Grorud IL
Encyclopedia
Grorud Idrettslag is a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 sports club from Grorud
Grorud
Grorud is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway.The borough contains the Ammerud, Grorud, Kalbakken, Rødtvet, Nordtvet and Romsås areas. Traditionally a borough inhabited by the working class, Grorud has in the last few decades had a great influx of immigrants. 40% of the population are first or...

 borough, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

. It has sections for association football, skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

.

General history

As a sports club based in Grorud, it had two predecessor clubs in Grorud IF, which existed from 1904 to 1905, and Grorud TIF, which existed from 1908 to 1914. Grorud IL was finally founded on 18 March 1918. At the time, Grorud was still located in Aker
Aker, Norway
Aker is a former municipality in Akershus, which lends its name to a municipality and a county in Norway. The name originally belonged to a farm which was located near the current Old Aker Church...

 municipality. The district was incorporated into Oslo in 1948 and tied to the city centre with the Grorud Line of the Oslo Metro in 1966.

The club finished construction of its football field in 1926, and its ski jumping hill Rannkollen in 1928. In 1932 the football field was covered with gravel, which allowed the practice of skating sports during the winter. In 1932 Grorud IL was one of the first workers' sports clubs to take up the tennis sport.

Later secretary-general in the UN, Trygve Lie
Trygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian Foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first Secretary-General of the United...

 served as secretary in Grorud TIF, and became an honorary member of Grorud IL. He was a central person in the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions
Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have more than 850,000 members of a Norwegian population of 4.8 million...

, and helped the club get a money loan in Akers Sparebank, which financed the field and hill constrution. In 1929 Grorud IL decided to join the Workers' Sports Confederation Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund
Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund
Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund was a sporting organization in Norway between 1924 and 1946. As of 1935, AIF had around 50,000 members. AIF published the magazine Arbeideridrett.-Foundation and early growth:...

 (AIF), where Trygve Lie also was a central figure. This connection ended in 1946 when the AIF was disbanded. By that time the club had got their club house, designed by noted architect Frode Rinnan
Frode Rinnan
Frode Rinnan was a Norwegian architect and politician for the Labour Party.-Early career:He was born in Trondhjem as a son of ship inspector Carl Julius Rinnan and his wife Thonny Nielsen...

.

In 1956 the new ski jumping hill Grorudbakken was opened. It fell apart in October 1957, but was rebuilt in steel. A grass football field was opened in 1966, and the field also featured an athletics track. An indoor arena was opened in 1974.

The club colors are yellow and blue.

Football

As Grorud IL, the men's football team played in the Third Division, the fourth tier of Norwegian football, for many years, having been promoted for the 1994 season
1994 Norwegian Third Division
The 1994 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.Between 22 and 24 games were played in 19 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws...

. After being relegated in 1997
1997 Norwegian Third Division
The 1997 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.Between 20 and 24 games were played in 19 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws...

 the team quickly returned in 1999
1999 Norwegian Third Division
The 1999 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.Between 20 and 24 games were played in 19 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws...

. After a long Third Division stint, the team won promotion in 2011
2011 Norwegian Third Division
The 2011 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.Between 22 and 26 games are played in 12 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws...

 and will play in the 2012 Norwegian Second Division
2012 Norwegian Second Division
The 2012 Norwegian Second Division season will begin on 14 April 2012 and end 27 October 2012. Asker, Løv-Ham, Nybergsund-Trysil and Randaberg were relegated from the 2011 Norwegian First Division.-Group 1:...

.

The men's football team formerly cooperated to prop up an umbrella team called Groruddalen BK
Groruddalen BK
Groruddalen Ballklubb was a Norwegian association football club from Groruddalen, Oslo.The club came into existence through the merger of a number of local clubs in 2002, but went defunct again in 2008, after some of those clubs withdrew their backing...

, but this team went defunct in 2008. Grorud IL was not the backbone of Groruddalen BK, however; this was Årvoll IL
Årvoll IL
Årvoll Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Årvoll, Bjerke, Oslo. It has sections for association football, team handball, volleyball, orienteering and Nordic skiing....

 whose league spot was taken over by Groruddalen BK.

Athletics

The athletics section is now defunct, but has had several prominent members. Hilde Fredriksen notably finished sixth in the unofficial 1980 World Championships in 400 metres hurdles
400 metres hurdles
The 400 metres hurdles is an Olympic athletics event in track and field. On a standard outdoor track 400 metres is the length of the inside lane once around the stadium. Runners stay in their lane the entire way after starting out of the blocks and must clear ten hurdles that are evenly...

, and also holds the Norwegian record in the event. Trond Knaplund was a decathlete of national renown, and is now a coach.
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