This family was so special in Nigerian soccer over four decades ago. Four brothers playing for the same team at the same time and causing the Head of State to pay them a visit. There was a fifth, the last of the boys and their father also played good soccer. The Atuegbus, of Adazi-Nnukwu in Anambra State grew up on the Jos plateau.
Their father, Richard, played for Jos alongside the Dankaro trio of John, David and Sunday. He was also invited to the national team but was held back by injury. All that dad could not get, his five sons, Mathew, Nicholas, Andrew, Aloysius and Fidelis achieved and even surpassed. Mrs Christiana Atuegbu had six good footballers in her house and was not so comfortable that they had to be away at the same time. Her three daughters were a kind of consolation though.
Mrs Atuegbu did not see her children play against themselves. It rarely happened because the first four boys played for Mighty Jets of Jos. Fidelis was different. He never played for Jets. He also attended secondary school in the East unlike his siblings who all stayed put in the North. And this last of the boys played against his brothers. Three times it happened. The last time, some of his team mates had doubts if the Atuegbus were indeed born of the same parents.
Andy who played for the Green Eagles left for further studies in the United States after the 1974 Challenge Cup final where Jets lost 2-0 to Enugu Rangers. He was at the University of San Francisco. Fidelis joined him in 1978. Tony Igwe [World Two], Alex Nwosu [Tempest] and Godwin Odiye followed suit. Andy had picked his first of degrees and was playing for Oakland Stompers.
Stompers engaged University of San Francisco in a game. That was the first match Fidelis would play on foreign soil. His brothers had represented Nigeria abroad. Igwe, Nwosu and Odiye were in the University team. The Atuegbu brothers opposed themselves as midfielders. Igwe and Odiye manned the defence and Nwosu played upfront. Unknown to the younger Atuegbu, his elder brother had planned a very rough welcome party. It is an interesting story, told by Fidelis.
“The first game I played in the US was against Andy’s team, the Oakland Stompers in 1978. A professional side against a college team. I was lined up in the midfield and so was he for his team. We were not supposed to be marking each other on that day. But he drifted over to my side, every opportunity he got, ” the junior said.
” At one point he laid out on me with a hard tackle. It was a professional tackle and fair at the standards of days of yore. I must have been elevated a few feet from the ground and landed with a thud. While I was reeling on the ground, he told me , ‘welcome to America’. Odiye, Nwosu and Igwe were in my team at the time. Godwin was the first to reach me while I was on the floor in pain.
“I regained my composure and continued playing. My team mates were asking me : ‘Are you sure you guys are really brothers? I said , of course, and we never soft pedaled any time we faced each other competitively. The good news was that we beat them that day. A college team defeated a professional club.”
Andy was a member of the Eagles team to the Montreal Olympic Games which ended in boycott by Nigeria and other African countries. Stompers did not know that San Francisco University could take on any national team. Nwosu had won bronze with the Eagles at the Ethiopia ’76 African Nations Cup. He also won the African Winners Cup with Enugu Rangers in 1977.
Igwe was at the Mexico ’68 Olympic Games wearing Nigerian colours as a 16-year-old while his people fought for Biafra. He also won gold at the Lagos ’73 All Africa Games. Odiye bagged a bronze with Nigeria at the Ghana’78 African Nations Cup, picked silver at the Algiers ’78 All Africa Games and would later win gold at the 1980 African Nations Cup.
READ ALSO: SPORT FLAKES: ATILLA, ONE KANU BEFORE PAPILO
Andy saw war and joined the Biafran Air Force. Mathew and Nicholas were in the Biafran Army. Aloy helped their father maintain military vehicles as Fidelis stayed home with mother and the girls.
Fidelis had played against Nicholas in Jos. His team, Black Star, made up of school boys got a drubbing from Jets. The brothers met again. Fidelis had joined Nigerian Standard of Jos. It was in the 1977 Plateau Challenge Cup final. Jets lost 1-0. Aloy had joined Rangers in 1976 with Mathew and Nicholas but Nicholas soon returned to Jos. He ended up at Asaba Textile Mills.
How this Igbo family chose Jos as home is another tale. Their father had followed his elder brother, Philip, to the mining town. Both ran a company. The younger Atuegbu later got a job with Niger Motors. All the children attended St. Theresa’s Primary School, Jos. and were heading to St. Murumba College Jos, when their father thought otherwise. He wanted one of them to go back to the East.
According to Fidelis: ” You see, my parents wanted one of us to go to school in the East. Andy was supposed to be the ideal candidate. He gained admission to St. Theresa’s College, Nsukka but opted for St. Joseph’s, Vom. Since I came of age when the war ended, I had no choice but to attend schools in the East. It was first , Holy Ghost Juniorate, Ihiala for the first three years of high school. Thereafter, it was Christ the Kings College [CKC], Onitsha for the last two years.”
Andy would have joined his pal, Godwin Ogbueze at St. Theresa’s Nsukka. The school produced wonderful footballers like Keneth Ilodigwe, Damian Odo and Nwosu. St. Murumba is best known for throwing up stars like Keneth Abana, Segun Odegbami, and much later, Benedict Akwuegbu and Mikel Obi. Jos was home to many footballers.
Isaac and Peter Anieke, Sam Garba Okoye, Anthony Uzoka, Stanley Okoronkwo, Sam Onyeaka, Ogidi Ibeabuchi, Henry Erewa, Emmanuel [Tailor] Egede followed the footsteps of Chris [Ajilo] Udemezue and Moses Iloh.
The 1974 Challenge cup final between Enugu Rangers and Mighty Jets caused panic among Jos fans. The four Atuegbu brothers were Igbo just like all Rangers players. Jets team manager, Ogbueshi Uwachommadu Onyia, was a titled Igbo chief. Sam Garba and Kelechi [Caterpillar] Emeteole were also of the same tribe. Many forgot that Garba Okoye, son of an Enugu father and and Hausa mom, played for Nigeria at Mexico’ 68.
General Yakubu Gowon was worried that his Benue Plateau State team would not get the best out of the Atuegbus. He went visiting the family. Gowon promised to buy Volkswagen Beetles cars for the boys if they defeated the Flying Antelopes. The match ended 2-0 against Jets with Ilodigwe and Ogidi scoring. It was the umpteenth time the Jos team would fail to win the trophy.
Teams also flooded the Atuegbu family home with cash to woo the father. ” Other clubs did approach my dad with bags full of money to secure the services of my brothers. Most notably, Rangers and Bendel Insurance”, Fidelis revealed.
The Atuegbu brothers bore funny nicknames. Mathew was called ‘Mogambo the Truck Pusher’. Nicholas chose ‘Attila the Horn’. Aloy became ‘Block Buster’. Their father died in 1975. Mathew, Nicholas and Aloy are late. Fidelis lives in Livermore, California and holds an MBA in Finance. He played for Hellas, Sons Of Italy and El Salvador, all semi professional sides in San Francisco Super League.
Fidelis picks out Nicholas. “He was the most gifted academically and football wise. When he was on , he was unstoppable.” Mathew played for and coached Rangers. He also managed Vasco da Gama, Enugu. Aloy won the Nations Cup in 1980 with Green Eagles, the Africa Winners Cup with Rangers in 1977. He also captained the Coal city Boys. Before he passed on, Block Buster once served on the Technical crew of the Golden Eaglets.