The club was formed in 1965 after the merger of Adapazarı Gençlerbirliği, Adapazarı İdman Yurdu, Güneşspor and Ada Gençlik. The club is better known as Sakaryaspor.
The football club is nicknamed the "Football Factory" by Turkish football scene because of the many national footballers born and raised in the city. Sakarya Province has also five national top scorers (Hakan Şükür, Aykut Kocaman, Bülent Uygun, Aykut Yiğit, Ogün Altıparmak) of all time and three of them did carry the Sakaryaspor shirt.
Sakaryaspor became
İstanbulspor in the first play–off match, Sakaryaspor went on to defeat Altay 4–1 in the finals and were promoted to the Süper Lig. They were relegated from the Süper Lig
Sakaryaspor fans call themselves "Tatangalar", which was founded in 1990 and means "Bisons". The name Tatanga (Tatanka) comes from the movie Dances with Wolves. The word Tatanga (plural Tatangalar) became the nickname of the club over time. Kocaelispor is considered as the archrival and the supporters have friendly ties with Göztepe.