KS Cracovia

KS Cracovia, commonly known simply as Cracovia (Polish pronunciation: [kraˈkɔvʲa]), is a Polish football club based in Krakow. Five-time and also the first Polish champion, winner of the Polish Cup and the Polish Super Cup in 2020. Cracovia is the longest existing Polish club.

History

Beginning

The early years of football in the city of Krakow are associated with professor Henryk Jordan. He was a Polish physician who had spent some time in Britain and after coming back to his native city introduced football to its youth. Jordan was a huge supporter of all sports and gymnastics. On 12 March 1889, he founded The Park of Games and Plays in Krakow, which was commonly called Jordan's Park. Places like this later spread all across Austrian Galicia, and apart from gymnastics, the youth there became acquainted with football.

However, it was not Krakow where the first football game on Polish soil took place. This happened in Lwow on 14 July 1894, with a six-minute match between the teams of Lwow and Krakow. The home team proved better, winning 1–0 through a goal by Wlodzimierz Chomicki.

Within the next few years, football slowly emerged as a rising sport. It was especially popular among high school students and in the fall of 1903, a group of them created the team of Slawa Lwow (the name was later changed to Czarni Lwow), the first Polish football club. In 1904, a group of Lwow's students, together with professor Eugeniusz Piasecki, came to Krakow to play an exhibition match. The match ended in Lwow's 0–4 defeat, and its far-reaching implications among Krakow's youth were enormous.

13 June 1906 is regarded as a crucial date in the history of football in Krakow. On that day, two matches of high school teams took place. These matches had been announced in Krakow's newspapers. Czarni Lwow beat the team of White-reds (Bialo-czerwoni) and the IV Gymnasium beat Akademicy. The matches were warmly welcomed by Krakow's fans, who were surprised to see for th

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