Inglewood United - Club History

Club History

Inglewood United was formed as the Kiev Soccer Club in March 1951 by migrants from Ukraine in Australia. The club was named after the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and their famous football team Dynamo Kyiv. The blue and yellow colours were adopted from the two colors of the Ukrainian national flag.

One of the Founders of the club was Ihor Schorsch, who was a long-term President until his death. Schorsch was succeeded by Ziggie Kramer in 1994.

Zyggie Kramer has been a regular fixture of the WA football landscape since he first played for Kiev in 1953. His career is tied to Kiev, coaching the club and filling positions on the committee non-stop since 1971 from junior committee to president, the latter since 1994 through until the present day. At the same time he filled positions at State level as a board member on the Professional Soccer League (1998–2001) and on the SAWA Board (2000–2001). Zyggie was inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

The club originally used Raphael Park in Victoria Park as their first home ground, until moving to leased grounds in Inglewood.

In 1960, the Club came first in the Second Division and were promoted to the First Division.

In 1971, a twentyone year lease was arranged for clubgrounds on Crown land.

A Social club facility was built in 1976, with lots of voluntary labour from the Ukrainian community. The Building Committee was chaired by Vladimir Mandyczewsky.

An Amateur team was formed in 1977.

Secretary Jack Soer was instrumental in organising Bingo, which brought much-needed finances to the fledgling club.

The Club underwent several name changes, initially as the national governing body tried to eradicate "ethnic" names from football clubs throughout Australia. Names such as "Inglewood-Kiev" and "Inglewood Falcons" were used until the Club settled on "Inglewood United".

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