Wydad Athletic Club (WAC) () is a
Moroccan athletics club based in
Casablanca,
Morocco, best known for its
football team.
History
The
swimming section was the first section of the
Wydad Athletic Club "WAC" to be created and this was on May 8, 1937 . The members of the first management
committee of Wydad were Haj Mohamed Benjelloun (President), Maitre Mohamed Zarouk, Mohamed Ben Lahsan, Haj Mohamed Ben Mohamed Ben Lahsan Benjelloun, Ralph Botbol, Charles Benchetrit, Bienvenu, Lucien Bilikrinieu, Pierre André, Boravel, and Croné Vivirel.
Other sections were created for the club as time went by, like the
tennis in
1938 and
football in
1939, section which Haj Tounsi alias Père Jégo created, to reach today 14 sections including Basketball, Handball, Boxing, Wrestling, Cycling, Badminton, Track and field, Waterpolo, Hockey...
Several versions circulate according to the origin of the naming of the club. In
Arabic, Wydad means
Love. Each historian brings his explanation. But that brought back by Ahmed Lahrizi in his book on
Wydad volume 1, is the most widespread and the most plausible. According to the
book, during the frequent meetings which intervened before the creation of the club, one of the founder members arrived late, the reason was that he watched the latest
film of the actress and
Egyptian singer legend
Oum Kaltoum, whose title is "Wydad". Thus came the idea to the founders to give the name to the club.
Honours