Sport Club Lusitânia

In 1922, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral crossed the Atlantic by air for the first time, and on Terceira a group of enthusiasts gathered at the Recreio dos Artistas founded a club named after the seaplane of that feat: Lusitânia. Born on 24 June of that year, it became Delegation number 14 of Sporting CP, swapped the lion for a goshawk on the crest, and spent the following century justifying the nickname Os Verdes Campeões, the Green Champions: it is the most titled club in the Azores, with over 500 trophies and a three quarter century dominance of the island's sport, begun with the very first Angra championship in 1925. Until the 1974 revolution, Azorean clubs only played the Portuguese Cup; in 1978/79, Lusitânia became the first from the archipelago to compete in a national championship, and later added five national third division titles. Eclecticism is the other half of the soul: the club's basketball team played in the national elite and won a League Cup, a first for the islands. With its headquarters in the house where Violante do Canto was born and a delegation in Toronto for the diaspora, Lusitânia is Sporting with goshawk wings: born from an aeroplane, it never landed again.