Hugo Levin

Hugo Levin started his professional career in 1901 at the wholesaler Hugo Scharfenberg & Co, at the same time studying foreign languages and later attending evening courses in trade. At the age of 16, he became a part of Örgryte IS’ first team. In 1904, 1905 and 1906, the team won the Swedish cup championship three times in a row and Levin subsequently ended his active career. For a decade, 1902-12, he was also the club’s board secretary, and for the period from 1905-12 he acted as secretary of the Göteborg’s (Gothenburg) Football Association. In 1908, he was instrumental in building the Walhalla sports field. Two years later, Levin established a series of games which later became the Allsvenskan league. In 1909, he started his own wholesaling business.

At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Levin served as deputy competition director for athletics and was a linesman in a quarterfinal match of the football tournament. He was also appointed a member of the board of the Swedish Sports Association and of the Swedish Olympic Committee. Two years later, he also became a member of the board of the Swedish Football Association and head of its selection committee.

In 1916, Levin initiated the construction of a new arena in Göteborg, the Ullervi (later Gamla Ullevi), home of IFK Göteborg. He became director of the company that ran the new facility. Levin suggested founding a curling club, and a curling rink was located at Ullervi. He was also engaged in other sports including bandy, football and hockey for women, bowling, swimming, sailing, and aviation. In 1917, Levin was appointed secretary-general of the 1921 Swedish Sports Games, the Idrottsfesten, for which he initiated yet another stadium, the Slottsskogsvallen.

Less than a week after Levin attended a match of the Swedish national football team against Denmark, he died of bilateral pneumonia due to the Spanish flu at the age of only 32. Many years later, a road and a place close to the Ullevi stadium in Göteborg were named after him. In 2013, Levin was inducted into the Göteborg Sports Hall of Fame.