HAŠK
Encyclopedia
HAŠK was a Croatia
n football club established in Zagreb
in 1903 which ceased operating in 1945. The club was one of the most successful sides in Zagreb and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
in the period between the two World Wars. Since then several sports clubs have claimed to descend from it, the most significant of which is HAŠK Mladost sports society
.
HAŠK was founded as a multi-sports club
in November 1903 by nine Zagreb students (August Adam, Dragutin Albrecht, Petar Čerlek, Vjekoslav Jurković, Marko Kostrenčić, Krešimir Miskić, Oskar Mohr, Lav Wodwarška and Hinko Würth) who are today seen as pioneers of organized sports at the University of Zagreb
. The club's purpose was to popularize sports among Croatian students, as well as to counter the ongoing magyarization
of Croatian public life, since Croatia was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The club's colours were red, white and golden, chosen to represent the colours of Croatian provinces.
At first, the club had sections for fencing
, ice-skating, skiing
, sledding
and sports shooting
, but ever since football was introduced in the spring of 1904, it became the most popular and well-known department of the club. The club played its first official game on 16 October 1906 against PNIŠK Zagreb (Prvi nogometni i športski klub Zagreb, First football and sports club Zagreb) which ended in a 1-1 draw in front of 800 spectators.
The club played many non-league games against local sides and against foreign opponents in the following years, such as the game against BEAC (The University of Budapest
sports club) in 1909. When the first Croatian football championship
was started in 1912, HAŠK were heading the table in mid-season and were later declared champions as the competition was abandoned after the winter break due to poor organization. The championship was never relaunched, and during World War I
the club went on hiatus.
, tennis
, swimming
, field hockey
, cycling
, table tennis
and motorsport
were formed. After experiencing a financial crisis in the 1920s and a fire that destroyed stands on their ground in the summer of 1936, the following decade saw immediate revival and the time of HAŠK's greatest success.
The club regularly competed in the Yugoslav First League
since 1927, and their finest hour came in the 1937-38 season when they won the Yugoslav title. They even went on to compete in the 1938 Mitropa Cup
, when they were knocked out in the first round of the tournament by the Czechoslovakia
n side SK Kladno
with 5:2 on aggregate. On a local level, in the period from 1911 to 1945 the club played a total of 120 matches against city rivals Građanski. Their last game was a 2-2 draw on 10 April 1945, just before both clubs were disbanded by the communist government.
The newly formed Dinamo Zagreb
, which was established by the authorities two months later, took over HAŠK's Maksimir ground
(originally opened in May 1912), along with many players who switched from Građanski or HAŠK to Dinamo. Other sports sections of the club were renamed FD Akademičar (Academic Sports Society) and later merged with ASD Mladost (Youth Academic Sports Society) which survives today as the HAŠK Mladost sports society
, most famous for their later water polo
and volleyball
success on both the national and continental levels.
The most prominent of HAŠK's football players who later joined Dinamo was Zlatko Čajkovski, who spent the next 11 seasons playing for Zagreb's powerhouse. Dinamo's current youth academy and training ground located next to their stadium both bear the name Hitrec-Kacian, in honour of two HAŠK players, Ico Hitrec
and Ratko Kacian
.
to form the present day NK HAŠK, currently a second tier club in the Croatian football league system. They play their games at the Donje Svetice ground in Zagreb, which has a capacity of 3,000.
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n football club established in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in 1903 which ceased operating in 1945. The club was one of the most successful sides in Zagreb and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
in the period between the two World Wars. Since then several sports clubs have claimed to descend from it, the most significant of which is HAŠK Mladost sports society
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
.
Early days
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
in November 1903 by nine Zagreb students (August Adam, Dragutin Albrecht, Petar Čerlek, Vjekoslav Jurković, Marko Kostrenčić, Krešimir Miskić, Oskar Mohr, Lav Wodwarška and Hinko Würth) who are today seen as pioneers of organized sports at the University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
. The club's purpose was to popularize sports among Croatian students, as well as to counter the ongoing magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
of Croatian public life, since Croatia was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The club's colours were red, white and golden, chosen to represent the colours of Croatian provinces.
At first, the club had sections for fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, ice-skating, skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
, sledding
Sledding
Sledding , sledging , sleding or tobogganing is a common activity in wintry areas, similar to sliding, but in a prone or seated position requiring a device or vehicle generically known in the US as a sled or in other countries as a sledge or toboggan...
and sports shooting
Shooting sports
A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...
, but ever since football was introduced in the spring of 1904, it became the most popular and well-known department of the club. The club played its first official game on 16 October 1906 against PNIŠK Zagreb (Prvi nogometni i športski klub Zagreb, First football and sports club Zagreb) which ended in a 1-1 draw in front of 800 spectators.
The club played many non-league games against local sides and against foreign opponents in the following years, such as the game against BEAC (The University of Budapest
University of Budapest
The Eötvös Loránd University or ELTE, founded in 1635, is the largest university in Hungary, located in Budapest.-History:The university was founded in 1635 in Nagyszombat by the archbishop and theologian Péter Pázmány. Leadership was given over to the Jesuits...
sports club) in 1909. When the first Croatian football championship
Croatian First League 1912
The 1912 Croatian First League season was the first to be organized by the Croatian Football Federation. Despite the championship being abandoned before its completion, HAŠK Zagreb was declared the champion.-League:-External links:*...
was started in 1912, HAŠK were heading the table in mid-season and were later declared champions as the competition was abandoned after the winter break due to poor organization. The championship was never relaunched, and during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the club went on hiatus.
