Brasiilia Superliga 04/01 00:00 3 Guarulhos v Minas Tenis Clube - View
Brasiilia Superliga 04/05 00:00 3 Minas Tenis Clube v Guarulhos - View

Wikipedia - Minas Tênis Clube

Minas Tênis Clube (short, just Minas) is a social, recreational and sports club from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. By 2013, it has more than 73,000 members. Its patrimony comprises two urban units, the Minas I and Minas II, and two country units, Minas Country and Minas Tênis Náutico Clube. It also has its own indoor arena, named Juscelino Kubitschek Arena, which is a part of the Minas I complex.

Minas is best known for the professional teams it maintains, in a variety of olympic sports. It also maintains youth teams, and is recognized to be one of the most important formation centers of new sports talents in Brazil. Currently the club has approximately 1000 competing athletes, being about 900 youth athletes.

History

The club in 1938

The land that would become the first location of Minas Tênis Clube (currently Minas I) was originally assigned to become a zoo at Belo Horizonte's original urban plan, from the 1890s. By the beginning of the 1930s the urban growth surrounded the land with residential areas. In addition, it was very close to the Palácio da Liberdade, by then the official residence of the governor of Minas Gerais state. Thus the plan for a zoo raised environmental and hygiene concerns among the locals and the top officers of the state administration. Moreover, at the time the city had few entertainment and sports facilities. The then major Otacílio Negrão de Lima [pt], aware of this gap, demonstrated the interest to establish a sports center to replace the original project of a zoo.

Concurrently, prominent people from the high society in Belo Horizonte planned to found a big sport club to promote the practice of sports in the city. Necésio Tavares was the leader of this movement. He had previously created a volleyball team with his own name, and started the movement to get funding and supporting to found a club named Serra. The then 23-year-old named Waldomiro Salles Pereira, whom had the intention to found a club for the practice of tennis, get to know about Necésio's initiative, and approaches him to join forces, and to found a unique new club. Together, they develop the concept of the Serra Tennis Clube.

The group, knowing the intention of the major to promote the sports in the city, asked him to donate the land to the foundation of the new club. The major agrees with the condition that the name should be changed to Minas Tênis Clube, and that the club's first president should be appointed by the then governor of the state, Benedito Valadares [pt]. All the interests were aligned, and the official act of the club's establishment was signed on November 15, 1935, in the headquarters of the Automobile Club of Minas Gerais [pt]. At the occasion, Necésio Tavares was appointed as the club's first president.