The club was founded on 20 April 1920 in
Bismarkhuta (German
Bismarckhütte, historically
Hajduki), one of the many heavily industrialised municipalities in the eastern part of
Upper Silesia, a disputed province between Poland and Germany. The main incentive was an appeal of the Polish Plebiscite Committee a few months earlier that led to creation of around one hundred sport associations. It took place in between the first and second
Silesian Uprisings, to which the name
Ruch is a supposed
cover reference. The Polish word
ruch is however also a common noun for
movement, not as strongly associated with Polishness as names of many other clubs established after the appeal (like Polonia, Powstaniec etc.). On the other hand, the club's first match, a 3–1 win against Orzeł Józefowiec, was played on 3 May 1920, the day of the
first Polish Constitution. After the
Upper Silesia plebiscite and the third Silesian Uprising in 1921 Bismarkhuta became part of Poland and the
Silesian Voivodeship. The municipality was renamed to
Wielkie Hajduki on 1 January 1923, hence the club was known as Ruch Wielkie Hajduki until another merger into the town Chorzów (created in 1934 from amalgamation of
Królewska Huta,
Chorzów and
Hajduki Nowe) in the early 1939, with a short period in 1923 after the fusion with the older local German club
Bismarckhütter Ballspiel Club, when it was known as
Ruch BBC Wielkie Hajduki. After the merger the team played its games on the former BBC's pitch known as
na Kalinie. The popular nickname of the club
Niebiescy (
The Blues) clung to the team already in the 1920s. In autumn of 1920 Ruch won the promotion to the nascent Silesian
Klasa A (see also:
Lower Level Football Leagues in Interwar Poland). The Blues were third out of fourteen teams in its first season, unfinished due to the third Silesian Uprising. The next year Ruch won the championship of the Silesian
Klasa A and represented the region in the
1922 Polish Football Championship. In 1924 the club finished second in the regional top league, behind
AKS Królewska Huta, before 1924 considered German and known as
Verein für Rasenspiele Königshütte, the first team Ruch had developed a local rivalry with. In 1925 the Silesian Klasa A did not play, instead ''Stanisław Flieger's Cup'' took place, ultimately won by Ruch, which gave the side a start in the only interwar Polish Cup competition in
1926. On 4 July 1926
Józef Sobota, before 1920 a BBC's player, became the first Ruch's player (and the fourth from Upper Silesia) of the
Poland national team, who also scored a goal (against
Estonia). In the same year, two weeks after the national Cup Ruch won for the second time the regional Klasa A, firmly establishing itself as one of the strongest football clubs in this densely populated region and as such it was among the founding clubs of the Polish national league in
1927. In
1933 Ruch won its first Championship as the first side from Silesia, with all the players who were born not further as a few kilometers from the
na Kalinie pitch. Thus the first truly golden era began. The local steel mill (since 1934 known as Huta Batory) began to financially support the side. In the winter of 1933 the most noteworthy players such as
Edmund Giemsa,
Teodor Peterek and
Gerard Wodarz were joined by legendary
Ernst Wilimowski, bought from
1. FC Kattowitz, who with Peterek and Wodarz were collectively nicknamed
the three kings and helped to win another 4 championships (
1934,
1935,
1936,
1938). On 1 November 1934 the club, as the last in the league, employed its first coach, Gustav Wieser. The side was also a leader in the unfinished season
1939. The successes rendered the club the most popular in the voivodeship and accelerated building of the new stadium in the years 1934–1935, the current
Ruch Chorzów Stadium. During the
World War II German occupation of Poland in 1939, the club was officially discontinued but unofficially was simply renamed Bismarckhütter SV 99 and joined the
Gauliga Oberschlesien in 1941. The club was officially re-established after the war. In 1947 Ruch won the regional championships. In 1948, under communist pressure (
Stalinisation), the club was renamed Unia Chorzów, in 1955 it became Unia-Ruch, and finally in 1956 returned to the name Ruch. As Unia the club finished third in the first season of the reactivated national league in 1948 and in 1950 as the second team. In 1951 the club won the reactivated Polish Cup edition and were rewarded with the title of the National Champions (even though they were only sixth in
the league). The next two years the club also won the title, first in
1952 after final against
Polonia Bytom, another local bitter rival, and in
1953 after finishing the league on the top position. The most renowned player of that era was
Gerard Cieślik, who dedicated his whole life to the club and became its icon. The years 1957-1966 are considered a lost decade, completely overshadowed by the successes of the new biggest regional rival,
Górnik Zabrze, even though the club won the championships in
1960. A record of its kind in the national football history as the team consisted of only 14 players, 11 of whom originated in the town of Chorzów. The turn of the tide came in the season
1967–68 when Ruch won the 10th championship title breaking Górnik Zabrze's streak of five consecutive titles. Another golden era for
the Blues arrived in the early 1970s with
Michal Vičan as a coach. In
1972–73 the club finished second, in
1973–74 they won the only double in the history (the championship and the cup) and advanced up to
the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. In
1974–75 they again won the league and qualified to the
quarter-finals of the European Cup. The most praised players of that times were
Bronisław Bula,
Zygmunt Maszczyk and
Joachim Marx. These successes were followed by a bad financial plight and mediocre results until
1978–79, when the club won its 13th Championship title. In the 1980s the club was one of the poorest in the national league. The worst came in the season
1986–87, when the club, the only one in the country which so far played all the seasons of the official national top league, was relegated to the second tier. Especially shifty were the circumstances of the relegation decider, against
Lechia Gdańsk, when Ruch's goalkeeper
Janusz Jojko scored an infamous and bizarre
own goal and the club lost the game 1–2. After one year Ruch returned to the top flight as winners of the seconed league and won the 14th Championship title, as the second freshly-promoted club in the national history (the first was Cracovia in
1937), a feat, especially as it was still one of the poorest clubs in the top tier and over half of the players were home-grown, including e.g.
