Samsunspor

First years

Samsunspor stepped into professional leagues for the first time in the second football league, today's TFF First League in the 1965–66 season. The opponent of Samsunspor, who played the first professional league match on 5 September 1965, was Yeşildirek S.K. Samsunspor won the match 1–0 with the goal scored by Nihat Serçeme. Thus Nihat made history as the player who scored Samsunspor's first league goal. In this first season of the league, Samsunspor became 5th in the White Group. The club also competed in the Turkish Cup that year. They reached round two after defeating Güneşspor in the first round, but would go on to lose 2–1 to Petrolspor. The following season was more successful, as the club placed second in the 2. Lig, six points behind champion Bursaspor. In the Turkish Cup, the club reached the semi-finals, defeating Konyaspor, Adanaspor, Manisaspor, Galatasaray, and Fenerbahçe along the way. They met Göztepe in the semi-finals, eventually losing 5–2 on aggregate. Samsunspor finished second in the 2. Lig and were knocked out in the first round of the Turkish Cup in 1967–68.

The club earned their first promotion to the 1. Lig (Süper Lig) in 1969. They finished first in the Beyaz Grup (White Group) of the 2. Lig, six points ahead of runners-up Boluspor. Because there were two groups, the winners of each group played each other in a final game to decide the champion and the runner-up. Ankaragücü beat Samsunspor 1–0 in the final. Samsunspor finished fifth in their first season in the 1. Lig, five points away from securing a spot in the Balkans Cup. The club finished with a record of eleven wins, nine draws, and ten losses, while scoring 24 goals and allowing 28. Samsunspor finished tenth the following season and were knocked out of the first round of the Turkish Cup for the second year in a row. After competing in first tier for five seasons, Samsunspor completed the league in the 15th place with 24 points in the 1974–75 season and relegated to the 2nd Football League. Upon this, coach Basri Dirimlili was dismissed and Kamuran Soykıray was brought back to the team. 1975–76 Football League season Soykıray again made the club White Group leader and Samsunspor has moved to the First Football League. In the same season, Samsunspor won Ministry of Youth and Sports Cup after Bursaspor II was defeated 2–1.

Golden ages

In the late 1970s, Ender Cengiz, who was then the club chairman, introduced the return to roots (Turkish: öze dönüş) policy, aimed at bringing back local talent to strengthen the soccer team. In the mid-1980s, Samsunspor has achieved some of its major successes in the first tier of Turkish Football. After the promotion from second tier in 1984–85, Samsunspor finished First League at 3rd place with 33 goals scored by Tanju Çolak in 1985–86 season. The next season, the club had one of the best season in its history. Ranking again 3rd in the league where Tanju Çolak scored 25 goals, the team rose to the semi-finals in the Federation Cup. The next season, Samsunspor finished the league in fourth place and reached the final in the Turkish Cup. Until the cup final, Nevşehirspor, Uşakspor, Kocaelispor and Ankaragücü were eliminated but lost to Sakaryaspor as a result of the two-legged final.

20 January disaster

At the start of the 1988–89 season, Samsunspor began training under head coach Nuri Asan with a pre-season camp in Uludağ. The team collected 19 points during the first 18 matches of the league. On 20 January 1989, while traveling to their first match of the second half of the season against Malatyaspor, the team was involved in a traffic accident.

Around 9:30 am, near Havza, the club's bus collided with a truck and plunged down a cliff. The first aid to the injured Samsunspor players came from the Çarşambaspor delegation, who happened to be passing by en route to their own match against Diyarbakırspor. Çarşambaspor's officials, players, and staff pulled the injured out of the wreckage and transported them to Havza State Hospital, also donating blood. Many survivors suffered serious injuries or lifelong disabilities.

Head coach Nuri Asan, players Muzaffer Badalıoğlu and Mete Adanır, and the bus driver Asım Özkan died at the scene. Player Zoran Tomić fell into a coma and died six months later in Yugoslavia. Equipment manager Halil Albayrak and players Emin Kar and Erol Dinler were permanently disabled and retired from football. Burhaneddin Beadini was injured and voluntarily retired from football one year later. Players Yüksel Öğüten, Fatih Uraz, Şanver Göymen, Kasım Çıkla, and Uğur Terzi were injured but eventually continued their football careers. Another survivor, Orhan Kılınç, continued playing football but died in another car accident in 1994. Club manager Yüksel Özan also survived the crash with injuries.