national team was hard to comprehend or even accept. I thought it was because Odiye left that was why Tunde Bamidele was in the national team, but when Odiye was brought back for the 1980 ANC and he still could not displace Tunde Bamidele, I began to watch him closely. Think of John Terry, the simplicity of defending and passing the ball, you have the image of Tunde Bamidele. CCC thrived on the back of work horses, first it was Odiye and now Tunde Bamidele. He was not as flamboyant as Odiye, but he was rock solid and dependable and he proved to be with the team that won the ANC 80. He had a great career with Shooting and retired with the team back in the 80s. He became a coach before his death. Privileged to meet him a pleasant personality. I still remember when he came to train with us the NUGA team for the FISU 89 hosted by the former Yugoslavia. We were having general kick about, and I tried to be cheeky with him by nutmegging him (my one and only chance to dribble a legend), although I succeeded, but he held on to me, and jokingly rebuked me for not showing respect to retired legend and an MON.

Otubusin Idowu: Aka Slow poison or simply Slow. A center half in his time. The only reason why he never had a glowing international career to his name was because of CCC. He was named slow for a reason, slow he was , but had a brain that was fitted with Pentium 4 ram and could process many moves even while it was still in its infancy. His playing style was neat, one of those defenders who would play 90 minutes without breaking a sweat..yes he was that intelligent. Watch his pants, sparkling white at the beginning and it would remain so after 90 minutes. He had others doing all the huffing and puffing. When you have Darpah a workhorse by your side, all you need to do is to wait at the end where he fails and mope up. He was also in the team that won the 76 cup, a legend in his own right. The closest I came to meeting him was playing against the teams he coached.

Muda Lawal : (RIP). What can I say about a legend above legends. As kid the ever smiling face of Muda assaults you whenever you open a sports magazine or journal reporting on the league or national team engagements. On the radio and on the TV the name Muda Lawal assaults your ears, there was no running away from him. As a kid perhaps one image of him I can recollect was in a match, the ball was kicked up so high in the sky, many would simply head the ball away or allow it to bounce with the aim of only attempting to control it thereafter. I remember Muda taking this on his instep at the first take, the ball stuck to his feet as if there was a magnet. For years I would grow up trying to do that. It was part of the training routine I grew up on while learning to control a high ball with the instep. He had a way of spreading his arms out, his elbow bent at an angle for balance. He was magical on the ball, his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy! He was one of those players who hardly lose the ball and who knew what to do before the ball comes to them. He could also multi task as he could play as an attacker as well. In the 1980 ANC we were struggling scoring goals, we started the tournament relying on Ifeanyi Onyeadika who was on fire going into the tournament. He could not cope, Nwosu was the other, he also struggled. We struggled in the quarter finals and semi finals edging past the opposition Egypt and Morroco I think with a goal each. A state of emergency was declared in the final and Muda Lawal was drafted in, he emerged as one of the scorers. Listen you cannot mention Muda to people with a few lines and I would not even attempt that.
It was a great privilege to play against him and with him. Let me share the moment. It was in 1988 Shooting was in division 2 and we went to play them in Ibadan. Muda was deployed as an attacker, it was in the dying days of his career. I knew this so it was easy for me to become aggressive with him. I remember a particular incident during the match, it was a high ball and he tried to elbow me and tried to intimidate me as well saying..’look you this small boy, do you know who you are marking? I will injure you’.. I responded by smacking my head with both hands and I said ‘aghh thanks I have been waiting for this, it is out of respect I have not injured you since’. The next time the ball came in the air , I went through him elbow and all..he looked at me and said in Yoruba ‘Amugbo ni omode yi sha’ (This boy must be a hemp smoker). I remember he kept a safe distance from me till the end of the match. Perhaps what he did after the match was to recommend me to Shooting as a player to recruit. He was a legend , playing with him was fun. He would remind us in matches that if we lose, we would have to cough up the match bonus, since he cannot go back to Yetunde (his wife) empty handed. My success at Shooting was down to the encouragement I got from his likes, he loved my game and could never stop singing my praises.

