27th March is a historical date in Vipers Sports Club history as it marked 55 years since club president Dr Lawrence Mulindwa landed on this world.
Mulindwa, born to Mrs Catherine Mulindwa Nakyejwe and late Mulindwa in 1965 at Kanyike Kamengo, has played an integral part in the development of football and sports largely in Uganda.
The Vipers Sports Club’s majority shareholder and a back bone of the three-time Uganda Premier League winners with 90% shares who is a generous living legend has dedicated his life to bankrolling various sports disciplines as his legacy under that aspect remains unmatched.
The Venoms’ proprietor started his administration career as a Chairman of Bunamwaya FC (now Vipers) between 2000 to 2004.
The following year, Mulindwa relinquished the chair to Tadeus Kitandwe before standing for the Fufa presidency in order to restore football’s lost glory.
On the 17th of December 2005, Dr Mulindwa became the FUFA president after going through a long process beating competition from Chris Rwanika had who was his immediate rival.
With just one year, Mulindwa’s leadership settled outstanding debts for the Federation which included recovery of the land title for the FUFA House in Mengo.
A good number of capacity building courses were conducted during his tenure and Uganda Cranes remained unbeaten at home for eight years, accompanied by improved players’ welfare.
Under his leadership, inter regions were revived, Fufa awards were introduced, Uganda lifted the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup for four times as Fufa attracted sponsorship from various companies on top of enjoying relations with fans, Government, CAF & FIFA.
His main challenge was the failure of leading the Cranes to Afcon tournament, together with inadequate funding from government.
After leaving the Fufa seat willingly in 2013, Dr Mulindwa prioritized Vipers Sports Club with an aim of making it the best in the country and on the continent a dream he is yet to see come true.
At this time, Vipers SC has managed to win three league titles, and on the verge of registering a fourth as they lead the SUPL league table with 5 matches to go.
The current log leaders also triumphed in Uganda Cup, Fufa Super Cup and Fufa Super 8 Cup once.
In March 2017, the football investor became the first Ugandan to own a private stadium as the magnificent St Marys Stadium.
Their fortress was officially opened to the public with a CAF confederation cup game against Platinum Stars from South Africa which the Venoms managed to win 1-0 thank to Milton Karisa.
Last year, he unveiled a factory manufactured club bus the first of its kind in Uganda and a couple of months ago, he opened a state of the art gym at the stadium.
Further to that, his St Marys Kitende school project excels academically laying a foundation on which it is the most sought after private secondary school in the country on top of the sporting excellence in the different sports disciplines.
The school has remained the club’s pivotal zone for grooming talents to the Senior team producing footballing stars like Jungu Methodius, Bengo Steven, Balinya Juma, Paul Mucureezi, Wasswa Geofrey, Lwaliwa Halid, Anthony Bongole, Yuda Mugalu, Alitho James,vIsma Watenga, Murushid Juuko, Dan Wagaluka, Sadam JumaNature, Kizito Luwagga, Muhammad Shaban.
Other graduates from the school are Keziron Kizito, Sulaiman Mutyaba, Deus Bukenya, Nicholas Wadada, Birikwalira Dan Danucho, Siraje Sentamu, Mandela Ashraf, Farouk Miya, Godfrey Walusimbi, Waiswa Moses, Bashir Mutanda, Kalumba Brian among others.
On December 13th 2018, the FUFA honorary president was awarded a honorary doctorate degree from London graduate school in honour of his contributions towards development of education and sports which he received during the 15th Dubai leadership summit in UAE.