The club was founded by a group of students led by medical student Georg August Wagner from Prague. Due to this development the first football match in Austria with the FA rules took place in Graz. 1902 was the official start of the Grazer Athletik-Sport-Club. The club reached the Styrian Championship in 1922, 1924 and between 1926 and 1933 and was Austrian Amateur Champion in 1929, 1932 and 1933. One of the players of GAK was Rudi Hiden, who went to Wiener AC and became goalkeeper of the famous "Austrian Wunderteam". 1944 the matches were stopped due to the Second World War.