NITC then CREC among the dominant sports colleges in Kerala ? Yes there was a time in the late seventies and early eighties when REC ruled the sports arena all over Kerala. It was a common sight to have around 20 Calicut University players and a few National and Junior National players in REC and that too when Calicut University was the dominant University in sport at the All India level .

REC won the Calicut University Overall Championship Trophy in Sports for the first time in 1979 but were among the top teams in Kerala for many years during that period .

The golden era of sports when nearly Rs40000 of the nearly one Lakh College Union Budget was allocated to sport . A time when we had dedicated grounds inside the campus for Badminton, Tennis , Volleyball, basketball, Hockey and Football with Gyms , Wrestling mats, TT tables in the hostels and a dedicated cricket cum Athletic track at the 12th Mile. That was the period when the late Mr Abdul Rehman was Senior PD and Mr Najeeb was the junior PD with two affectionate ground markers in Shangu and Ramadas . It was like a family affair .

REC dominated Calicut University and Kozhikode district in Greeko Roman Wrestling, Weightlifting and Kalari Payyatu. In Football they had individuals like KTJ Mathew who captained Indian University along with several stars at Univ level . In Athletics too we had JM Shanker and Sunil Kanaran who ruled the tracks in long distance and short distance . In Tennis they were University Champs while in Table Tennis they dominated at the state level with state player Sebastian and in shuttle it was again a state domination with stars like Thambu and John of Matha . Hockey and Basketball they were among the best Men’s teams in Kerala with several university players and State Stars in Nazer and Sarto in Hockey and Majid and Chellan Pillai in Basketball. Cricket too were Calicut University Champs .

The school bus full of student spectators was a common site at any championship and the several victories were celebrated by having barrels of Kallu at the entrance of every hostel and a local band arranged from Calicut town leading revellers from E hostel to the ladies hostel and back . The celebrations in fact would have started in the college bus and Neetu Singh – Rishi Kapoor numbers were in huge demand . Among the firsts was the first Marathon hosted by final years each year and run along the local river.

And what did the players get ? Each college team player looked forward to a normal sports shoe ( Rs40) and a college T shirt . Travel allowance for matches . The REC grounds were so hard and pocket money was minimal so that every player used to have their shoe resoled with a Tyre piece for practice and use the good shoe only for matches .

Now why did REC excel in sports ? Well a good group of students from PAN India some with exposure to sports like cricket or wrestling which was hardly prevalent in Kerala , plenty of spare time in the afternoon and evenings as we had no TV nor mobiles and the adequate sports facilities and opportunities for a 1000 students which was the maximum number of students at any time . It was truely a golden era of sport in REC , one which may never be achieved.