HB Tórshavn (full name Havnar Bóltfelag, literally "harbour football club") was founded on 4 October 1904 in the Faroese capital by local harbour workers, which gave the club its name. It is the third-oldest football club on the archipelago, and its crest still features the hammer of Thor, the Norse god of thunder, symbolising the club's strength.
The team plays in red and black, in distinctive stripes reminiscent of AC Milan's kit. HB played its first official match in 1909 against TB Tvøroyri, but the club's real rise began after the national league was founded in 1942. In 1955 HB won its first-ever double, taking the national championship and lifting the inaugural Faroe Islands Cup after beating long-standing rival KÍ Klaksvík in the final.
Since then HB Tórshavn has built the status of the most decorated club on the islands: it is the record 24-time national champion and holds more Faroese Cup wins than any other club in the country. The club's all-time top scorer remains Uni Arge, who scored 182 goals in 232 appearances for HB between 1988 and 2005 and won the national title three times with the club.
HB was also the first Faroese club to advance in European competition, doing so in 1993 in the Cup Winners' Cup when its Latvian opponents failed to travel for the return leg after a cancelled flight, handing Tórshavn a walkover. The club's most memorable European night, however, came five years later: in the first qualifying round of the 1998–99 UEFA Cup, HB beat Finnish runners-up VPS Vaasa 2–0 at home, with both goals scored by Súni Fríði Barbá. The tie slipped away in the away leg, lost 0–4, sending VPS through 4–2 on aggregate — a match still remembered as one of the finest European hours in Faroese football history.
HB has also featured in Champions League qualifying, including in 2014–15 following its 2013 league title, and won another championship in 2018 under Icelandic coach Heimir Guðjónsson. The team's home matches are played at Gundadalur in Tórshavn, a stadium it shares with local rivals B36 Tórshavn — both clubs from the same city, but born in very different eras of Faroese football.