Segun Odegbami : The legend I never got to play against or work with. The closest I came to working with him was when he volunteered to be my agent and when he was the Welfare officer with the national team in the 90s. Sad how his legendary status was compromised for something that was never his fault. He was the manager when the team was first relegated in 86, the Ibadan fans never forgave him. He ran a disco or club joint at the time, it was alleged that players converge there and it was responsible for their non-performance. He recruited most of the players, it was no coincidence that they decided to converge around him. There was something about Big Shege, for someone of his status at the time, he was easy going and easy spoken. There was no airs around him. He was polished, educated and had the aura and appeal.
Anyways let me talk about Big Sheg the great magical winger and footballer. Geez where do I start from. This man tormented the North Africans, he was strong, he was fast, he could dribble, he could score and he was big. The sight of him in full flow along the touchline remains the stuff folklores are written on. The sight of him reducing to shreds Mustapha Kouchi the petit but intelligent left full back the Algerians brought to the ANC 80 competition remains a case of abuse that the international community should be ashamed of for turning the blind eye. Segun Odegbami destroyed the lad in a brutal and merciless way, he tore him to shreds turning him over to makes sure he was well ripped apart. The following year when the Algerians came to town to play us in the 82 WC qualifiers, it was not a surprise to anyone to see them field a goliath as a left full back. The intention was clear to stop Segun Odegbami. It worked, at least long enough for them to score their goals. I think Odegbami only got the best of this brute of a guy once, but what a move that was. The ball was passed to Big Sheg on the ground, the defender had stuck to him all day long. So this time Big Sheg ran towards the ball at such a speed that the Algerian thought he was going to control the ball and try to face him. But Big Sheg allowed the ball to run , left the ball alone and took a few steps forward after the ball had gone, only to turn abruptly. The Algerian kept running…he has not returned, he was last spotted at Lawanson street looking for his way back to the national stadium. Yes a myth , but such was the beauty of that move that the whole stadium stood up. Big Sheg can be a bully when the opposition is not up to scratch, the name Mathematical was given to him by the late commentator Ernest Okonkwo. Ask yourself why would a footballer be named Mathematical…ok ok let me help you, yes Odegbami graduated as an Engineer from Ibadan Polytechnic. But it was the way he would chart his path along the line beating everything and anything in a straight line..watching closely, you could see substitution and addition taking place, plotted on a line….a mathematical equation emerges..yes he was indeed a mathematician.
Let me not exaggerate okay, but as kid the first time I saw him with my own eyes was when the Ilorin Township stadium was commissioned in 1978. Shooting stars came to town to play the best team in Ilorin then, the Super Pioneers. The decimated the Ilorin team scoring 6 goals, geez Odegbami went on a rampage, until a guy called Omolomo, a barbwire type of defender decided to take him out by planting his knees right in his chest. It was the only way to stop the carnage. Yes it was brutal, but something more brutal was being perpetuated on the hapless Ilorin boys by Odegbami.
In 1984 a retired Odegbami returned to play in the Champions club and he gave a performance against the Fez of Maghreb , a Moroccan team. Many times players wonder why they are asked to run the balls in slalom dribbles through cones..well you need to see Odegbami in action interpreting what a slalom dribble looks like. That for me was a worthy performance from a legend signing off. He destroyed the Moroccan team, they acknowledged this and thanked him for a great lesson from a legend. When you witness such a performace, you don’t need a DVD to capture it, it stays in your memory forever.

Anyways these are some of my personal recollections , I hope you enjoyed this as much I have done going through history.

Wasn't Zamalek Segun Odegbami came out of retirement to play against in 1984 and lost 1-nil ?

Zamalek was the final and he did not play ruled out by knee injury.

Oloye he played agaisnt Zamalek Oh .. in fact he put the ball in the net when the goalie put the ball down but the goal was called back .. But he did play with a bandaged Knee ..

