Hammarby IF is one of the oldest teams in Sweden which originally started off as a rowing club in the late 19th century. The football club went through many highs and lows during its stint with Swedish football. The club had acquired marvelous crowd support with time and had a number of legendary players in its ranks.
History and Formation of Hammarby IF
Hammarby IF is the name given to a Swedish sports club, Hammarby Roddförening. In English, this means Hammarby Rowing Association. The club was established in the year 1889 in Södermalm, Stockholm. Although the club was initially created for rowing, with time its members began showing interest in other sports activities as well. Therefore, the name of the club was changed to Hammarby Idrottsförening, in short "Hammarby IF".
The club started its football section in the year 1915. During this time, there was a merger of the football division with Klara SK. Another merger took place in the year 1918 with Johanneshovs IF. From this time the club started using the black and yellow colors until 1980.
Early days of Hammarby IF
The football club was able to gain much success
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during the early years. However, during the 1920's, it succeeded in bringing series of wins, though for a short time span. In the year 1922, they reached the finals of Svenska Mästerskapet. The first Allsvenskan held in 1924 also had Hammarby IF as one of the qualified teams.
Growth of Hammarby IF
During the time between 1950's and 1980's, Hammarby IF was shuffling between the different divisions of leagues in Sweden, popularly known as yo-yoing. However they did get some success intermittently, like in 1954 when they were the sixth team in order of ranking.
During 1970s also, the team had frequently moved between the top and the medium ranks. Nacka Skoglund, a legendary football player played for Hammarby IF during this period. 1982 was one of the best times for the team when they played superbly. By this time, the presence of Hammarby was already being felt by the football lovers in Sweden and they gathered a huge battalion of supporters in their matches.
Hammarby had some troubled times economically during the late 1990s. But they came back heavily to achieve success soon after. Hammarby IF was ranked second in 2003, fourth in 2005 and was adjudged the third best team in 2006.
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