Today we’d like to introduce you to Farhan Khalique.
Farhan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I became the co-founder of One! Athletics through a local fundraising basketball tournament for the community. In the early 2000’s, the small tournament was used in order help generate funds for the mosque and its school and slowly grew over the years when I became the lead for it.
Two friends and I decided to take that growth and create the NMBT, National Muslim Basketball Tour. We traveled to Chicago, New York, Toronto, Texas and LA hosting tournaments which had Muslims from all over the United States and Canada to compete for our regional championship and at the same time create a bonds between brothers from all over the country.
These tournaments lasted from 2010 to 2014 and created a lot of buzz within our own community and became very competitive but at the same time, the friendships that were created flowed off the court into our lives outside of basketball. From these tournaments, communities created their own leagues and tournaments which mimic’ed what we had brought to these cities or it rekindled existing leagues that were losing interest in those cities.
Chicago became our focal point city in 2014 as we began to solely operate in Chicagoland. The basketball tournament had now become a national tournament which has been opened up to all faiths and hosts teams from all over the country. We also have volleyball and softball tournaments annually now. Our year-round leagues enable the locals to participate and network with each other regularly. These leagues are twice a year and are a basketball league and a flag football league.
Since we opened up the leagues and tournaments to multiple sports, we decided a name change was needed that truly describes our organization. The name that was chosen was One! Athletics which hosts not only men’s leagues and tournaments but also hosts women’s basketball and volleyball tournaments as well as youth sports camps and clinics.
Has it been a smooth road?
There were many struggles along the way but through those struggles we have succeeded. It has become a pretty smooth road now and operations are fairly easy now that we have grown within the communities.
Our initial venture was to host a national championship with the winners of the regional tournaments competing. This was a difficult task since we were based out of the Midwest and wanted to host events from the east to the west coast annually. Connecting with the right people in each city and coordinating a tournament from a long distance was difficult, but became easier after we hosted once per city because of those connections that were created.
Nowadays, since we are based out of Chicagoland and primarily operate in our own town, I would say we have a fairly smooth operation. The gym, the referees, the participants, and the sponsors are all friends with us and work with us to create the best environment for what we are trying to do no matter if it is a tournament, league, camp or convention.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with One! Athletics – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
As the co-founder and vice president of One! Athletics, I would say our organization prides itself in being intertwined within the community. There are many mosques in and around Chicago and because of that, we have our own smaller communities that aren’t always connected. What I am most proud of is One! Athletics ability to create a sense of community within the greater Muslim community which allows the Muslims from the north, south, and west sides of Chicagoland as well as proper Chicago to know each other and be able to relate to each other. This sense of community which unites us all also allows people of other faiths involved in our tournaments and leagues to see that unity and be a part of One! Athletics.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The best thing about Chicago is the diversity. There is a little bit of every culture and lifestyle here and you can experience any of them depending on what part of the city you go to.
The only thing I dislike about Chicago is the winters.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oneathletics.org
- Email: info@oneathletics.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_athletics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One.Athletics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/one_athletics
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/user/NMBT2010
Image Credit:
AH Photography, Aseel Quad Photography, State Street Photography
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