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 TFF First League champions in 1980–81 and 1986–87. They accomplished this feat again at the end of the 2005–06 season. Sakaryaspor subsequently won a place in the play–off matches. After eliminating 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 the following season.
In 2022, it became the champion of Turkey's third professional league, the 2st league, and was promoted to the 1st league. In the 2023-2024 season, it played the play-off final match with Bodrum Football Club.
Supporters and rivalries
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.