Founded in 1907, Fenerbahce opened its doors to basketball seven years later, but waited decades until it claimed its first titles. Fenerbahce was the Turkish national champion in 1957, 1959 and 1965 before the Turkish League was formally founded in 1966. Fener, as it is popularly known among fans, also made EuroLeague appearances each year following the titles, but a quarter-century passed before club experienced more success. Fenerbahce beat Tofas for the 1991 Turkish League title, returned to the Turkish League finals in 1992, 1993 and 1995 and finished third in 1998 to qualify for the EuroLeague. With a strong team featuring Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Marko Milic, Ibrahim Kutluay and Conrad McRae, Fenerbahce advanced to the playoff eighthfinals before losing to Real Madrid. The club reached the Korac Cup quarterfinals in 1996 and 2001 and ranked fourth in the 2005 FIBA Europe League, but it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that the team became a European powerhouse. That’s when Fenerbahce merged with Ulker, one of the winningest clubs in Turkish basketball history, which had won four Turkish League titles between 1995 and 2006 with Harun Erdenay, Ibrahim Kutluay, Michael Anderson, Orhun Ene, Mirsad Turkcan and Serkan Erdogan among its many stars. Ulker made the Top 16 for five consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2006, beating all the best European teams in the process, and reached the 2005 EuroLeague playoffs where it lost to CSKA Moscow. In the first two years of the new Fenerbahce Ulker, the team won back-to-back Turkish League titles and qualified to the EuroLeague playoffs in 2008. Emir Preldzic, Turkcan, Omer Onan and Roko Ukic helped Fenerbahce win Turkish League and Cup doubles in 2010 and 2011 and the club won another Cup title in 2013. With the arrival of legendary Coach Zeljko Obradovic came another Turkish championship in 2014, and a year later Fenerbahce made history by reaching its first EuroLeague Final Four. However, its memorable run was halted in the semifinals by eventual champion Real Madrid. That turned out to be a title-free campaign, but Fenerbahce made up for that in 2015-16 with another domestic double, winning the Turkish Cup on a Bogdan Bogdanovic buzzer-beating triple in a thrilling final against Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul, before ousting archrival Galatasaray in the semifinals and Anadolu Efes Istanbul 4-2 in the best-of-seven Turkish League final series. Last season, Fenerbahce added its third league crown in four years, but the EuroLeague success changed the face of the proud club, which for years waited for this glorious moment.
Trophy Case
Turkish National League: 1990-91, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17 |
Turkish National Cup: 1967, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 |
Turkish President Cup: 1990, 1991, 1994, 2007, 2013, 2016 |