I was only 4 when my father first took me to Kolkata maidan to watch a football match. He introduced me to the world of football with a number of stories on Bengali football including the Mohun Bagan Club’s epochal Indian Football Association (IFA) Shield victory of 1911. This was something that became an inspiration for me to look upon sport as an integral part of my life. Although I never played the game beyond the standard of school, I have never lost an occasion to watch the Kolkata League or Shield matches since the early 1980s. The passion for the game drove me to take up the social history of Bengali football as the subject of my doctoral research. Thanks to all who have either inspired or discouraged me in my short journey to study sport in a historical perspective.