In the midst of the First World War, Abdurrahman Robenson, an Ottoman soldier stationed in Erzurum, sent a letter to his friend Ali Sami, the president and founder of the Galatasaray Physical Training Club, in Istanbul. In the letter, Abdurrahman juxtaposed descriptions of his experiences in the army, friendship with Sami, and his unwavering loyalty to the Galatasaray club. Abdurrahman writes, “I always carry the [Galatasaray] club medals with me on my chest. I will take them with me into war. If I die, I will be buried with them. Long live Galatasaray (yaşasın Galatasaray).” Abdurrahman’s letter offers insights into the evolving mores of male honor, the homosocial bonds connecting members of sports clubs and the centrality of club affiliation to the identity of many Ottoman male subjects. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ottoman Muslim, Christian, and Jewish citizens and foreign residents of Istanbul established a plethora of sports clubs around the imperial capital. From Beyoğlu to Tatavla to Vefa, young men signed up to become members of their neighborhood sports clubs. These voluntary associations, which were ethnically and religiously homogenous and almost exclusively homosocial private organizations, attracted Istanbulites from an expanding middle class who wanted to train their bodies, exercise, compete, socialize, have fun, and establish friendships with likeminded young men. Drawing from a diverse array of sources, such as photograph albums, letters, sport club records, government reports, newspapers, memoirs, and illustrated magazines, as well as oral histories, this paper examines the intimate bonds that members of these clubs cultivated. In order to explore the connections between male affection, homosocial bonds, and communal identity in late Ottoman Istanbul, the paper will examine the ways in which young men, such as Abdurrahman, competed on the pitch, hung out at the club, poised for photographs, explored the city and its surrounding environs, took public transportation, exercised, and swam in the sea. The argument advanced is based on multi-lingual archival research, and is part of a broader project on the creation of a shared sports culture among Turks, Armenians, Jews, and Greeks in the late Ottoman Empire.