Gävle Godtemplares Idrottsklubb, commonly known as Gävle GIK or GGIK, is a

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

from

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

, Sweden. The club has an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

department, most known for the success the team had during the 1950s, a

floorball Floorball (also known by other names) is a sport played with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with sticks and a hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three periods. The sport of bandy also playe ...

department, currently, as of 2022–23 playing in the Swedish men's top tier SSL, and a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

department, currently only supporting youth teams.

History

Gävle Godtemplares IK was founded 6 May 1906, as a gymnastics and athletics club. It was founded within the

International Organisation of Good Templars The International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT; founded as the Independent Order of Good Templars), whose international body is known as Movendi International, is a fraternal organization which is part of the temperance movement, promoti ...

. The origin in the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

resulted in the nicknames ''Godis'' () and ''Saftpiraterna'' (). Gävle GIK played their first ice hockey match in January 1940. It made its debut in Sweden's highest ice hockey division for the 1947–48 season. The team reached the finals in the 1953–54 season, but lost to

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

after a 5–1 loss and a 1–1 draw. Gävle GIK got their revenge in the 1956–57 season, when the team won the final series, and their first

Le Mat trophy The Le Mat Trophy (, ) is the trophy awarded to Swedish champions in ice hockey. The trophy has been awarded since the 1926 season and starting with the 1975–76 season – it has been awarded to the winners of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) p ...

. By doing so, they became the first club from outside

Stockholm metropolitan area Sweden has three metropolitan areas consisting of the areas surrounding the three largest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. The statistics have been retrieved from Statistics Sweden and the statistics released on 10 November 2014. The off ...

to become national ice hockey champions. The ice hockey team was relegated to the second division after the 1963–64 season, and has since not played in the highest division. The team currently plays in Division 2, which is the fourth tier in the Swedish league system. Gävle GIK are or have been active in athletics,

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

, cycling, floorball, football, handball, orienteering,

ski jumping Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...

, and tennis. In athletics, Bo Forssander won the club's first national title in athletics in 1971 when he won the

110 metres hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a rac ...

event. Forssander also won the 1972 title in the event.

References

External links

Gävle GIK Hockey homepageGävle GIK Floorball homepageGävle GIK Fotboll homepage
1906 establishments in Sweden Association football clubs established in 1906 Athletics clubs in Sweden Bandy clubs in Sweden] Cycling clubs Floorball teams in Sweden Football clubs in Gävleborg County Handball clubs in Sweden Ice hockey clubs established in 1906 Ice hockey teams in Gävleborg County Orienteering clubs in Sweden Ski jumping clubs Sport in Gävle Tennis clubs] Sports clubs and teams founded by the International Organisation of Good Templars 20th-century establishments in Gävleborg County {{Europe-icehockey-team-stub