Samsunspor

Samsunspor stepped into professional leagues for the first time in the second football league, today's TFF First League in the 1965–66 season. The opponent of Samsunspor, who played the first professional league match on 5 September 1965, was Yeşildirek S.K. Samsunspor won the match 1–0 with the goal scored by Nihat Serçeme. Thus Nihat made history as the player who scored Samsunspor's first league goal. In this first season of the league, Samsunspor became 5th in the White Group. The club also competed in the Turkish Cup that year. They reached round two after defeating Güneşspor in the first round, but would go on to lose 2–1 to Petrolspor. The following season was more successful, as the club placed second in the 2. Lig, six points behind champion Bursaspor. In the Turkish Cup, the club reached the semi-finals, defeating Konyaspor, Adanaspor, Manisaspor, Galatasaray, and Fenerbahçe along the way. They met Göztepe in the semi-finals, eventually losing 5–2 on aggregate. Samsunspor finished second in the 2. Lig and were knocked out in the first round of the Turkish Cup in 1967–68.

The club earned their first promotion to the 1. Lig (Süper Lig) in 1969. They finished first in the Beyaz Grup (White Group) of the 2. Lig, six points ahead of runners-up Boluspor. Because there were two groups, the winners of each group played each other in a final game to decide the champion and the runner-up. Ankaragücü beat Samsunspor 1–0 in the final. Samsunspor finished fifth in their first season in the 1. Lig, five points away from securing a spot in the Balkans Cup. The club finished with a record of eleven wins, nine draws, and ten losses, while scoring 24 goals and allowing 28. Samsunspor finished tenth the following season and were knocked out of the first round of the Turkish Cup for the second year in a row. After competing in first tier for five seasons, Samsunspor completed the league in the 15th place with 24 points in the 1974–75 season and relegated to the 2nd Football League. Upon this, coach Basri Dirimlili was dismissed and Kamuran Soykıray was brought back to the team. 1975–76 Football League season Soykıray again made the club White Group leader and Samsunspor has moved to the First Football League. In the same season, Samsunspor won Ministry of Youth and Sports Cup after Bursaspor II was defeated 2–1.

In the late 1970s, Ender Cengiz, who was then the club chairman, introduced the return to roots (Turkish: öze dönüş) policy, aimed at bringing back local talent to strengthen the soccer team. In the mid-1980s, Samsunspor has achieved some of its major successes in the first tier of Turkish Football. After the promotion from second tier in 1984–85, Samsunspor finished First League at 3rd place with 33 goals scored by Tanju Çolak in 1985–86 season. The next season, the club had one of the best season in its history. Ranking again 3rd in the league where Tanju Çolak scored 25 goals, the team rose to the semi-finals in the Federation Cup. The next season, Samsunspor finished the league in fourth place and reached the final in the Turkish Cup. Until the cup final, Nevşehirspor, Uşakspor, Kocaelispor and Ankaragücü were eliminated but lost to Sakaryaspor as a result of the two-legged final.

At the start of the 1988–89 season, Samsunspor began training under head coach Nuri Asan with a pre-season camp in Uludağ. The team collected 19 points during the first 18 matches of the league. On 20 January 1989, while traveling to their first match of the second half of the season against Malatyaspor, the team was involved in a tragic traffic accident.

Around 9:30 am, near Havza, the club's bus collided with a truck and plunged down a cliff. The first aid to the injured Samsunspor players came from the Çarşambaspor delegation, who happened to be passing by en route to their own match against Diyarbakırspor. Çarşambaspor's officials, players, and staff pulled the injured out of the wreckage and transported them to Havza State Hospital, also donating blood. Many survivors suffered serious injuries or lifelong disabilities.

