Hajduk Split turns 112 today

(Photo credit: Ballota/CC BY 3.0)

13 February 2023 – Croatian football club Hajduk Split, which has a cult following in Dalmatia and also around in the Croatian diaspora, celebrates its 112th birthday today.

Hajduk Split was founded by a group of students from Split in a pub in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

The students went to the pub following a match between AC Sparta and SK Slavia and decided it was time their own town of Split founded a professional football club.

The club was officially registered with the authorities on February 13, 1911.

While trying to come up with a name for the club, the students went to an old teacher Josip Barač for advice, and according to accounts, he told them to take the name “Hajduk” which symbolised “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.”

Split students in Prague, among them the founders: Lucijan Stella (seated, first from left), Fabijan Kaliterna (first from right back row) and Vjekoslav Ivanišević (seated, first from right) (Photo: Public domain/CC)

Today the club will morn all former players, coaches, fans, and members who passed away. Wreaths will be laid at the memorial plaque at the north stand at Poljud stadium and at Lovrinac grave in memory of all the fans and members of Hajduk Split killed in the Homeland War.

Prkos moćnome, zaštita slabome: Sretan ti 112. rođendan, najdraži Hajduče! • https://t.co/iYi9tIjX6C #Hajduk pic.twitter.com/KRVwByUoEK

— HNK Hajduk Split (@hajduk) February 12, 2023

Hajduk are currently 2nd on the HNL table, 8 points behind leaders Dinamo Zagreb but they have a game in hand.

(Photo credit: Jure Grm/CC)

Hajduk Split have won 18 league titles and 20 domestic cups over their history. In the 1994-5 season of the UEFA Champions League, they famously advanced through to the quarterfinals.