Page 124 - Olympism in Socialism

throughout the country that sports life really
flourished. One should mention the First Lvov
Football Club, later renamed Czarni— the oldest
Polish sports club founded in 1903— the Lvov
Pogon which started in 1904 as the Gymnastics
Sports Club at the 4th Grammar School, the
Cracow Wisla and Cracovia (1906), the Warsaw
Polonia (1915), and many other equally popular
clubs and associations which were founded in the
inter-war period.
At that time, when pupils were forbidden to
join sports clubs (from 1933 on), the keenest
young sportsmen did so under assumed names;
school teams took on other schools in handball,
basketball or volleyball; hockey was not so
popular, and football was almost black-listed in
schools.
It was not until after the Second World War
(in 1948) that the first Secondary School
Championships were held. A year later such
championships were organised for vocational
schools. Soon after the Zryw Sports Association
was founded. The latter initially grouped young
sportsmen from vocational schools, but it was not
long before pupils from other schools joined in.
As a result, in 1956, this Association was
changed to the School Sports Association (SZS)
which now cooperates with the Students Sports
Association (AZS) active since 1908.
A nation-wide competition for the youngest
sportsmen sponsored by Swiat Mlodych, a
newspaper of the Polish scouting organization,
takes place every year. Some one million children
participate in ii in two age groups — 11 to 12 and
13 to 14. The event has now become famous and
is organised in all the socialist countries. It is
traditionally held under the auspices of the Polish
Pathfinders’ Union which also organises two

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