Revival and demise
In the period from 1918 to 1945 the club grew in popularity and membership, and in the years following the war new sections for track and field athleticsTrack and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
and motorsport
Motorsport
Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...
were formed. After experiencing a financial crisis in the 1920s and a fire that destroyed stands on their ground in the summer of 1936, the following decade saw immediate revival and the time of HAŠK's greatest success.
The club regularly competed in the Yugoslav First League
Yugoslav First League
The Yugoslav First League was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and socialist Yugoslavia...
since 1927, and their finest hour came in the 1937-38 season when they won the Yugoslav title. They even went on to compete in the 1938 Mitropa Cup
Mitropa Cup
The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale was one of the first really international major European football cups for club sides...
, when they were knocked out in the first round of the tournament by the Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n side SK Kladno
SK Kladno
Sportovní klub Kladno, commonly known as SK Kladno or Kladno, is an football club from Kladno, Czech Republic. It was founded on February 15th 1903. The team plays at the Stadion Františka Kloze, named after legendary player of this club František Kloz...
with 5:2 on aggregate. On a local level, in the period from 1911 to 1945 the club played a total of 120 matches against city rivals Građanski. Their last game was a 2-2 draw on 10 April 1945, just before both clubs were disbanded by the communist government.
The newly formed Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...
, which was established by the authorities two months later, took over HAŠK's Maksimir ground
Maksimir Stadium
Maksimir Stadium is a stadium in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. It takes its name from the neighbourhood of Maksimir. It is primarily the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the top football team in the country. It is also home to Dinamo Zagreb's farm team NK Lokomotiva....
(originally opened in May 1912), along with many players who switched from Građanski or HAŠK to Dinamo. Other sports sections of the club were renamed FD Akademičar (Academic Sports Society) and later merged with ASD Mladost (Youth Academic Sports Society) which survives today as the HAŠK Mladost sports society
Mladost (sports society)
HAŠK Mladost is an academic sports society from Zagreb, Croatia, sponsored by the University of Zagreb.Clubs named Mladost exist in athletics, field hockey, judo, basketball, bowling on ice and asphalt, fencing, volleyball, swimming, rugby, synchronised swimming, skiing, ice-hockey, ice skating,...
, most famous for their later water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
success on both the national and continental levels.
The most prominent of HAŠK's football players who later joined Dinamo was Zlatko Čajkovski, who spent the next 11 seasons playing for Zagreb's powerhouse. Dinamo's current youth academy and training ground located next to their stadium both bear the name Hitrec-Kacian, in honour of two HAŠK players, Ico Hitrec
Ico Hitrec
Ivan 'Ico' Hitrec is widely considered as the greatest Croatian football player before World War II.The centre-forward became a legend after scoring twice against then famous Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora during the first night game in Zagreb between Zagreb and Madrid in 1933...
and Ratko Kacian
Ratko Kacian
Ratko Kacian was a Croatian footballer. He played internationally for the Croatian national team from 1940 to 1943 and with Yugoslavia's national team in 1946.Kacian played for HAŠK, Hajduk Split before moving to Dinamo Zagreb....
.
Post-Yugoslavia
After the fall of communism and in the midst of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the club was reactivated and officially registered in November 1990, but in name only - no sports activities were started as the new club leadership centered their activities on promoting HAŠK's legacy and organizing events intended to raise the public awareness of the contribution HAŠK has made to the development of sports in Croatia. In an attempt to revive their glory days, the newly restarted club decided to enter competition sports again in 1993 so they merged with a local amateur football side called NK TPK from the Peščenica neighbourhood of Zagreb. In 2006 they merged again with the Druga HNL side NK Naftaš Ivanić from Ivanić GradIvanic Grad
Ivanić-Grad is a town in Zagreb County, Croatia. It is part of Moslavina.-Geography:Ivanić-Grad is located south-east from Zagreb, connected: by highway A3 by train on direction Zagreb - Slavonski Brod - Vinkovci.-Population:In the 2001 census, the total population is 14,544, in the following...
to form the present day NK HAŠK, currently a second tier club in the Croatian football league system. They play their games at the Donje Svetice ground in Zagreb, which has a capacity of 3,000.
Honours
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia ChampionsYugoslav First LeagueThe Yugoslav First League was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and socialist Yugoslavia...
: 1
-
- 1937–38
See also
- HAŠK's contemporaries:
- Građanski Zagreb (HAŠK's biggest city rivals, banned in 1945)
- Concordia Zagreb (HAŠK's other city rivals, also banned in 1945)
- Yugoslav First LeagueYugoslav First LeagueThe Yugoslav First League was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and socialist Yugoslavia...
(the Kingdom of YugoslaviaKingdom of YugoslaviaThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
national football league that HAŠK successfully competed in through the 1920s and 1930s)
- HAŠK's legacy:
- Dinamo ZagrebDinamo ZagrebGNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...
(Today's most successful Croatian football club based in Zagreb, which took over HAŠK's ground and some of their players in 1945) - Naftaš HAŠKNK Naftaš HAŠKNK HAŠK is a Croatian football club from Zagreb.The club merged with NK Naftaš from Ivanić Grad in 2006.-Current squad:-External links:** at Nogometni magazin...
(Today's successor of the historic HAŠK football section) - HAŠK Mladost (Today's successor of HAŠK's other sports sections)