The book "50 Years – Ourique Desportos Clube", which celebrates half a century of existence of the Ourique club, was written by Vítor Encarnação and Marco Rego and was publicly presented on Saturday, 12 October. The work arose from a challenge issued by the club's president, Tiago Celerinda, and aims to record and preserve for future memory the five decades of existence of the association, founded on 1 September 1976. The book has the institutional support of the Municipal Chamber and the Parish Council of Ourique.
Across 16 chapters, organized in chronological order, all sports practiced by the club over time are covered, from football to cycling, including milestones such as the construction of the football field in the late 1960s, the conquest of the first district titles in the 80s and 90s, and participation in the national women's football championship. The work includes abundant journalistic pieces, photographs, minutes, original statutes and testimonies from Ourique citizens, former presidents, coaches and team captains.
According to the authors, the book results from exhaustive research work and allows one to discover the almost artistic approach that existed in the early days in the preparation of minutes and in the photographic recording of teams, revealing a great solemnity in those moments, "the fruit of the realization of a collective dream". Vítor Encarnação stresses that at the heart of the book is "an ambitious attempt to organize time" and to cross "the institutional with the emotional, the permanent with the circumstantial".
On the day of the presentation, besides the session scheduled for 11:15 am, the club will mark its fiftieth anniversary with various activities, including a mixed generational game, lunch, tribute to founding members, members with 50 years of membership and former presidents, and exhibition games for the senior and junior teams.
