HNK Hajduk Split

Origins

The club was founded in its city of Split after the idea to form a football club came to the founders during their time studying in Prague. The idea came to them while at the centuries-old pub U Fleků in Prague (then also part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The founders were Fabjan Kaliterna, Lucijan Stella, Ivan Šakić and Vjekoslav Ivanišević. They went to the pub following a match between AC Sparta and SK Slavia and decided it was time their own city had a professional football club. They all knew how popular the sport was in their home city of Split, and how well their friends could play.

The club was officially registered with the authorities on 13 February 1911. While trying to come up with a name for the club (other options including "Velebit", "Uskok", "Marjan", and "Jedinstvo"), the students went to their old teacher Josip Barač for advice on what name to give the club. When the students enthusiastically stormed into his office, he told them they charged in like "Hajduks", who were Robin Hood-like guerilla warriors, freedom fighters and Croatian patriots. Professor Barač told them to take the name "Hajduk" which symbolized, as the professor said, "that which is best in our people: bravery, humanity, friendship, love of freedom, defiance to powers, and protection of the weak. Be worthy of that great name".

Hajduks were romanticized outlaws that fought the rule of the Ottoman Turks. It is speculated that famed hajduk Andrijica Šimić, who triumphantly arrived in Split in 1902 to cheering crowds (after a long stint in an Austrian prison), was perhaps the inspiration for the name. The founders subsequently designed the club's emblem, and a group of Catholic nuns from a monastery in Split, created copies which were distributed to fans. Both the name and the checkered board on the crest were found provocative by the Monarchy, but it eventually allowed them having been convinced that a football club is a good way to train soldiers.

Hajduk gathered the pro-Croat party of citizens of Split, Croat unionists or puntari. That is why the club specifically has the name "hrvatski nogometni klub" ("Croatian football club") and has the Croatian coat-of-arms in its crest. The club itself was against the Austrian-Hungarian government's policy of not allowing the unification of the Croatian provinces and keeping them separated (the government and the emperor did not allow the reunion of Dalmatia with the rest of Croatia). Hajduk's first opponent were Calcio Spalato, the club of an autonomist party from in Split, and the match ended with a 9–0 (6–0) victory for Hajduk. The first to score for Hajduk was Šime Raunig, legend has it – with his knee.

In 1912, Hajduk played their first match in Zagreb against the HAŠK football club, and lost 3–2. The first international match against an eminent opponent was held in 1913 against Czech club Slavia Prague, which at that time were one of the strongest squads in Europe. Hajduk ended up losing the match 1–13 (0–13). After the formation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Hajduk first entered the Yugoslav league in 1923, losing their first and only match that season against SAŠK. However, that same year while on tour in North Africa, Hajduk defeated Marseille 3–2 in their first international match, sparking mass celebrations in Split. The next year, the squad was considered so strong that 10 out of the 11 players which played an international friendly for Yugoslavia against Czechoslovakia were contracted to Hajduk (only exception being the goalkeeper, as Hajduk had an Italian goalkeeper at the time).

In 1926, in honour of the club's 15th birthday, composer Ivo Tijardović dedicated the operetta Kraljica baluna to the club, making it the only football club in the world to have its own operetta. Apart from the national championship, from 1920 to 1936 Hajduk continuously competed in Dalmatian Championship, having won all but one of them.

Hajduk reached their first period of glory in the late 1920s, when they won their first two Yugoslav championships (1927 and 1929), which earned them a slot in the Central European Cup. Some of the best players in that period were Leo Lemešić and Vladimir Kragić, with Ljubo Benčić becoming the best goalscorer of the 1927 season. A long-time coach of the team was one of the club's greats, Luka Kaliterna.

During the 6 January Dictatorship, the adjective "Croatian" in "Croatian Football Club" was forcibly replaced by the adjective "Yugoslav", to the dismay of the team.

The 1930s proved disastrous for Hajduk, as they won no tournaments or championships, recording only a few successes in international matches.

They did manage to win one title during the Banovina of Croatia era in 1940–41, with an impressive 14–3–1 record. As a Croatian champion, the club was about to play the playoffs for Yugoslav championship, but with World War II emerging, the championship was never finished. During this time, Hajduk could have had a fantastic generation led by young Frane Matošić, Ratko Kacijan, and prominent Czech international Jiří Sobotka.