Remembering C.K. Gyamfi

Published on: 04 December 2015
Remembering C.K. Gyamfi
CK Gyamfi

C.K. Gyamfi lost the title, 'Mr' to his name long ago because of his brilliance on the football field.

Like all masters of sports and the arts, placing suffixes before their names, make a ridiculous reading. Beethoven, Handel, Frank Sinatra, Cassius Clay, Pele, Garrincha, Eusebio, Stanley Matthews, EC Briant, and the like, are what these stars of stellar quality are named and called. Therefore, we will do fine here with C. K. Gyamfi or C. K.Wampi if you were a Nigerian or Kenyan football commentator.

C. K. Gyamfi was one of the 18 footballers who toured England in the early 50s, under the leadership of the late Richard Akwei Snr, a visionary yet uncelebrated sports administrator in the Gold Coast. C.K was one of the teenagers on the team.

The Gold Coasters except one player Briant played bare footed in all their matches. The obvious disadvantage the climate and the elements posed did not prevent C.K from scoring most of the goals the team managed to get past their obviously better placed English players. On their return to the Gold Coast, C. K started to play in boots for his club side, Asante Kotoko.

I first met CK close range when he came down to Accra after his stint with the club he founded, the Great Ashantis Football Club. This was at the Amateur Park, present day Greater Accra Regional offices, then the training grounds of Accra Hearts of Oak. C. K. had come to the grounds accompanied by the then manager of the club, the late Oduro Arthur. There was a little excitement among the small ardent supporters of the club, on seeing this great footballer come to their club's training grounds.

To some of us who did not know him in the person, we thought the man who had come to the grounds dressed in ordinary long sleeves shirt and a pair of trousers was one of the many who would come along to watch practice matches of the team. Then, CK sent for his football boots and pair of shorts from a parked car nearby.

When he got on to the field, there was an uproar from the crowd. In the course of time, a lot more people joined in to see what had caused the unusual prolonged noise at the club grounds. The Hearts of Oak supporters were very happy at landing a gem of a footballer.

When news made the rounds in the weeks that followed C.K's joining Accra Hearts of Oak, the club's opponents derided by saying that the club had bought a dead horse. It had been rumored that CK had a broken left knee and that he was finished as a player. He proved the skeptics wrong in his next few matches, playing in his new team colours.

In a challenge match against Cape Coast Dwarfs, played at the Owusu Memorial Park, now Agbogbloshie Market, Hearts of Oak trailed by three goals to one, at half time. On resumption in the second half, Hearts of Oak got a goal back and another through CK. The most brilliant goal by C K, was yet to come from his left foot, 20 yards from the opponent’s goal line.

He dribbled a couple of players approaching the goal area, but then a mass of players crowded his path. C K took the ball back towards his own goal area. Suddenly, he turned to face the opponent’s goal and unleashed a thunderbolt from his left foot for a goal. The supposed damaged foot which had earned him and Hearts of Oak the opprobrium, won Hearts the match by five goals to three. C K got a kingly ride through the park.

This was the beginning of great things to come his way, playing among others in the forward line which included Robertson, outside left, AgyiriFynn ( Kapoor) inside left, C K, centre forward, Amadu Akuse, inside right and Ofei Dodoo outside right. This victory and the many more to follow through the wizardry of C.K would have the Hearts of Oak supporters break into the Club’s Anthem:

Come cheer up my lads is to glory we share

To add something new to this wonderful year

To honor we call we not press you as slaves

For who are so free as the sons of the waves

Hearts of Oak our ship glory lies our men

We always are ready, steady boys ready

We will fight and we conquer again and again

C K scored another stunner with his famous left foot playing for Ken Harrison Stores in a departmental football challenge match against Accra Municipal Council, the leading departmental team at the time.  These challenge matches were played mid-week, to spice up the footballing flavour of the period.

