Porin Kärpät ( Finnish for "Pori Ermines") was a multi-sport club based in

Pori Pori (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Satakunta. It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Pori is approximately , while the Pori sub-region, sub-region has a population of a ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The club was founded in 1932, and disestablished in 1960, but was re-established again in 1990 and disestablished in 2011. Kärpät had sections in

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

rinkball Rinkball is a winter team sport played on ice with ice skates and is most popular in Finland, where it is known as ''kaukalopallo''. This ball sport originated in Sweden in the 1960s and from there landed in Finland in the 1970s. The objective ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Ice hockey

Porin Kärpät established its place in the

Suomen sarja Suomen sarja (sometimes also known as ''Suomensarja'' and ''Valtakunnansarja (''1935-1946), meaning in English ''Finland's series'' and ''Nation's series'' respectively) was the second-level league in men's ice hockey in Finland from 1935 to 19 ...

, the 2nd level of ice hockey, in the 1950s. In the 1956–57 season, Kärpät won their group and advanced to the

SM-sarja SM-Sarja was the top level of ice hockey in Finland from 1928 to 1975. SM-sarja is a common abbreviation for ''Suomen mestaruussarja'', "Finnish Championship Series". There was variable number of teams playing for the Finnish championship dur ...

qualifiers. Kärpät's opponents were

IFK Helsingfors HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

, Kotkan Reipas and

Kalevan Pallo Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Olvi Areena. Team history Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club relocated to Kuop ...

. Kärpät lost its first game to IFK 5–4, but beat Reipas 5–1. The deciding match was against KalPa. Kärpät already had a 3–0 lead, but the game ended in a 4–4 tie. Kärpät was tied with IFK and KalPa, but fell to 3rd place with goal difference and thus did not get promoted to the SM-sarja. Porin Kärpät and

Porin Palloilijat Porin Palloilijat or formerly FC PoPa is a Finnish football club, based in the city of Pori in Finland. The club currently plays in the Vitonen, the seventh highest level of Finnish football. The club was established in 1925 but did not opera ...

merged their operations in 1960 and formed

Porin Karhut Porin may refer to: * Porin (protein), a transmembrane protein * ''Porin'' (opera), a Croatian grand opera, first performed in 1897 * Porin (music award) Porin is a Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in C ...

, which later merged with RU-38 to form

Porin Ässät Porin Ässät ry is a sports club based in Pori, Finland. The club's only programs are ice hockey and esports, but it used to have an association football program. Porin Ässät ry operates an ice hockey team in the Finnish Elite League. Porin ...

still plays ice hockey at the top level of Finland. Kärpät's ice hockey team was disestablished in 1960 after the merger with PoPa, but a women's team was established in 2007 but the team was disestablished already in 2010.

Rinkball

After the merger with PoPa, Kärpät still never stopped existing as a registered club, so they made a comeback in 1990 when rinkball players from Pori joined the I-division with Kärpät's name. Kärpät were promoted to the Kaukalopalloliiga in 1998 and it won the Finnish rinkball championship 4 times (2004, 2005, 2006, 2009).

Honors

Finnish rinkball championships

* Champion (4): 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 * Runner-up: (4): 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011 ** First in the regular season (4): 2004, 2005, 2010, 2011

Notable players and coaches

Football

Erkki Harell Erkki Arvid Harell (12 March 1930 – 25 March 2014) was a Finnish footballer. He played in eight matches for the Finland national football team The Finland national football team (, ) represents Finland in men's international football ...

Tauno Takala Tauno is a masculine given name found most commonly in Estonia and Finland. Tauno may refer to: * Tauno Hannikainen (1896–1968), Finnish cellist and conductor * Tauno Honkanen (1927–2023), Finnish skier and Olympic competitor * Tauno Ilmoniemi ...

Antero Lartola Antero is a Finnish given name and the Spanish version of the Latin name Anterus. It may refer to: * Antero Abreu (1927–2017), Angolan author and poet * Antero Alli (1952–2023), Finnish astrologer * Ántero Asto, Peruvian politician * Antero d ...

Rinkball

Antero Kivelä Antero Simo Tapani Kivelä (born 26 December 1955) is a retired Finnish ice hockey goaltender. After his playing career, Kivelä coached several ice hockey, rinkball and ringette teams in Finland. Kivelä is also member of the city council in Po ...

(coach) *

Jari Härkälä Jari may refer to: Finnish male given name The name ''Jari'' derives from the Finnish name ''Jalmari'', which in turn derives from the Old Norse male name ''Hjalmar'' or ''Hjálmarr'' (''hjalmr'' 'helmet' + ''arr'' 'warrior/army'). With the influe ...

(coach) *

Mikael Kotkaniemi Mikael is a masculine given name, a variant of the Hebrew name Michael (מִיכָאֵל), which means "Who is like God". It is used predominantly throughout Scandinavia and Finland. Mikaela is the feminine form of the name. In France, the name is w ...

Ice hockey

Sari Marjamäki Sari Kristiina Marjamäki (born 17 December 1971) is a Finnish retired ice hockey forward. She played 217 matches as a member of the Finnish national team and represented Finland at sixteen top-level international competitions: three Olympic ...

Lasse Heikkilä Lasse Heikkilä (born May 27, 1934) is a retired professional ice hockey player and coach as well as football player. Heikkilä played for the Porin Karhut in the SM-sarja and coached the Porin Ässät in the SM-liiga. In football, Heikkilä repre ...

* Juha Rantasila

References

{{Reflist Multi-sport clubs in Finland Sport in Pori Sports clubs and teams in Satakunta