Created on 3 February 1914, the Santa Cruz Football Club was conceived by a group of boys who played football on the pavement by the Igreja de Santa Cruz (Church of the Holy Cross), in the Boa Vista neighbourhood of Recife. The name of the team is an allusion to the place where it began.

Founded on 13 May 1905 through the initiative of Pernambuco-born Guilherme de Aquino Fonseca, Sport Club Recife – written this way because of the influence of the English language, and without the ‘do’ (meaning ‘of’) that it has now – was the first football team in Pernambuco.