Ishockeyklubben Sparta Sarpsborg is a
Norwegian ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
team based in
Sarpsborg
Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg.
Sarpsbor ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. They currently play in
EliteHockey Ligaen. They play their home games in the
Sparta Amfi arena and is Norway's oldest ice hockey rink. The team colours are blue and white.
History
The ice hockey department of
IL Sparta was founded in 1958, and got off to a fantastic start when Norway's first indoor hockey arena,
Sparta Amfi, was opened in 1963. Within three years, they earned promotion to the Eliteserien (first division) as the first team outside Oslo to do so. It was only to be a short stint, and through most part of the late 1960s and 1970s, Sparta spent their time in the second division, with occasional visits to the top flight.
The 1980s was to be Sparta's greatest decade. Under the leadership of coach
Lasse Bäckman and strengthened by several strong signings from other Norwegian clubs and a couple of Swedish stars, they claimed the Norwegian Championships in 1984. The feat was repeated in 1989, when the club beat heavily favoured
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
in the final after claiming the last playoff spot.
Economic problems followed this success, and in 1995 Sparta filed for bankruptcy, the only sports club in Norway ever to do so. This meant that they had to start from scratch in the third division, and they lost their best players to other clubs in Norway. However, many of these players subsequently returned to Sparta, and in 1997 they were back in the Eliteserien, where they have remained since.
In 2004, the team was rebranded as Sparta Warriors.
In the 2008–09 season, the team won the league, and won silver in the Norwegian Championship after being defeated by Vålerenga in the final.
In 2020, the team was rebranded as Sparta Sarpsborg.
The song
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles is known as the club anthem of
Sparta Warriors.
Season-by-season results
''This is a partial list of the last ten seasons completed by Sparta Sarpsborg. For the full season-by-season history, see
List of Sparta Sarpsborg seasons.''
Source:
Records and statistics
Scoring leader statistics for regular season only. Matches played statistic includes playoff games.
* – current active player
Scoring leaders
Most league matches
Last updated: 29 May 2018
Source: http://stats.sparta.no/
Famous players
*
Per-Åge Skrøder
*
Matthew Yeats
*
Jonas Holøs
*
Martin Røymark
* Per Christian Knold
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial website for the supporter club, Blue Warriors
Ice hockey teams in Norway
Eliteserien (ice hockey) teams
Sport in Sarpsborg
1958 establishments in Norway
Ice hockey clubs established in 1958
{{Europe-icehockey-team-stub