Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball club was founded in 1935 by a man called Dov Frosck,
who immigrated to Israel in that year. in the first few years of the club's existence,
Frosck was the head coach and one of the team's leading players. In those days
there were no Israeli league or cup,so the young team played mostly friendly matches
against different military teams, like the Franch army team, the Greek army team
etc.
The first year of the Israeli basketball league was 1953/54. Hapoel
was one of the eight teams selected to take part in the new league. they finished
the firs two years in the third and fourth place.
In 56' Hapoel qualified
to the first ever Israeli state cup final. Hapoel lost both of the two legged
cup final matches,and missed the chance to win her first formal title (the team
had won some unformal competitions like the Hapoel championship etc).in the next
three years Hapoel finished the league as runners up,when in 58' they lost the
title only because of basket difference.
The sixties marked the beginning
of Hapoel's golden era. In that decade, Hapoel won all five of her championships,
when the historic first title came in 1960.
Hapoel appointed a new coach,
Shimon Selach, one of her greatest former stars. Selach gathered a talented group
of players like Erez Lustig, Ezry Luvoshitz, Uri Guthalf, Zvi Lubetski, Haim Hazan,
Rami Gott and Ilan Zayger, and led them to a back to back championships in 60'
and 61'.
In 62' Hapoel won her first state cup,after a dramatic game
in which Erez Lustig scored the winner seconds from time,50-48. a first title
in the career of the youngster Gershon Dekel.
In 65', together with newcommers
David Kaminski and Ami Shelef, Hapoel regained the championship, and for the first,
and last time in her history, Hapoel finished the season with a clean sheet. Hapoel
held on to her title for a second consecutive year, but in the state cup final,
for the fourth straight time,she lost in the final match to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The fifth and last championship came in 1969. Hapoel added to her strong
squad 5 American jews that recived Israeli citizenship. the five were Larry Zolot,
Ivan Lischinsky, Alan Zuckerman, Mark Tornstein and Barry Lebovitz.
Later
in that season Lebovitz was banned from the Israeli league matches due to his
professional status. he was then made head coach, and led the team to the championship,
and also to a victory in the state cup final over arch rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In the seventies Hapoel could not repeat the achievements of the last
decade. Hapoel finished as runners up in 70',71 and 79',but besides that, did
not pose a threat in the championship race. During that time, arch enemies Maccabi
started building their dictatorship.
In 1980, Hapoel had once again finished
the league in the second place, but also qualified to the Korac cup semi final.
in the semi final Hapoel faced Cibona Zagreb. at the first leg in Tel Aviv, Hapoel
won 81-80,but that wasn't enough, becaus at the second leg Cibona won 92-80.
In 81' Hapoel moved to her home ground-Ussishkin hall in the north of Tel Aviv.
in 84' Hapoel finally won her first title since 1969.
In the state cup final
Hapoel faced up with Hapoel Ramat Gan. led by Mike Largie,Lavan Mercer and Danny
Bracha, Hapoel achieved a 73-77 win over Ramat Gan, and celebrated a 3 win of
the state cup.
The following year Hapoel came close to winning the championship,
but lost in the playoff finals 2-1,after a 1-0 lead after the first game. in 88'
Haoel was onec again knocked out at the Korac cup semi final by Cibona Zagreb.
At the playoff final Hapoel was sold out by her key player Mercer, that had
a contract for the next year in Maccabi Tel Aviv, but even without him Hapoel
managed to drag the serie to a fifth game, but lost it and saw another title go
to her hated city rival.
In 1992 Hapoel once again faced Maccabi in the
playoff final and force fifth and deciding game. at the beginning of the fifth
game, Mercer punched Tomer Steinhauer from Hapoel in the face with no reaction
of the ref. Steinhauer and Hapoel were shocked and could not get into the game.
Maccabi stole another title.
In 93' Hapoel had a great team, that won
the state cup after a 65-71 win over Hapoel Givaataim, and finished the league
in first place. However at the playoff final that did not help her against Hapoel
Galil Elyon, that knocked out Maccabi at the playoff semi final, and Galil won
the seire 3-1,becoming the third team in the history of Israeli basketball to
win the championship.
In the next few years, Hapoel struggled with increasing
financial problems. those problems led to the weakening of the team, and dragged
her into relegation battles. in 1997 Hapoel lost that battle. For the first time
in history,Hapoel Tel Aviv lost her place in the first league. The club did leap
back the following year,but only to get relegated again in 1999.
Hapoel spent
the three years in the second division, and would probably still be there if it
wasn't the Russian-oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky, who took the team to his hands
and helped her to get back to her natural place at the first division.
Gusinsky's money helped Hapoel to get back to the top, and in 04', for the first
time since 95', Hapoel won the city derby. Hapoel also reached the final four
of the FIBA Europe league,where she finished third. at the playoff final the team
could not pose a threat against Maccabi,at the seire that was the final chord
of the Gusinsky era.
Summary: Hapoel won 5 Israeli league championships
(60', 61', 65', 66', 69'), and finished as the runner-up 20 times (57', 58', 59',
63', 64', 67', 68', 70', 71', 79', 80', 85', 87', 88', 89', 92', 93', 94', 04',
05').
Hapoel also won 4 state cups (62', 69', 84', 93'), and reached
12 cup-finals (56', 58', 63', 64', 65', 66', 70', 76', 77', 78', 83', 94').