Dariusz Gęsior and the most renowned
Krzysztof Warzycha, who was also, with 24 goals, the top scorer of the season. final After the
political turnover in Poland in 1989, Ruch did not fare well for the first two seasons. The funds from the transfer of Krzysztof Warzycha to
Panathinaikos ran out quickly. The team began to compete with the top teams first in
1991–92 finishing in the fifth spot, fourth the next year, furthermore the second team (
Ruch II) reached the Polish cup final. Ruch was demoted for the second time in the history in the
1994–95 season. As before the stay in the second tier lasted one season. While playing in the second league Ruch won its third Polish Cup trophy. In 1998 Ruch reached the final of the
UEFA Intertoto Cup and in the
1999–2000 season finished third in the league. The crisis came during the
2002–03 campaign, when the club was relegated from the top tier for the third time. In the following season, Ruch was in danger of being demoted to the third tier for the first time in history, however the club won the relegation play-offs against
Stal Rzeszów (1–1, 2–0). In 2005, the club was restructured as a
joint-stock company. The Blues won the promotion to the top flight in the 2006–07 season. In 2009, the side reached the Polish Cup final, the next year The Blues finished third in the league. The best season in the recent history was
2011–12, when Ruch was vice-champion (only 1 point behind the champions,
Śląsk Wrocław) and reached the final of the national cup, which they lost 0–3 to
Legia Warsaw. in the
2009–10 Ekstraklasa In 2017, it was decided that for the first time in the history of Polish football, in accordance with the Restructuring Law, SA will initiate an accelerated arrangement procedure aimed at agreeing the terms of debt repayment with creditors. These proceedings were opened before the Katowice District Court on 23 June 2017. In these proceedings all 255 creditors were offered to reduce the debt, spread it into installments or convert the debt into club shares. On 30 November 2017 creditors gathered in court to decide whether or not to accept the offer. The majority agreed and the agreement was adopted, ultimately the agreement became final on 13 March 2018. According to the provisions of the agreement, Ruch is to repay PLN 8 million złoty within 5 years. Installments are spread over 400 thousand złoty every quarter. Ruch started the 2017–18 season in Nice
I liga with a six-point deduction for unpaid debts. After a disastrous season in which the Blues suffered heavy defeats, including 0–6 in a home match against
Pogoń Siedlce on the club's 98th anniversary, a 6–1 away defeat against
Miedź Legnica and a 6–0 away loss to
Wigry Suwałki, the club finished last in the league, being 11 points off the play-off place, which resulted in the first relegation to the
third level in Ruch's history. Ruch ended the 2018–19 season in the
II liga in last place, eight points off of safety. It was the third season in a row in which the Blues were relegated from last place in the table. In 2020–21, Ruch dominated group III of the
III liga and were promoted to the II liga, 11 points ahead of second placed Polonia Bytom. in the
2021–22 II liga Ruch finished the
2021–22 season in third place, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. In the semi-finals, the team faced
Radunia Stężyca, which they beat 1–0 after a goal from
Daniel Szczepan in the 118th minute. The final was played in Chorzów, where Ruch faced 5th placed
Motor Lublin - on 29 May, Ruch won 4–0 and was promoted for the second season in a row, returning to the I liga for the first time since the
2017–18 season. Ruch finished the
2022–23 season as runners-up, after defeating GKS Tychy 1–0 on the last matchday, with the sole goal scored again by Daniel Szczepan. In result, Ruch returned to Ekstraklasa after 7 years of absence, with a streak of three straight promotions. However, Ruch were relegated back to the second division after just a single season back in the top flight, finishing the
2023–24 campaign in 17th and second-last. ==Honours==