Lukemana:

He came out of retiremnet way ebfore the Zamalek game.. in fact he featured in the whole campaign.

Forgot the team they played in the first round i think they were Senegalese. May have been AS Police of Senegal but may be wrong and Shooting beat them like 7-1 on aggregate.
Thereafter they faced Tonerre Kalala of Yaounde (featuring George Weah yes the same George Weah) whom Shooting beat 4-0 at home with Owo Blow doing a hat trick but the Camerounians returned the favor in Yaounde winning 4-1 .
Anyway the next round was agaisnt Fez Maghreb and then finally Zamalek

You mightbe right,i remember the zamalek match only for tje wrong reasons,, the run up to the match was dominated by the uncertainty of his fitness,then the controversy of playing in lagos or Ibadan,the balu balu lafin nwo saga and finally the mistake between Fawole and Raymond King that gifted Quarshie an easy goal and finally the disbandment of the team by Oladayo Popoola. These i remember more than the match itself.

Come to think of it ,i think you are right my memory can recollect him being part of the final, a limping Odegbami..

[oloye]

Thanks Oloye! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up. I never got the chance to watch those greats, but I'm curious, how does Muda Lawal compare to our modern midfielders (such as Oliseh, John Obi Mikel, or even Okocha)? Sound like Muda was a two way midfielder. Was he primarily used as a DM, and in your opinion who was the better player, Muda or Oliseh?

To start with i think they all have different styles the closest person to Muda in style would be Mikel,but Muda was more mobile and geez he had lungs that could run forever. I would not compare him to Okocha because their roles were totally different and styles completely different. With regards to Oliseh, once again Oliseh sits deep and pings those dangerous passes all over, he relishes those long passes more than the short ones, this is where the styles differ again..Muda combines both. The person that comes closest in style is Mikel but Muda had more mobility and score goals. But all of these guys have their uniqueness in their respective roles and styles ,i can wax lyrical on each one of them based on what they bring to the table.

[Senator WIRES]

Deacon!! tori olorun!!

his ball control was something you could masturbate and ejaculate upon, yes it was that sexy!

[olu]

Thanks again!

Thanks Oloye! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up. I never got the chance to watch those greats, but I'm curious, how does Muda Lawal compare to our modern midfielders (such as Oliseh, John Obi Mikel, or even Okocha)? Sound like Muda was a two way midfielder. Was he primarily used as a DM, and in your opinion who was the better player, Muda or Oliseh?

To start with i think they all have different styles the closest person to Muda in style would be Mikel,but Muda was more mobile and geez he had lungs that could run forever. I would not compare him to Okocha because their roles were totally different and styles completely different. With regards to Oliseh, once again Oliseh sits deep and pings those dangerous passes all over, he relishes those long passes more than the short ones, this is where the styles differ again..Muda combines both. The person that comes closest in style is Mikel but Muda had more mobility and score goals. But all of these guys have their uniqueness in their respective roles and styles ,i can wax lyrical on each one of them based on what they bring to the table.

[ukwala]

Dean Oloye, thanks for taking us down memory lane. I remember many an epic battle between my darling Rangers and IICC, none more so than the 2-legged semi final clash in the 1977 Africa cup winners cup. Those indeed were the days.

[mystic]

Great Stuff!!!

[Metho scorpion]

...Oloye great stuff...
...I could not read thru but skimmed briefly...
...Oloye, you did not mention: Best Ogedegbe RIP; Folorunsho Gambari RIP; Kennedy Darpah RIP...you mentioned others RIP right...
...Also, Kennedy Darpah was not in the IICC 76 team...
...Correct me if I am wrong...

[Waffiman]

Great Stuff!!!

Indeed. Thanks Bro.

What about your write for this great team.

Alex Nnaji, David Adiele, Francis Moniedafe, Leotis Boateng, Kadiri Ikhana, Felix Agboinfo (cpt), George Omokaro, Christopher Ogu, Peter Egharevba, Henry Ogboe and Rufus Ejele.