Hajduk Split Celebrate 102nd Birthday

Famous Croatian football club Hadjuk Split, which has a cult following in the Dalmatian region of the country, turns 102 today.

The club was founded by a group of students from Split in a pub in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They 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 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 symbolized “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.”