The historic date of the club’s founding was 14 December 1948. “Zrzeszenie Sportowe Górnik” – that was the first name of the biggest club in Zabrze – was created as a result of a merger of such teams as KS “Zjednoczenie”, “Concordia”, “Pogoń” and “Skra”. Not many years later, the Zabrze team could celebrate their first great success in the form of the Polish Championship, which was won in 1957. The same success was repeated in 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967. These were great years in the history of the club, which will forever be recorded in the club’s annals
in the club’s annals. And not only in the club’s annals, as the series of five championships won between 1963 and 1967 set a league record that has never been broken before. Throughout the Zabrze club’s subsequent history, the championship title was won six more times, in 1971, 1972, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 to be precise. Górnik became famous in Poland not only for their titles, but also for their performances on the international stage. The 1970s brought Górnik a great adventure in Europe. It was then that the team from Zabrze, as the only Polish club
the 1970s saw Zabrze become the only Polish club to reach the final of a European competition, specifically the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup.
This took place in 1970, and Zabrze’s opponent was England’s Manchester City.
The match was preceded by a very characteristic and famous encounter with AS Roma. It was distinctive because the result was decided by the toss of a coin. Images from that match still grip the hearts of Górnik fans today. The early years of the 20th century are certainly not the best memories for Zabrze fans. The club repeatedly faced sporting and financial problems at the time. However, it still managed to stay afloat, but without spectacular results in the table. That all changed when Górnik’s liquidity broke, and then, very unexpectedly, the club was relegated. This took place in the 2008/09 season. Relegation did not last long, after just one year of playing at League level, Górnik were back in the top flight. The following years were fairly stable, regularly occupying places in the top half of the table. Until the 2015/16 season, when the Zabrze players were forced to leave the Ekstraklasa for the third time in their history. However, they were back there again after a year of playing at the back. Since then, Górnik has been playing at the highest competition level in Poland until now. Throughout its history, which stretches back to 1948, Górnik has had many great players who Polish fans remember to this day.
These include, of course, Włodzimierz Lubański, who won the league’s top scorer’s crown four times. It is also worth mentioning Jerzy Gorgoń, Tomasz Wałdoch, Michał Pazdan, Arkadiusz Milik or Andrzej Nieudzielan, and of course many others. Currently, Górnik is a team led by young German coach Bartosh Gaul, who has been leading the Zabrze players since the beginning of this season. Recent encounters have not been going too well for the Miners, but thanks to several recent transfers and the great support of the fans, everyone there is hoping to reverse the bad streak.