The volleyball department of Panathinaikos was founded in 1919 and is one of the first in
Greece. With the participation of
Giorgos Kalafatis in the
Inter-Allied Games of
Paris in 1919, and the informations he collected, the sport became more known in
Greece. The same year the officials of the club decided the creation of a volleyball team. The first dynamic presence of the team is dated back in the years 1927–29 with many popular players of the time such as the founder
Giorgos Kalafatis, the historical member of the board
Apostolos Nikolaidis, as well as players such as
Athanasios Aravositas, Goumas, Arg. Nikolaidis, Papageorgiou and Papastefanou. In the following years the interest for volleyball became less until before
World War II when Panathinaikos presented a powerful team with leader players such as Lambrou, Vallidis, Momferatos, Tzoumanis, Proselentis, Lykouris, Kakridis and more. During the 60’s and 70’s, Panathinaikos' volleyball club won many titles and honors due to the fact that the team roster has always included some of the leading volleyball players and coaches in Greece. The first and most popular generation of players of 60’s was Andreas and Nikos Bergeles, as well as Iliopoulos, Leloudas, Chasapis, Emmanouil, Perros and Fotiou who opened the road for the next generations. Notable coaches of this era was the leading figure of the department
Gerasimos Theodoratos, the
Yugoslavian
Sava Grozdanović and later the ex-player of the team
Andreas Bergeles. The most important achievement of the team was the participation in the final of the European Cup in 1980 with Grozdanović as coach and players such as Georgantis, Agrapidakis, Iliopoulos, Papadopoulos, Malousaris, Gountakos, Astras, Kokkinaras and Koliopoulos. In the following years, Panathinaikos team continued to dominate the Greek championship with
Janusz Badora as coach and players such as Kazazis, Tentzeris, Gontikas, Galakos, Dimitriadis, Margaronis, Karamaroudis and Andreopoulos. Two of the most successful periods have been 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, when Panathinaikos won 2 consecutive championships with Stelios Prosalikas as head coach and Andreopoulos, Triantafillidis, Filippov, Spanos, Hatziantoniou, Ouzounov, A. Kovacev, S. Kovacev, Karamaroudis, Mavrakis, Konstantinidis, Zakynthinos, Koutouleas, Tonev as players. In 2001 the department became professional under the presidency and financial support of
Vlassis Stathokostopoulos and later
Thanasis Giannakopoulos. In 2004 the team won the Championship with the ex-player Stelios Kazazis as coach. With the
Brazilian star-player
Dante Amaral and
Marcelo Elgarten, they made a strong team and finished again first in 2006, while they reached again the final of the European Cup in 2009. ==Honours==