HAŠK

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HAŠK (Hrvatski akademski športski klub) was a Croatian sports club from Zagreb, founded on 6 November 1903 by nine Zagreb students to promote sport among Croatians and to counter Magyarization. It began as a multi-sport club with fencing, ice skating, skiing, and shooting; football became its best known section after it was introduced in 1904.

The club played its first official football match on 16 October 1906 against PNIŠK Zagreb, drawing 1–1. In the early years they competed mostly in local and regional games. When the first Croatian championship started in 1912, HAŠK briefly led the table and were declared champions when the competition was abandoned for organizational reasons. World War I interrupted play, and after the war the club expanded and added sections in track and field, tennis, swimming, field hockey, cycling, table tennis and motorsport.

HAŠK’s football success grew in the 1920s and 1930s. They won the first Yugoslav Cup in 1923 (the King Alexander Cup), and from 1927 they regularly played in the Yugoslav First League. The peak came in the 1937–38 season when HAŠK were Yugoslav champions. They also competed in the 1938 Mitropa Cup but were eliminated by SK Kladno. Locally, HAŠK played Građanski in 120 matches between 1911 and 1945.

In 1945, the communist authorities disbanded HAŠK. Dinamo Zagreb, founded shortly after, took over Maksimir stadium and many HAŠK players joined Dinamo. The other sports sections of HAŠK later became part of HAŠK Mladost.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, HAŠK was revived in November 1990. In 1993 it merged with NK TPK to revive football, and in 2006 it merged with NK Naftaš Ivanić to form NK HAŠK 1903 Zagreb, now a second‑tier club. They play at Donje Svetice in Zagreb, which seats about 3,000, and are supported by a group called Indijanci (The Indians).

HAŠK’s football legacy is linked to Dinamo Zagreb, which in its history adopted and dropped Hašk/Građanski names. One of HAŠK’s most famous players, Zlatko Čajkovski, went on to play for Dinamo. Dinamo’s training ground and youth academy honor HAŠK figures as well.

Besides football, HAŠK’s other sections won national titles in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, including athletics, women’s hazena, and tennis.