Smyrna era (1891–1922) Apollon Smyrnis was founded in 1891 by former members of club Orpheus. Orpheus (subsequently
Panionios) had been founded one year earlier in 1890. Among the founders of Apollon were prominent residents of Smyrna such as
Chrysostomos of Smyrna and
Vasilis Samios. In 1894, with the election of its new presiding board, Apollon adopted as its emblem three runners and at the same time it established an excursion department. Of the first excursions that were organized, one was to
Ephesus and another to
Aydın, in which the Russian scholar and historical Frigkol took part. with the attendance, not only of the organizers, the "Gymnastic Association Apollo Smyrnis" and the "Athletic Organization of Bornova", but also the "Athletic Union of Smyrni" as well. Remarkably, the making of these games was all under the supervision of prefect of Smyrni, Kiamil pasa, a measure of the huge scope and power of this association. The committee of the athletic games consisted of: Sokratis Solomonidis, Xristos Athanasoulas, Xenophon Dimas, Kostas Kotzias, Petros Mposkovik, A. Vanterze and Richard Whittes. The committee of ellanodikes was composed of Nikos Stavridis (chairman of Apollon), E. Fintao and D. Whittes. The opening ceremony for the first
Apollonian Games started with a parade of all athletes under the sounds of music that was played by the orchestra of Apollon with director I. Magglis. The gymnastic association "Apollon Smyrnis" took part with 54 athletes. The biggest attraction was the 10 km run, won by L. Venizelos with a time of 34'43. Another popular game attraction was the
sakodromies (small jumps), a race of 60 m, in which the runners were fully surrounded with cloth sacks up to their necks. Afterwards, at the end of the games, there was the handing-over of prizes and the athletes, followed by thousands of spectators and escorted by the orchestra of Apollo, walked to the railway station of Bornova, from where they took off to Smyrni by special train. From the railway station of Mpasmahane to the offices of the Apollon Gymnastic Association in the Bella Vista, a
lampadidodromia (running with torches) took place. The "Apollonia" aka Apollonian Games were held in Smyrna, with exceptional success, ten times in total. In these games took part almost all athletic associations of Smyrna, Greek and foreign, except the Turkish clubs. The point of contention was the claim of supremacy in the capital of
Ionia. However, this antagonism was progressively blunted, since the men of Apollon were active mainly in football and went on to create one of the most powerful teams of
Asia Minor and one of the three most important teams in Greek lands, whereas Panionios was focused on the track, producing some very important athletes. In 1904, Apollon took part in the Pan-Hellenic athletics that were organized in Athens. The city of Smyrna was represented by athletes from Panionios and Apollon. The athletes of the Gymnastic Association Apollon Smyrnis gained a lot of victories: Theologos Anastasoglou, Mathaios Despotopoulos, Kiros Alexiou, Dimitrios Mouratis and X. Lohner. Athenian man of letters, I. Damvergis, who represented Apollon in Athens, announced the news of the victories to Smyrna via telegraph. The chairman of Apollon answered: "We are grateful to you, give our congratulations to the champions." On May 1, 1905, the Apollon club celebrated with magnificence. With the music orchestra of Apollon at its head, the association organised a parade of all of the club athletes in the major streets of Smyrna. In 1906, common games were organized in Smyrna for the athletes of Apollon and Panionios. In these games victors for Apollon were the following athletes: Gounaris, Patestidis and K. Alexiou. In the same season, the Gymnastic Association Apollon Smyrnis suggested replacing the Apollonian and the
Panionian Games of Smyrni with Pan Minor-Asian games. This effort, however, was not realised due to strong opposition from Panionios. In the same year (1906) Apollon took part in the
Olympic Games of Athens (Middle Olympics). Its athletes Theologos Anastasoglou and Mathaios Despotopoulos were winners in pentathlon, writing yet another brilliant page in the history of the club. During the 2005/06 season Samuel Jolley was appointed interim manager, finishing in the top half of the table. Although the club did not continue his employment due to an obvious language barrier.
Apollon in Athens (1922–) After the
Greco-Turkish War and the expulsion of the Greeks from
Asia Minor, Apollon moved to
Athens. The club's first home ground was located at a place near the
Greek Parliament called "Stiles Olympiou Dios" (
Pillars of Olympian Zeus). Apollon stayed there for about 25 years, and after
World War II the club's house was again transferred to an
Athens neighbourhood called "Rizoupoli" and a stadium was built there,
Georgios Kamaras Stadium, named after club legend
Georgios Kamaras. The club has four departments: the football department called "Apollon Smyrnis FC", a basketball club called "Apollon BC", a volleyball club and a fighting department. The best known (and probably the most successful) department is the football club. Apollon FC participated in the
Alpha Ethniki championship for many years, with the exception of seasons 1969–70, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1986–87. The team won the local Athens Championship five times, on 1924, 1928, 1938, 1948 and 1958. Seasons 1994–95 and 1995–96 are the club's most successful seasons: In 1994–95, Apollon qualified for the
1995–96 UEFA Cup (preliminary round) where they played against
Olimpija Ljubljana.
Georgios Kamaras Stadium was not suitable for the game, so Apollon played in
AEK Athens' home ground,
Nikos Goumas Stadium. Apollon won 1–0 in
Athens in front of 10,000 fans but lost 3–1 in
Ljubljana and was eliminated (Olimpia scored 2 goals in the last 15 minutes). In those matches, many people noticed a young striker (just 21 years old at the time) who would become
European football Champion almost ten years after; his name was
Demis Nikolaidis. The following season, 1995–96, Apollon under the coaching of Giannis Pathiakakis and thanks to
Demis Nikolaidis' capital scoring performances, reached the
Greek Cup final after an excellent season, where they lost 7–1 to
AEK Athens. In the same season, Apollon made one of the biggest victories in his history, defeating Olympiacos at
Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium with 0–3, with an amazing goal of Demis Nikolaidis. After these great seasons, Apollon's glory started to fade and as a result, in the 1999–00 season Apollon was relegated to
Beta Ethniki. Then, in 2005 it was relegated to
Gamma Ethniki (South Group) and finally, in 2007, to
Delta Ethniki (Group 8). Apollon have gone since the 1930s under the nickname "The Light Brigade" (Greek: Ελαφρά Ταξιαρχία), named after the 1936 Hollywood movie
The Charge of the Light Brigade, after winning the 1938 regional Athens championship.
Alamanos era (1979–2005) In 1979, with the Greek football turning professional, Kostas Alamanos became the major shareholder and president of the team and remained so until 2005. He helped Apollon reach the
UEFA Cup preliminary round in 1995 and the
Greek Cup final in 1996, but after the departure of many of the team's best footballers, Apollon were unable to recover and in 2000 they were relegated.
Today Apollon managed to return to the First Division in the 2012–13 season, with Stamatis Vellis, a business
shipping magnate, as the new owner. On November 11, 2013, Apollon Smyrnis announced the signing of Northern Irish
Lawrie Sanchez as head coach and as assistant coach
Stephen Constantine. Their presence contributed to a significant harvesting of points in the second round of the championship, but it was not enough to keep Apollon in the Super League as it finished the penultimate and relegated. In 2014, Vellis resigned from the presidency of Apollon. He testified to the district attorney that the fate of the team depended on the actions of corrupt members of the
Hellenic Football Federation, naming a number of officials currently accused in the
2015 Greek football scandal. From 2015, Apollon Smyrnis is making a new effort with the Monemvasiotis family at the rudder. On 4 June 2017, Apollon Smyrnis were promoted to
Super League alongside 2nd placed
Lamia. ==Stadium==