About Me
Iraklis is deeply rooted into the years. It is the oldest sports club in Greece. And its colors, light blue and white, vividly resemble of the official Greek colours.
The history of the Club begins in 1899, when the Club of the «Fans of the Arts» was created. The Club was not a sporting one, but rather one of literature and music. In 1903, the members of the Club decided to include sports with their activities. They created a gym and founded the department of swimming and cycling. However, it was football, a new sport of that era that «stole» the athletes' hearts.
The first official game was held in April 23, 1905, but later the club started facing financial problems. Three years later, in 1908, an historical land-mark for Iraklis, everything changed. The club partnered with the club of «Olympia» and the unification of powers resulted in the birth of Iraklis. The complete name of the club at the time had been: «Ottoman Hellenic club of Thessaloniki - «Iraklis». The football department was the first created. The first achievements were not far away. The first IRAKLIS's articles of association were constituted on the 29th of November 1908.
FOOTBALL
Iraklis' history, after War World II, includes the participation in five Greek Cup Finals (1947, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1987). 1976 is the year that will remain deeply engraved in the memories of all Iraklis' fans. In June 9,1976, in New Philadelphia, the «white-blue» team won Olympiakos during a penalty shoot-out (6-5, 4-4 during regular time and overtime) and won the Greek Cup. Next day, when the players of the blue/white team returned to Thessaloniki, were welcomed as heroes by more than 100.000 cheering fans.
In 1976, Iraklis participated to the European Cup of Cups, while it has participated eight times in the UEFA Cup (1962, 1964, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2003, 2006).
In 1985, Iraklis won the Balkan Cup, beating the Romanian team Arges Pitesti by 4-1.
BASKETBALL
Iraklis was the first club to win the national title in 1927-1928 and has also won the league in 1934-1935. One of Iraklis' earliest players, Abatzioglou, was one of the 13 founders of FIBA.
Iraklis has participated twice in European Euroleague (1996 European Championship and 2001 FIBA Suproleague). This year the team participated in the Fiba European League.
Many famous basketball players have played for Iraklis, X-MAN McDaniels, Jury Zdovdc, David Ancrum, James Donaldson, Walter Berry, Lazaros Papadopoulos, Nikos Chatzivretas, Dimitris Diamantidis, Lefteris Kakiousis and Guinness Record holder Aristidis Moumoglou who has scored 143 points in a single game in 1972!
VOLLEYBALL
The first National Championship of Greece was played in 1968 and IRAKLIS apart of Club success managed to give to the National Team plenty of players.
The team lost many Championships because of the Athens Clubs-favored system of play.1987,1989 and 1992 IPAKLIS made it to European Cups and in 1997 came the outburst of the team.Three consecutives Championships finals,winning the Greek Cup in 2000 and finally winning both this year's Greek Championship,Greek Cup and taking the 3rd place in Indesit European Champions League Final Four which took place in Opole, Poland.
In 2003 IRAKLIS took the second place of the Greek League. Then continued the succesfull way in Greek League and in the Champions' League. In 2004 the team won the Greek Cup by defeating Olympiakos in the final 3-1 sets in Orestiada, and participated to the "Final Four" of the Champions' League in Belgorod. By the begining of the period 2004-2005, the team won the "Super Cup" defeating - the previous period champion - Panathinaikos 3-1 sets in Larisa. In the Champions' League 2004-2005 IRAKLIS Central Gas took the second place in the "Final Four", Thessaloniki, 27th of March 2005. The same period Iraklis won also the Greek Champion and the Greek Cup without loosing even a game!!
This year Iraklis was again in the final game of Indesit European Champions League "Final Four" in Rome, defeated by Sisley Treviso.
(Original texts taken from: www.iraklis-fc.gr, www.iraklisbc.gr, www.iraklisvolley.gr)
