Ruch Chorzów For decades Ruch Chorzów were the undisputed record holder for Polish championships, but since 2021, when Legia Warszawa claimed their sixteenth title, the Chorzów club has shared second place in the all-time standings with Górnik Zabrze - both sides hold fourteen Polish championships. Ruch were founded on 20 April 1920, during a turbulent period of political tension in Upper Silesia, and played their first match just weeks later, on 3 May, beating Orzeł Józefowiec 3-1.
The club's first golden era came in the interwar years, when Ruch won the league four times in a row between 1933 and 1936, and again in 1938. That side featured Ernest Wilimowski, one of Poland's greatest ever footballers, a four-time league top scorer remembered above all for scoring four goals against Brazil at the 1938 World Cup. After post-war reconstruction, the club returned to the summit in the 1950s, but the true peak of Ruch's history came in the 1970s. Led by Czech coach Michal Vičan, the team completed the only league-and-cup double in its history in the 1973/74 season, also reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. A year later Ruch defended their title and achieved their greatest European result: the quarter-finals of the European Cup in the 1974/75 season. The club's fourteenth and most recent championship came in 1989.
After years of glory came a painful collapse: between 2017 and 2019, Ruch were relegated three seasons in a row, dropping for the first time in its history to the third tier. The club has since steadily rebuilt, working its way back up through the divisions. Ruch now play their home matches at the Stadion Śląski, known as the Witches' Cauldron, one of the most recognisable and largest sporting venues in Poland.