Ken Harrison Stores were made up of some Hearts of Oak players and others who were employees of the drugs dispensing company. The venue of the challenge match was the Old Polo Grounds, now Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. During the middle stages of the second half, Ken Harrison Stores played from the High Street end, facing their opponents to the south. CK collected a pass and dribbled a few players in his way, directed the ball to his left foot and released a thunderbolt. The ball hit the inside of the goal post and brought it down with a deafening crash. The match ended there and then as the excitement the goal created moved a mass of spectators to the field of play. They carried CK shoulder high through the High Street to the offices of Ken Harrison Stores, close to the Accra City Council offices.

Pre National League Scene

Before commencement of the National League in 1958, teams that played competitive challenge football matches nationally were  Kumasi Ashanti Kotoko, Kumasi Conerstones,  Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs, Cape Coast Venomous Vipers, Sekondi Eleven Wise, Sekondi Hassacas Accra Standfast, Accra Great Olympics and Accra Hearts of Oak. These teams play challenge matches at irregular times. In these challenge matches, it would not be surprising for teams to field one or two players of sister teams. The notable sisterly teams were Ashanti Kotoko/Accra Standast, Accra Hearts of Oaks/ Kumasi Cornerstones.

One of the notable teams at the time was Winneba Town Eleven, which fielded the Darbah brothers, Tim and Willie. Besides these arranged matches, CK also featured prominently, for Ashanti against The Colony. Also, for Kumasi vrs Accra matches.

Gold Coast Vrs Nigeria (the Jalco Cup)

The Jalco Cup competition pre-dated Ghana's Independence. Before the Second World War when the competition was temporary suspended and the years thereafter, Nigeria was the dominant team. The domination was total and it was not before the emergence of C.K, James Adjei, Macauley and E C Briant that the tide changed for the Gold Coast.

In the match against Nigeria in 1953 at the Accra Sports Stadium, Gyamfi scored the only goal of the match. It marked the beginning of the series of victories over Nigeria. C K and his teammates brought honor to the nation and our pride as a great football nation was established.

The National League as it exists now, commenced in the 1958/59 season, CK, played mostly for Ashanti Kotoko, during this period. The team, featuring C. K.Gyamfi and a host of players such as James Adjei, Salifu, Baba Yara, AsebiBoakye, Coker and later, Kwame Adarkwa, was a delight to watch especially, in the closing minutes of their matches. Ashanti Kotoko had then developed a penchant for playing with such finesse and pressure, most defences of their opponents would crumble under such display of aggression.

The Republicans.

At the height of President Kwame Nkrumahs’ reign and the masterly of the enigmatic Ohene Djan, overseer of all sporting activities in the country, the Osagyefo Republican Club was formed. The team creamed off at least the two best players each from the teams that constituted the national football league. A few Academical players were thrown in to arguably, have a standing National team. C.K Gyamfi arguably was one of the players to be picked to form the Osagyefo Republican Club. So impressive was the club on the field of play that they were mostly disliked by the football fans.

They would not have the best of their players snatched by Ohene Djan, so they assumed, to form a league club to contest in the national league, with a clearly huge advantage. CK and the Republicans were not the favourites of soccer fans. They did not have a following of more than one hundred supporters countrywide. Perhaps, in a bid to counter this growing hatred for an arguably fine crop of players and a novelty of a standing national team, the Republicans undertook an extended tour of mostly, Eastern European countries.

On the team's return to Ghana, Republicans  introduced a formation that was acquired on the tour, with  a dominant position in mid field, reserved for the tactician on the field, at the Number Four (4) position.  And this was C.K’snew jersey number and position, having started his football career as an old style center forward, number nine (9) then to the number ten (10) position. These are all significant numbers and positions, reserved for only the best. An attestation  of C.K Gyamfi's dominance and influence on the field of play, throughout his playing days.

Ghana, Four Times as Africa Champions

Most significantly, C.K.Gyamfi had a hand in all the victories won by Ghana in this significant historical feat. C.K featured in all the championship matches as a player in the first two, captain in the next and then, as the team manager for the final event in 1978.

