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| HISTORY |
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1931 - Ilves was founded in the Tampereen Lyseo high school. The first chairman of the club was Mr. Niilo Tammisalo.
1932 - The club's first official ice hockey game was played on the ice of Lake Näsijärvi. Ilves was defeated 2-1 by TaPa (Tampereen Palloilijat). Reino Lahtinen scored for Ilves.
1934 - Ilves finished third, claiming the bronze medals, in the Finnish national championship.
1936 - Ilves won the Finnish ice hockey championship for the first time in club history.
1942 - Having been undefeated for 4 years, Ilves finally lost a game in Hämeenlinna as Tarmo put an end to the spectacular run of 34 consecutive wins.
1947 - Ilves won the Finnish title for the third year in a row. This was the club's sixth national championship.
1950-1952 - The club won three consecutive Finnish championships without losing once.
1957 - The tenth national championship for Ilves.
1965 - The first Finnish indoor ice stadium, The Hakametsä Arena, was built in Tampere. The modernized Hakametsä is still the home venue of Ilves.
1970 - Ilves finished second in the championship for the third consecutive year. The team claimed a top 3 position for 9 years in a row (2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in 1963-1970).
1972 - The club won its 15th Finnish championship. The Canadian superstar Len Lunde was Ilves' first foreign player and also coached the team.
1976-1982 - The dry years. No medals for Ilves.
1985 - Ilves won its 16th national title, beating TPS in a thrilling best-of-five finals. The Turku team won the first two games, but Ilves came back to win the championship in what is considered the greatest comeback ever in Finnish hockey.
1990 - Ilves finished second. TPS won the finals 4 games to 2.
1998 - With no top 3 finishes in the last seven seasons, Ilves once again made the finals under the guidance of Russian coach Vladimir Jursinov jr. IFK Helsinki dominated the series and claimed the title 3 games to 0.
2001 - Ilves claimed a surprising third position in the championship.
2003 - One of the saddest seasons in club history ended. Ilves finished last in the league.
2004 - Czech coach Vaclav Sykora coached Ilves to a respectable sixth place finish.
2005 - After the bad autumn season, the line constisting of Canadian Steve Kariya, Atlanta Trashers' Czech Patrik Stefan and Hannes Hyvönen helped Ilves to reach a seventh position.
2006 - Ilves improved its position by one, finishing sixth. Coach Kari Eloranta has 2+1 years left on his 3+1-year-contract. It's been 21 years since the club won its last Finnish championship, but hope is restored in the promising junior players born in 1987 and 1988.
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