In 1971 on the initiative of the Company Chairman, Mr. M.M Thapar, the JCT Football Team was established with local (Punjab) young players and within a short span of time, the team came into limelight thanks to their outstanding performance. The late Mr.G.S. Virk, who was Sports Supervisor at JCT became its first Coach and discharged his duties as Coach for 21 years, up to the year 1992. The foundation of a truly national team was laid by him.

In 1974, the great footballer Inder Singh along with a few other senior players from Leader Club, Jalandhar, joined JCT, and soon JCT became one of the famous and popular clubs of the North India. During the years 1974 to 1987, JCT successfully won a host of major tournaments across India like the Durand Cup, Sait Nagjee Cup, Madura Coats, Bokaro Cup, Punjab State League Championships, top class tournaments of Punjab State, etc.

Inder Singh (an Arjuna Awardee) and Parminder Singh (player of the decade 1980-1990), both played for the Asian All Star Football Team and are still attached with JCT. Parminder Singh played for the Asian All Star Football Team, when he was a playing member of the JCT Football Team.

In the year 1992, Mr.Samir Thapar, brought Sukhvinder Singh an ex-international footballer as the JCT football coach with a mandate to further strengthen the team. Big names in Indian Football like IM Vijayan, Bhaichung Bhutia, Jo Paul Anchery, Stephen Abarowei, Carlton Anthony Chapman, Deepak Mondal, and others, played for JCT. From the year 1992 to 1997, JCT won all the major tournaments of India, namely the Inaugural National Football League in the year 1996, the Durand Cup in the years 1976, 1983, 1987, 1992 & 1996, the Federation Cup in the years 1995 & 1996, the Scissors Cup in the year 1995, the IFA Shield in the year 1996 (in this tournament JCT is the only Indian Team except Kolkata Clubs to have won the Shield) and Rovers Cup in the year 1997.

The Golden memories for JCT are the Scissors Cup 1995 in which JCT had beaten Perlis Club, (a top foreign team from Malaysia), the IFA Shield 1996 in which JCT had beaten Karkh Club, (a top foreign team from Iraq) and the Durand Cup 1996 in which also JCT beat Oil Club, one of the top clubs from Iraq.

The Coach, Sukhvinder Singh, also had the honour to work as Coach with the All India Football Federation for almost 8 years i.e. four years with Under-16 & Under-19 Teams (1986-1990) and four years with the Senior National Team (1999-2002). Moreover, IM Vijayan got the prestigious Arjuna Award in the year 2003 when he was a member of JCT.

JCT was runners-up team of the 11th National Football League 2006-2007. In the season 2007-2008, JCT team was packed with top class players like Eduardo da Silva, Sunil Chhetri, Marcos Pereira, Julius Akpele, Baljit Sahni, Baldeep Singh, Anwar, Jaspal, experienced striker Abdulateef Seriki, Gurwinder Singh among others and ended the season securing 3rd position in the I-League.

JCT football team is maintained by JCT Limited, one of the leading manufactures of textiles and the flagship company of the Thapar Group. JCT Limited's diversified business interests include Nylon Filament Yarn operations in India, and overseas operations include a textile mill in Malaysia.