Head coach Nuri Asan, players Muzaffer Badalıoğlu and Mete Adanır, and the bus driver Asım Özkan died at the scene. Player Zoran Tomić fell into a coma and passed away six months later in Yugoslavia. Equipment manager Halil Albayrak and players Emin Kar and Erol Dinler were permanently disabled and retired from football. Burhaneddin Beadini was injured and voluntarily retired from football one year later. Players Yüksel Öğüten, Fatih Uraz, Şanver Göymen, Kasım Çıkla, and Uğur Terzi were injured but eventually continued their football careers. Another survivor, Orhan Kılınç, continued playing football but tragically died in another car accident in 1994. Club manager Yüksel Özan also survived the crash with injuries.

After the accident, leading figures from Turkey's political and sporting world – including President Kenan Evren, Prime Minister Turgut Özal, Speaker of Parliament Yıldırım Akbulut, Minister of National Education, Youth, and Sports Hasan Celal Güzel, SHP chairman Erdal İnönü, DYP chairman Süleyman Demirel, Trabzonspor President Mazhar Afacan, and Malatyaspor President Metin Çağlayan – offered their condolences to Samsunspor. Due to the accident, Samsunspor was unable to complete the remainder of the season. They were ruled to have lost all remaining matches by default 3–0 defeats. However, the Turkish Football Federation granted the club a special status, allowing them to remain in the league, and they were declared the "Honorary Champions" of that season.

In memory of the tragedy, Samsunspor added black to its traditional red and white club colors. The disaster is chronicled in Mehmet Yılmaz's book "Samsunspor: Red, White, Black” published by İletişim Publishing in 2009, and in Hakan Dilek’s book “This Is How It Was”, also by İletişim Publishing.

The idea of erecting a memorial monument for the tragedy was proposed several times but had not been realized until 2020, when concrete steps were finally taken. The Samsun Metropolitan Municipality erected a monument in the Samsun National Garden, and Samsunspor built another in front of the Samsun 19 Mayıs Stadium. Although the club's Board of Elders also proposed a project for an additional monument, progress was stalled because the municipality did not allocate a location.

Following the tragic 1989 accident, Samsunspor rebuilt its squad using funds from donation campaigns, but was relegated in the 1989–90 season. After bouncing between divisions for several years, the club earned promotion to the top flight again in 1992–93. Samsunspor then entered its most stable period, remaining in the Süper Lig for 13 consecutive seasons from 1993 to 2006. During this era, the club finished 5th in 1993–94 and reached the Turkish Cup semi-finals. Samsunspor also won the 1993–94 Balkan Cup, becoming the last Anatolian club to do so.

The club participated in European competitions twice: the 1997 and 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 1998, Samsunspor reached the semi-finals, defeating Crystal Palace before falling to Werder Bremen. The highlight of the later years was Serkan Aykut becoming top scorer of the 1999–2000 Süper Lig with 30 goals, a record unmatched by any Samsunspor player since.

In the 2005–06 season, Samsunspor was relegated from the Süper Lig after 13 years in the top flight. After spending several years in the 1. Lig, the club earned promotion in the 2010–11 season. However, Samsunspor was again relegated after the 2011–12 season. In subsequent seasons, the team reached the promotion playoffs multiple times but failed to return to the Süper Lig. In the 2017–18 season, facing severe financial problems, the club was handed over to trusteeship for the first time in its history, and was relegated to the third tier.

In 2018, former president İsmail Uyanık led the corporatization process, resulting in the formation of Samsunspor Football Club Joint Stock Company. Yüksel Yıldırım later acquired the majority shareholding.

Under new ownership, the club invested heavily in infrastructure and player recruitment. Samsunspor won promotion from the 2. Lig in 2019–20 and returned to the Süper Lig in the 2022–23 season. The corporatization era saw total investments of €65 million. In 2024, FIFA imposed a two-window transfer ban on the club. Although the ban was temporarily lifted, it resumed in the 2024–25 season.

Samsunspor will play in the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history during the 2025–26 season. Despite facing a transfer ban during the 2024–25 season, the team achieved a remarkable third-place finish in the Süper Lig, securing qualification for the Europa League play-off round.^[]