MIGHTY BARROLLE
EMERGES
(Culled from X-Ray
Magazine, June, 1986 Monrovia)
By Arthur Wisseh
Founding
Player
Posted July
28, 2008
Immediately following the first national county meet, which was held in
mid January 1954, the officials and players of the then Grand Bassa County
team, headed by Willie G. Cooper, the then Bassa Governor, decided to
organize themselves into a football club. Hence the Gbehzon Impregnable
Eleven (GIE) was brought into being.
Players of the first GIE team included James P. Bestman (Captain),
David Wollow, Borbor Gibson, Robert James, Alfred Thompson, Richard Brown
(deceased), frank George, J. Hilary Mason, Borbor Frank and Lewis Bryant
(deceased.) Gbehzon, which is the indigenous name for Buchanan City (the
capital of Grand Bassa County), played several games with well-established
teams like Connection, Youth leaders, Jet, IE, and Bame.
Ma Sundaeway
-Mother of Barrole
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As time went on more young
players developed admiration for Gbehzon
joined it. This was mainly promoted by continued good performance of the
Gbehzon boys, as they were popularly called. The result of this was that
between 1954 and 1956, there were generally more star players attracted
into the team than it could absorb. S as an offshoot, GIE was divided into
a senior team, GIE and a junior team, Jabokay.
However the name Jabokay remained unattractive to many football fans,
and so it was decided to have it changed into something else. Because the
officials of the two teams could not come to comprise over the suggested
names, it was at last decided to use the name of Jimmy Barrolle for the
junior team, Jabokay. Hence the name Barrolle Impregnable Eleven came into
being. (Jimmy Barrolle was then Butler to the President of Liberia,
William V. S. Tubman.)
One aspect of football competitions in those days that I can very well
remember is that Gbehzon found it difficult to defeat IE. It was after a
humiliating defeat of 7-1 that GIE suffered from IE that the sports
officials found it expedient to dissolve GIE and reinforced the morale of
the junior team and promoted it to senior level team to replace Gbehzon
GIE.
Barrolle made its first official appearance into the LFA league
against Olympics, one of the oldest teams of the time, in November 1956
with 2-0 victory. The first Barrolle team comprised of George Pennoh,
Wellington Phillips (Captain), Harry Williams, Joseph Gittens, Nathan
Nelson, Arthur Wisseh, Samuel Kummy, among others.
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