The Box Hill Athletic Club has a long and successful history since being founded in 1932, and has had many international representatives.
Box Hill Athletic Club hosts inter-club athletics competitions at Hagenauer Reserve during the track season with many clubs from the surrounding districts competing at the Box Hill venue. The Club has teams entered in all age groups which provides opportunities for athletes of all ages to compete each week.
Hundreds of senior and junior athletes of all standards compete for Box Hill and other clubs in the Athletics Victoria Shield competition during summer. Hagenauer Reserve is also used for Little Athletics on Sunday afternoons and is hired by many of the colleges and schools in the district during the week.
The Club also enters teams in all of the road and cross country races conducted by Athletics Victoria during the winter season.
Box Hill Athletic Club is one of the greatest success stories in Australian Sports history. The Club was founded in 1932, survived through the War Years and became powerful after the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne. The Club’s original training ground was at Surrey Park, Elgar Road South, an area provided by the Box Hill Council. The Club continued to train at Surrey Park until about 1968 and during the track season competed at various venues around Melbourne.
Over the years, office bearers, committees, coaches, athletes and friends worked hard to establish a permanent home for a training centre. Box Hill City Council had received a gift of land in Box Hill North from the Rev. Hagenauer to be used solely for recreational purposes. Sub-committees from the Box Hill Council and Box Hill Athletic Club met and agreed to work together to build an athletic stadium on this land.
After several years of filling in and grading, the area now known as Hagenauer Reserve was made available for athletics. The home of the Box Hill Athletic Club was officially opened by the Mayor of Box Hill, Cr. E. H. James on Saturday 18 October 1969.
In 1992, the track at Hagenauer Reserve was resurfaced with a new red polyurethane rubber surface, becoming the first venue in Melbourne after Olympic Park to install a polyurethane surface.
Since 1960, Box Hill Athletic Club has headed the membership tally for all Victorian athletic clubs and has been State League premiers 25 times in men’s competition and 13 times in women’s competition, including stretches of 17 successive men’s premierships and 8 successive women’s premierships.
In 1996, the Box Hill Women’s Athletic Club merged with the Box Hill Amateur Athletic Club and the club was renamed Box Hill Athletic Club.