The Coaching Years

C.K.Gyamfi was a perfect fit for football. As coach, he brought into the profession, the same wizardry he had displayed as a football player. Any club he coached, he left significant traces as a master of the craft. Let us for now, dispense with the established clubs he may have coached. The focus will be on the teams he handled from scratch. Great Ashanti's, as a player and coach then. GIHOC Stars, Panbros and SS 74.

Football fans, who have watched these teams play, would have been impressed by the rare quality that C.K brings to players and teams. Teams which may be described as no-bodies to start with. I was privileged to have watched a mid - week match played at the Accra Sports Stadium in around 1976, between Ashanti Kotoko and SS 74, with CK as the coach of the latter.

That match was the most competitive professionally, and yet, most entertaining football match I have ever watched in Ghana. In all, there were only three occasions that the ball crossed the sidelines for a throw.

This was a very good match on all accounts. The match ended in a one-one draw, SS 74 scored in the eighty night minute, Kotoko got the equalizer a minute later.  And yet, Ashanti Kotoko was a phenomenon at the time. C.K Gyamfi's master stroke as a football coach, was all on display at this great football match. To get into the right perspectives of this match report, the writer, was unashamedly, a fanatical supporter of Accra Hearts of Oak.

The Tennis Years.

C.K Gyamfi joined the Accra Lawn Tennis Club in early 1970. He was introduced by Sam Okyere, the late GFA chairman. C.K played among the social elites of the club at the time. His play mates included Lt. Gen. Alex Erskine, late S.G.T Kofi, S. K Quartey, Alex Ammamoo, U. K.Akuaku, and JohnVanderpuye.

At the end of each playing day, the socialites will take a quick shower and converge at the club house for generous refreshments. On one such evening, it rained heavily after play had ended. It was past nine in the evening, CK's friend and benefactor, Late S .K.Quartey , a Senior Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Works and Housing, candidly asked C. K to drop my late cousin, Archie Ankrah and I at KorleGonno, where we both lived.

We got into CK's car, a white Opel saloon car. He told us he would have to pass through his house to ensure things were properly positioned before he dropped us. We obliged.  When he drove past the Ghanaian Times buildings and still headed north, my cousin and I got completely lost as we seemed to be driving through a thick forest.

We turned left and drove towards the west. We went past a few uncompleted rows of Estate Houses, to the side of an unpaved road, where CK finally stopped his car.  C K asked us to come into what turned out to be his home, where he had moved a day or two before our visit.  We were in pitch darkness, I could hear birds croaking and some animals moaning in what could be described as a thick forest, then. CK lighted a lamp, closed the doors to the house and asked us to continue our journey to Korle Gonno.

We did not utter a word on our way. I guess, CK might have read our minds. We were sore afraid for his safety at such an outlandish place.  When we got to the Korle Bu Hospital, we asked to be dropped so we could walk the rest of the distance.  Alone, we said to ourselves C K had made a grievous error of judgement to have chosen to live in that far off place. Years later, CK and I retold this story about his house, now a very busy semi commercial area.

If CK was a phenomenon on the football field, he proved to be as good on the tennis court. His forte was his excellent fitness level and his tactical mindset. Though he did not hit big shots when playing, he would retrieve every single shot hit by his opponents placing them in positions which gave him added advantage to make easy points. CK later, captained Ghana's Socials Team to win the Alitalia Trophy competed for among other nationals resident in Ghana.

C.K Gyamfi was a very good person and made friends with many, both high and low in society, irrespective of his huge personage, both local and international.

He played his part in the field of the football game. We may not be able to cover a portion of his exploits on the field of football from his Accra Royal School days, through Koforidua Mighty Sailors, Ashanti Kotoko, Great Ashanti's and Accra Hearts of Oak.

We bid you farewell, great sportsman and an icon, a legend in his own time.

We bid you a glorious farewell with the rendition of the Club Anthem:

Come cheer up my last tis to glory we share

To add something new to this wonderful year

To honor we call we not press you as slaves

For we are so free as the sons of the waves

Hearts of Oak our ship glory lies our men

We always are ready, steady boys ready

We will fight and we conquer again and again.

By Eddie Annan culled from Graphic Sports

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