Early years (1912–1920) Sport was founded on 2 June 1912 as
Tallinna Võimlemise Selts Sport (English: Tallinn Gymnastics Association "Sport") by sports enthusiasts, who saw a need for a new sports club in
Tallinn, as the only well-functioning club
Kalev had an image of being an organisation for mostly affluent people. The newly formed sport organisation developed quickly, and was already very active in Tallinn's sports life by the summer of 1913. Tallinna Sport's first international football match took place on 4 May 1914 against
Helsinki IFK. The game ended in a 4–4 draw. In the following years, Sport continued to play football matches against Finnish teams and thus grew close ties with
Finland. These ties lead to Sport appointing Finnish international
Verner Eklöf as their coach in 1921.
First Estonian champions & continuous domestic success (1921–1929) were the fiercest rivals in Estonian sports during the country's first period of independence The first
Estonian Football Championship took place in
1921 and was played as a knock-out tournament. Sport faced
Tallinna Kalev in the semi-final and drew 1–1. After normal time, the match was to be played until the first goal, but after 130 minutes and no goals it was abandoned due darkness. The replay saw Sport win Kalev 3–0 after which they faced
TJK in the final. Sport won the match 5–3 and were crowned the Estonian champions. Sport retained the title in the following year, beating Tallinna Kalev 4–2 in the final. By the third season, Sport and Kalev had grown into fierce rivals. By the fate of the draw, Sport faced Kalev in the semi-final. The highly anticipated match took place at
Kalev's new stadium and with tickets sold out, 5,000 spectators witnessed Kalev triumph against Sport 1–0. Kalev went on to win the
1923 Championship. The following two seasons saw Sport Tallinn dominate in the Estonian Championship, again beating rivals Kalev in a 4-match final in
1924 and 5–0 in the final of
1925. After losing to
TJK in the
1926 Championship final, Sport appointed Hungarian
Antal Mally as their coach and defeated TJK in the
1927 final, thus winning their 5th title in their seventh season. After a conflict with the
Estonian FA, Sport along with a number of other teams decided not to take part in the
1928 season, but returned in the following year, when the championship was played in a league system format for the first time. Sport won all five games with a goal difference of 15-1 and were crowned the Estonian champions of
1929.
International success & dissolution (1930–1944) in action for Sport against
Hakoah Vienna The
1930 season saw Sport lose the Championship title to
Kalev, but the club returned to the throne in
1931, finishing the season unbeaten. Tallinna Sport retained the title in
1932 and
1933, where they finished one point clear of the newly promoted
JS Estonia Tallinn. That 1933 Championship title proved to be the last for Sport, as the following seasons were dominated by JS Estonia. Sport continued to be one of the top teams in Estonia, but were unable to win the title again before the Soviet occupation of Estonia put an end to the Estonian Football Championship in 1941. The 1930s saw Sport also face several top European clubs, who visited Estonia during their European tours. After losing 2–3 to
Austria Vienna and their star player
Matthias Sindelar in 1930, Tallinna Sport faced
Barcelona CE Europa, who were the founding members of
La Liga the year before. Sport drew 1–1 with the Spanish top division team. Sport also won
Berlin FC Preussen 3–0 in 1931 and defeated Austrian club
WAC, the finalist of the same year's
Mitropa Cup (considered as one of the predecessors to the
Champions League), 3–1. That match is best remembered for the heroic performance of the Sport's legendary goalkeeper
Evald Tipner. In 1938, by Sport's initiative, the
Estonian Cup competition was created, which Sport won by beating
TJK in the final. The newspapers evaluated the actions of Evald Tipner again as the basis of Sport's victory. The club was dissolved in 1941 after the Soviet Union occupied Estonia, but was re-established a year later during the German occupation and won the unofficial 1942 Estonian Cup. Tallinna Sport was closed down in 1944 after Soviet Union retook Estonia.
Tallinna Sport in Soviet football (1985–1989) Tallinna Sport's name reappeared in football in 1985. Named Tallinna FK Sport, the club took part in the
Soviet Second League and finished eighth in the 1985 and 1988 seasons. The club was a stepping stone for numerous later Estonian internationals, such as
Mart Poom,
Marek Lemsalu,
Martin Reim and
Marko Kristal, as well as later Russian international and national team head coach
Valery Karpin. Sport finished 20th out of 22 teams in the 1989 season and ceased its activities after that. Two years later, Estonia regained its independence. In 2003, a group of people attempted to re-establish Tallinna Sport and entered the fifth tier of Estonian football. However, this initiative did not last long and the team was dissolved in 2008. == Managerial history ==