Hammarby IF

Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈhâmːarˌbyː] or, especially locally, [-ˌbʏ]), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of different sports.

This article is about the sports club's umbrella organisation. For men's football department, see, see Hammarby Fotboll.

Hammarby IF

Full name	Hammarby Idrottsförening
Nicknames	Bajen
Founded	10 April 1889 (1889-04-10) (as Hammarby Roddförening) 7 March 1897 (1897-03-07) (as Hammarby Idrottsförening)
Based in	Stockholm, Sweden
Colors	Green and white
President	Lars Strandberg
Website	www.hammarby-if.se

It was founded in 1889 as Hammarby Roddförening ("Hammarby Rowing Association"), but by 1897 the club had diversified and was participating in different sports, leading to the renaming to Hammarby IF.[1]

In 1999, the club was reorganized into a legal format referred to in Swedish as an alliansförening ("alliance association"), with each of the club's departments becoming a separate legal entity cooperating under the "Hammarby IF" umbrella.[1]

History

1889–1914: Growth from small rowing association to multi-sport club

Axel Robert Schönthal is credited as the founding force of Hammarby Roddförening.

On 10 April 1889, Hammarby Roddförening ("Hammarby Rowing Association") was established in Södermalm, a district in the Stockholm City Centre, with engineer Axel Robert Schönthal, the first chairman, being credited as the founder.[2] Originally, it solely competed against other local clubs in the sport of rowing, with the races usually taking place on the watercourse Hammarby Sjö, which the club took its name from.[3] The members exclusively consisted of young men from the working class, employed as industrial workers at one of the many factories in the Södermalm district.[4]

By 1897, the club had diversified into different sports following demands from its members, with the first other being athletics,[5] and it was renamed Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), or Hammarby IF for short.[6][7] The new multi-sport club was officially established on 7 March said year, with Carl Julius Sundholm taking the inaugural chairman position.[5]

The association launched its first team sport in 1905, the section Hammarby IF Bandy, thus becoming one of the first bandy clubs in Sweden.[8]

1915–1957: Birth of the football section and golden years in hockey

The sporting ground Hammarby IP (also known as "Kanalplan") was built in Södermalm in 1915, officially opened on 15 September by Gustaf VI Adolf, by then the Crown Prince of Sweden.[9] Due to a lack of football pitches in Stockholm, several other local clubs proposed to merge with Hammarby IF to get access to the stadium. An offer from Klara SK was accepted and a football department was established the same year, Hammarby IF Fotboll.[10] In 1918, Hammarby also merged with Johanneshofs IF, a club from the neighbouring district Johanneshov.[11]

The club started playing ice hockey in 1921, with their team being made up by a group of bandy players during the very first matches. Hammarby IF Hockey would soon position itself as a giant in the early history of the sport in the country, playing in the top league from its inaugural season in 1922 until 1957. During that period, they were crowned domestic champions eight times (in 1932, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1945, and 1951).[12][13]

Colours and badge

The club's colours are green and white, which is reflected in its crest and kit. When Hammarby Roddförening (Hammarby RF) was founded in 1889, the club's crest consisted of a white flag with three green horizontal lines. They drew inspiration from two other competing rowing clubs in Stockholm that used two blue respectively two red lines on a white flag, but chose the colour green since it represented hope. The club eventually added a third stripe when it discovered that Göteborgs RF used a similar green-white flag with two stripes.[3]

Kit

In 1915, Hammarby IF determined their kit to consist of a white shirt with the abbreviation "HIF" on its chest, white shorts and black socks.[2] Following the merger with Johanneshofs IF in 1918, Hammarby changed its team apparel to Johanneshof's black-and-yellow striped shirts, blue shorts and black socks with yellow stripes.[11] The first section to use the new kit was the bandy team, with the football section adopting it not much later.[14]

The club changed from blue pants to black in the 1960s. When the renowned footballer "Nacka" Skoglund rejoined Hammarby in 1964, he donated the club a set of black shorts because he thought the team's blue shorts looked awful.[14]

In 1978, 60 years after the merger with Johanneshof, Hammarby changed its home colours from black and yellow to white shirts, green shorts and white socks.[14]

Member clubs

Sport	Club name	Founded	Joined HIF	Home venue
Arm wrestling	Hammarby IF Armbrytarförening	2014	2014
Athletics	Hammarby IF Friidrottsförening	1897	1897
Bandy	Hammarby IF Bandy	1905	1905	Zinkensdamms IP
Basketball	Hammarby IF Basket	1975	2015	Farstahallen
Boule	Hammarby IF Bouleförening	2002	2002
Bowling	Hammarby IF Bowlingförening	1938	1938	Brännkyrka Bowlingcenter
Boxing	Hammarby IF Boxningsförening	1919	1969
Floorball	Hammarby IF Innebandy	1993	1993	Sjöstadshallen
Football	Hammarby IF Fotbollförening (men) Hammarby IF Damfotbollförening (women)	1915 1970	1915 1970	Tele2 Arena Hammarby IP
Goalball	Hammarby IF Goalbollförening	2000	2000
Handball	Hammarby IF Handboll	1939	1939	Eriksdalshallen
Ice hockey	Hammarby IF Ishockeyförening	2008	2013	SDC-hallen
Orienteering	Hammarby IF Orienteringsförening	1922	1922
Rowing	Hammarby IF Roddförening	1889	1889
Rugby union	Hammarby IF Rugby	2000	2000
Speedway	Hammarby Speedway	2003	2003
Skiing	Hammarby IF Skidförening	1937	1937
Table tennis	Hammarby IF Bordtennisförening	1948	2010

Defunct member clubs

• Hammarby Hockey (1921–2008)

Works cited

• Persson, Gunnar (1996). Hammarby IF: En klubbhistoria 1897–1997 (in Swedish). Strömbergs Bokförlag. ISBN 91-7151-097-4.

References

1. "Historia". Hammarby IF (in Swedish). Retrieved 25 January 2018.
2. Persson, p. 17.
3. "Year: 1889". HIF Historia. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
4. "De bortglömda åren". HIF1889. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
5. "Year: 1897". HIF Historia. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
6. "Historia". Hammarby Fotboll (in Swedish). Retrieved 25 January 2018.
7. Persson, p. 15-17
8. "Om föreningen: historia". Hammarby Bandy (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
9. "Hammarby IP/Kanalplan". Hammarby Fotboll. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
10. Persson, p. 60-62
11. Persson, p. 65.
12. "Hammarby hockeyhistoria". HIF Hockey Historia. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
13. "Om Hammarby Hockey". Hammarby Hockey. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
14. "Historiska nedslag: När Hammarby fick tigerränder". Supportrarnas matchprogram. December 5, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.

External links

• Hammarby IF – official site