20 things you ( probably) didn’t know about Black Rhinos
1. The team’s formation was the brainchild of the late Zimbabwe National Army Commander, General Solomon Mujuru, at the end of the 1982 top-flight’s season. He then acquired the services of Dynamos’ and CAPS United head coaches, Shepherd “Shepidho” Murape and Ashton “Papa” Nyazika respectively, to take charge of the team’s technical bench.
2. The club was then drafted into the North Zone Division One Soccer League at the beginning of the 1983 season and they blasted their way into the then Super League after winning the Division One automatic ticket at the end of the season.
3. After the team’s formation, “Chauya Chipembere’s” current head coach, Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa, joined his former mentor at “Makepekepe”, Nyazika, with two other star players, Stanley “Sinyo” Ndunduma and William “Weeds” Chikauro. BAT Ramblers’ star forward, Leslie “Muchinda” Kamuyoyo, and Arcadia United’s steely defender, Gift “Shaft” Makoni, also arrived at the army side.
4. The team won the “double” — League title and ZIFA Cup — in their debut Super League season (1984), a record that still stands today.
5. In the 1988 Zifa Cup final at the National Sports Stadium, Rhinos fielded brothers — Stanley “Sinyo” and David “Dhivha” Ndunduma — against Dynamos. However, the soldiers succumbed to a 1-0 defeat.
6. On their way to winning the North Zone Division One title, they lost only once — a 2-1 defeat — to Proton Stars at Rudhaka Stadium.
7. Former centre striker, the late Jerry “Dzungu” Chidawa, was an ex-combatant and had never played competitive football before joining the liberation struggle. However, he immediately formed a deadly partnership upfront with ex-Black Aces’ hitman, Maronga “The Bomber” Nyangela, after being drafted into the team by Murape and Nyazika following a Zimbabwe National Army trials’ session.
8. “Chauya Chipemebere’s” bogey side since they joined the elite league then was Dynamos, whom they had ironically beaten in their first two years in the top-flight. That last victory was a 2-1 triumph in a league tie at Rufaro but had to wait for an agonising 10 years when they eventually triumphed over them (1-0), the only goal of the match coming from ex-Highlanders’ utility player, Sifiso Mguni.
9. The club’s former vice-chairperson, the late Irene “Mai Karima’ Mahlanza, was the first woman to hold a top executive post in local top-flight football.
10. The club won its second league title in 1987 and also clinched the Chibuku Trophy in the same year.
11. Former tearaway winger, Ndunduma, is the only player to date to win the Soccer Star of the Year title with two different clubs (1981: CAPS United and 1985: Black Rhinos).
12. In 1985 Rhinos knocked out top Zambian side, Power Dynamos, from the African Cup of Club Champions (now known as the African Champions League) and went on to become the first local side to advance to the quarter-finals of that prestigious competition before they were narrowly edged by Senegal’s giants US Goree (3-2 on aggregate).
13. Former ‘keeper, Japhet “Short Cat” Mparutsa, still holds the record of being the only goalminder so far to be the country’s fiirst choice for the Under-20, Under-23 and senior side at the same time.
14. Rhinos would reach the quarter-finals of the African Champions League yet once again in 2002 where they, unfortunately, lost out to Morocco’s flagbearers, Raja Casablanca.
15. Former head coach, Murape, once topped an international coaching course held in Yugoslavia (now known as Serbia) in 1985 after he finished as the top student in a class of 149 other coaches who included that country’s