The club had a strong fanbase in the Split's
shipyard. The club was founded on 16 April 1912 as Anarch, but has had several names like Borac, Jug, HAŠK, Dalmatinac, and Arsenal since then. During the
Spanish Civil War, RNK Split organized an unsuccessful expedition of his volunteers for the fight on the side of the communist coalition against
Francisco Franco's forces. In
World War II, the club became well known because 120 of its players were killed fighting on the side of
Josip Broz Tito's
Partisans, fighting against Axis forces. After achieving three consecutive promotions from 2008 to 2010, the club went from playing in Croatia's fourth tier to playing in the
Croatian First League, Croatia's top division. In the team's first season in the top flight in the 2010–11 season, they achieved a very respectable third spot. Because of its finish that season, they qualified to play for Europe for the first time in the club's existence and entered into the
2011–12 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round where they met
Slovenian side
Domžale. They won 5–2 on aggregate and in the third qualifying round they were drawn against
Premier League side
Fulham, whom they lost to 2–0 on aggregate. In the 2014–15 season, the club managed to reach the Europa League playoff round after defeating
Mika,
Hapoel Be'er Sheva and
Chornomorets Odesa, but lost 1–0 on aggregate to
Italian Serie A side
Torino. ==Crest and colours==