Ruch Chorzów is one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in Upper Silesia. It was founded on 20 April 1920 in Bismarckhütte, that is Wielkie Hajduki, which became part of Chorzów in 1939. Before the club won five championships before the war, it travelled the road from a founding meeting in the days of the plebiscite to one of the most modern stadiums in Poland.

A meeting in the days of the plebiscite

The Polish Plebiscite Commissariat issued an appeal to found Polish sports clubs in Upper Silesia. Teofil Paczyński answered this call and convened the founding meeting. About forty people took part. The name Ruch ("Movement") was proposed by Edward Supernok, and it was meant to refer to the Silesian insurgent movements. The club's colours became blue and white, and its first president was Paweł Koppa, a teacher.

The team played its first match on 3 May 1920 and won 3:1 against Orzeł Józefowiec. In January 1923 Ruch merged with the German club Bismarckhütter Ballspiel Club and took the name Ruch BBC Wielkie Hajduki. From BBC it took over the Na Kalinie pitch, where it played until the early 1930s.

The league and five championships

Ruch made its league debut on 3 April 1927. The first match ended in a 0:7 defeat by 1. FC Katowice, and in its first season the team finished twelfth. The first Polish championship title came in 1933. The championship was decided by the match of 12 November 1933, won 2:1 in Kraków against Cracovia. Almost two thousand supporters from Hajduki travelled to that match on a special train.

Ruch won further titles in 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1938, which makes five pre-war championships. The team included Ernest Wilimowski, Teodor Peterek and Gerard Wodarz, known as the Three Kings. Wilimowski scored thirty-three goals in the 1934 season and Peterek twenty-eight.

The stadium on Cicha Street

The stadium on Cicha Street was ceremonially opened on 29 September 1935. Construction began on 1 July 1934. The ground initially held about 40 thousand spectators and at the time was regarded as the most modern in the country, and the steel main stand without supports gave spectators a full view of the pitch. The inaugural match against Warta Poznań ended in a 1:1 draw. The attendance record, about 55 thousand spectators, was set on 21 August 1957 in a match against Polonia Bytom. Ruch also played many matches at the nearby Silesian Stadium in the Silesian Park.

War and the return to the league

On 20 April 1939 the municipality of Wielkie Hajduki was incorporated into Chorzów, and the club took the name Ruch Chorzów. The 1939 season was interrupted by the war. Ruch was then leading the table with 18 points, ahead of Wisła Kraków with 16, and Ernest Wilimowski had 26 goals in 14 matches. The last league match took place on 20 August 1939. Already on 2 September 1939 the German occupation authorities dissolved the club and set up in its place the German Bismarckhütter Ballspiel Club, which changed its name in November. The players, among them Wodarz, Urban, Peterek and Giemsa, ended up in the Wehrmacht.

After the war the club resumed activity in the spring of 1945, and its first match, a derby with AKS, ended in a 2:2 draw on 15 March 1945. The stadium was occupied by the Red Army until the end of November 1945. In March 1949 the club lost its independence and operated within sports associations, among others under the name Unia, and it regained full autonomy after October 1956.

Fourteen titles

After the war Ruch won championships in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1960, 1968, 1974, 1975, 1979 and 1989. In total the club has fourteen titles, with the year 1951 needing an explanation: in 1951 Ruch won the Polish Cup, which by decision of the Polish Football Association was treated as equivalent to the championship. In the 1950s Gerard Cieślik played for the club, twice the league's top scorer. His football memory is preserved by two monuments: a bench sculpture in the centre of Chorzów, unveiled on 18 December 2014, and a monument at the Silesian Stadium from 13 September 2022. Both sculptures recall the Poland - USSR match of 20 October 1957, in which Cieślik scored two goals.