The parent athletic club,
Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos, was founded in Athens in 1891, making it one of the oldest sports clubs in Europe. It had a team of
gymnasts compete at the
1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. The team's leader was
Sotirios Athanasopoulos. Members included
Nikolaos Andriakopoulos,
Petros Persakis,
Thomas Xenakis, and 29 others. The team placed second out of the three teams in the
parallel bars team event, earning a
silver medal (retroactively awarded by the
International Olympic Committee, as the awards at the first Olympic Games differed from the gold, silver, bronze format used later). The Greek multi-sport club
Panathinaikos was founded by
Giorgos Kalafatis in 1908, when he and 40 other athletes decided to break away from Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos, following the club's decision to discontinue its
football team. In 1929, the athletic association's basketball department, Panellinios B.C. Athens was founded, and that same year the club won the Athens basketball championship.
The "Golden Five" era Panellinios has been the
top tier level
Greek League's champion 6 successive seasons (1929, 1939, 1940, 1953, 1955, and 1957). In the club's early years, it featured the player
Missas Pantazopoulos. The club would have likely won several more Greek championships during the 1940s, but could not because the league was temporarily disbanded because of
World War II. In the early 1950s era, the team was called "The Golden Five" ("Chrysi Pentada" in Greek), or "The Fabulous Five". "The Golden Five" consisted of
Themis Cholevas (
PG),
Dinos Papadimas (
SG),
Mimis Stefanidis (
SF),
Panos Manias (
PF), and
Aristeidis Roubanis (
C). "The Golden Five" dominated not only Greek club basketball, but European club basketball in general. The Panellinios team also headlined the Greek
1952 Summer Olympics basketball team. Although the
EuroLeague, then known as the FIBA European Champions Cup, was not formed until the 1958 season, it is widely believed that had it been formed earlier, that Panellinios would have won several EuroLeague championships, as many considered Panellinios to be the best club team in Europe during the early-to-mid 1950s. In that era, the
head coach of the team was
Nikos Nissiotis. During that era, Panellinios took part in the biggest international club tournaments in Europe, the predecessor tournaments of the EuroLeague, that were then held instead of the EuroLeague tournament. The club advanced to the final of the 1954 San Remo Tournament, which they lost 81–74 to the
Italian League club
Olimpia Milano. Panellinios then won the 1955 Brussels Tournament, by defeating the
Yugoslav League club
Red Star Belgrade in the final, by a score of 91–67. Panellinios also won the 1956 San Remo Tournament, by defeating the Italian League club
Virtus Bologna, by a score of 67–37. In the
inaugural 1958 season, the
European 1st tier level European Champions Cup (now known as the EuroLeague) was formed. By that time, the team was coming to the end of The Golden Five era, as only 2 players of The Golden Five remained on the team. The club was eliminated from the competition, after losing its series against
Steaua SA Bucarest 2 games to 0, by scores of 63–60 and 75–72. During that era, the team also featured the great scorers
Antonis Christeas and
Georgios Moschos.
After the "Golden Five" era The team stayed in the top tier Greek basketball division for 23 consecutive seasons, starting in 1963, when the league was re-formed into a new format. The club finished third in the top Greek League in both 1970 and 1978. During this era, it was the legendary Greek player
Vassilis Goumas, that was the leader of the team. In the 1970–71 season, Panellinios player
Paraskevas Tsantalis, scored 73 points in a Greek Basket league game against
Panionios. The club also finished as the runner-up in the
Greek Cup in 1987. Panellinios also participated in the
European 2nd-tier level
FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup (Saporta Cup), and in the European 3rd tier level
FIBA Korać Cup competition,
several times during the 1970s and 1980s.
Rise and return to First Greek Division The club struggled in the 1990s, and was mired in the
third and
fourth divisions of the Greek lower leagues. New management came to the organization in 1999, when
Minos Kyriakou took over the club, and the club would eventually again begin to establish itself as a strong presence in Greek basketball. In 2004, Panellinios returned to the top-level
Greek League, after earning a
league promotion, led by
Marijan Kraljević and the Soulis brothers. In 2006, the team advanced to the playoff round of the Greek League, led by
Dimitrios Tsaldaris,
Damir Mulaomerović and
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, and finished 6th in the league, after losing in the playoffs to
Aris. In 2007, the club finished in 5th place in the league, with players such as
Mamadou N'Diaye,
Michalis Pelekanos,
Gary Trent, and
Anthony Goldwire. The team lost to
Panionios in the playoffs, but in finishing 5th in the Greek League, qualified for the new
European 2nd tier level
EuroCup competition, for the first time in club history. In 2010, the club moved from
Athens, where it had been based for 81 years, to the city of
Lamia. In March 2010, Minos Kyriakou, withdrew from the club's ownership position. In 2011, the club moved back to Athens.
Relegation and recent years In the 2011–12 season, the Greek Professional Sports Committee stripped Panellinios of its professional licence, because the club faced economic problems. In addition, the club wasn't accepted by the lower tiers of the
Greek basketball league system, and thus didn't play in any league during that season. The next season (2012–13), Panellinios played in the A ESKA Category (the First Athenian Regional Division). But the team's presence in the league wasn't successful. It finished in last place, and was relegated to the B ESKA Category. ==In Europe==