Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigrants. In 1977, the Club changed its name to Sydney Olympic and became a founding member of the Phillips Soccer League, later named the National Soccer League (NSL), the inaugural national football league of Australia, remaining a member of the competition until its demise in 2004.
Sydney Olympic have won many trophies in Australian football, including two NSL Championships, two NSL Cups, the NSL Minor Premiership and three NSW Premier League Championships. The club has also won the Johnny Warren Cup, the Brett Emerton Cup, the National Youth League Championship, the National Youth League Minor Premiership and the NSW Premier League Club Championship.
Sydney Olympic has traditionally been one of the most well supported football teams in Australia, setting numerous domestic crowd attendances. A crowd of 18,985 attended Sydney Olympic's victory over Northern Spirit in 1998 at North Sydney Oval, a record crowd attendance between two clubs during the regular season of the NSL, defeating the previous record of 18,367 set when Newcastle KB United played Sydney Olympic in 1979 at Marathon Stadium. The greatest crowd attendance for a Grand Final was recorded during the 2001/02 season when 42,735 people were present at Subiaco Oval to see Sydney Olympic defeat Perth Glory.
1957: Pan-Hellenic – The Beginnings
Established in Sydney by Greek immigrants in 1957, Sydney Olympic Football Club has been and continues to be a major pillar and a leading contributor to football in Australia as well as a nursery to many of its finest talents.
In the late 1940s and 50s there were several small Greek teams for the purposes of socialising and giving a sense of home for the newly arrived migrants. These teams included; Taxiarchis, Atlas, Astro, Pansamiakos as well as several others. Many people wondered about uniting all of these smaller teams to establish 1 strong Greek team in order to participate in the NSW Soccer Federation. The founding date of the Club is set as 28 November 1957, as this was the first meeting of Club Founder Christos Giannakoulias with several other influential protagonists at his home. It was decided there, that the newly formed team would be known as Pan-Hellenic, as it represented the shared journeys of Greeks from all over the world who migrated to Sydney and not just from Greece and Cyprus, but also from various other places like; Egypt, Romania, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Anatolia and Asia Minor
The club was established as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club and its initial strip was blue and white vertical stripes.
1958–60: NSW 2nd Division
In its first season in 1958, Pan-Hellenic found itself in the NSW 2nd Division, which at the time was split into 2 groups – Western & Eastern – After topping its group, Pan-Hellenic faced off with Budapest, who had topped the other group in the Grand Final, which Pan-Hellenic won 3–1. This still was not good enough for promotion and Pan-Hellenic was forced to play a separate play-off with Budapest for promotion. The initial match ended 1–1 and a replay was ordered a few days later, which Budapest won 4–0.
For season 1959, the Federation did away with a Finals Series and promotion playoffs, instead awarding promotion to the club which topped the competition table after the 26 rounds. Pan-Hellenic would miss out again on promotion, as it finished runner-up to Neerlandia.
In 1960 and in what would become a tradition in Australian Football, the format was changed yet again. A Finals Series would be played this season, Pan-Hellenic reached the Grand Final again, but would go on and lose to Polonia 2–1. But this time, the team which would end up atop the competition ladder was crowned the Champions and would be promoted, fortunately for Pan-Hellenic, they finished top of the ladder 1 point ahead of Polonia, were crowned Champions and finally earned promotion to the NSW 1st Division for 1961.
1960s: NSW 1st Division
In its first season in the NSW 1st Division in 1961, the club would finish in the top 4 finishing 4th, a fantastic achievement. In the Finals Series Pan-Hellenic lost its Semi-Final to Hakoah 1–0.
1962 saw Pan-Hellenic finish in 7th place, before rebounding in 1963 to once again make the top 4, finishing 4th once again and qualified for the Finals Series. South Coast United delivered a heavy blow in the Semi-Final, dishing out a 7–1 loss to Pan-Hellenic.