Years before its badge became iconic and its nickname bestowed upon the country’s showpiece football league, Rollers started as workers kicked a ball around Gaborone. Township Rollers was founded in 1965, but its seeds were planted four years earlier when Public Works Department workers created Mighty Tigers. As the club celebrates 65 years in 2026, the story of how Township Rollers went from workers’ team to arguably Botswana’s most successful football club reflects how football made itself at home in Gaborone.
It Started With the Men Who Built Gaborone
Rollers was founded by Public Works Department workers, according to Botswana football experts and historians at Bettingtop10 Botswana, who built some of the capital’s first internal roads. Those included Queens Road, Khama Crescent, Botswana Road and South Ring Road. Football served as a release from their labor. Workers decided to form Mighty Tigers in 1961, but the name wouldn’t stick for long. Four years later, Township Rollers was born.
What Does the Name “Township Rollers” Mean?
Gaborone was a township when Rollers’ founders formed the club. The club’s founders were also Public Works Department workers who used road rollers. Road rollers are machines that compact soil. Combining the words gives you…the club’s name.
Roller’s history even found its way onto the club badge. One history of the club says its original badge featured illustrations of prominent streets in Gaborone. They included Queens Road, Khama Crescent, Botswana Road, Independence Avenue, Kaunda Road and South Ring Road. Images representing football were also incorporated into the badge, as were illustrations featuring road rollers.
Township Rollers Played Where The National Stadium Now Stands
One of Rollers’ biggest advantages was also its biggest inconvenience: there was no dedicated home stadium. Rollers played matches on dusty lots around Gaborone. Few places in Botswana could claim to have a stadium when Rollers was established, but when Independence Stadium was built after Botswana’s independence in 1966, Rollers had a home.
Botswana won its independence in September 1966. During those early days of independence, Rollers had already taken root as an integral piece of Gaborone’s sporting culture.
Rollers and Gaborone grew up side-by-side. Botswana’s Daily News bluntly described the relationship between the two: Gaborone’s growth “has been intricately intertwined with that of Township Rollers,” in part because many of the team’s founders built some of Gaborone’s earliest roads.
Township Rollers Finds Football Success
Success moved Rollers beyond its blue-collar roots. Administrators and players from the 1960s and 1970s played crucial roles in the club’s development. It also found a rival in fellow Gaborone side Gaborone United. So fierce would Rollers’ rivalry with Gaborone United become that matches between the sides would be known as the Gaborone Derby.
These days, historians trace the Derby’s history back to at least the mid-1970s. With that kind of pedigree, the Gaborone Derby was more than a game. It was local pride. Local pride: Rollers would soon have reason to display in the trophy cabinet. Success translated to fans, and as Rollers won trophies, supporters flocked to the club from across Botswana.
The Popa-Popa Squad Takes the Nation By Storm
The ultimate blue-collar club was now known by the nickname Popa-Popa. So popular was the nickname that fans would refer to the club as both Township Rollers and Popa-Popa. Rollers were also known as The Blues, while some supporters adopted Tse Tala as a nickname. This nickname originated with Rollers supporters during the 1990s.
The club has never officially recognized Mapalastina as a nickname. Whatever name you prefer, the true name is that the Rollers were the people’s team. Success had secured Rollers’ place in the hearts of supporters for generations to come.
Township Bottoms Out, Then Wins it All
No matter how successful you are, things can still fall apart. In 2003, Rollers was relegated from Botswana’s top flight for the first time in its history. The comeback would begin inauspiciously, but Rollers returned to Botswana’s Premier League at the first time of asking. Rollers didn’t stop there. The club won back-to-back league titles and the Coca-Cola Cup in 2004–05, riding high under the late Banks Panene. According to historical accounts, it was the first time a Botswana club had won a domestic double. It’s still amazing how the Rollers had gone from rock bottom to league champions and cup winners in just two years.
Township Rollers Is More Than Just a Successful Club
Numbers don’t always paint the full picture. It’s one thing to build a successful team. It’s another to build a legacy built by workers that resonates with the entire nation. Those workers built roads. Rollers played on dusty patches of land around those roads in a township known as Gaborone.
From that humble beginning, Township Rollers became a club millions of Batswana could proudly say they supported. Rollers became part of the fabric of life in Botswana. That story—workers, roads, diamonds and football—will ride with Township Rollers every time they take to the pitch.
