Kristiansand IF

Kristiansand IF's handball men have long measured themselves against Viking Håndball. Handball only entered the club in 1945, and it entered through the women's side first, a men's team following once the war had ended.

The women made the stronger early mark. Through the 1950s into the early 1960s they took the Vest-Agder county championship twelve years running, from 1950 to 1961. When money ran short in 1990, KIF handed the women's team and its license to IK Våg, which went on to become Vipers Kristiansand — a club that now carries its own honours, separate from the one it grew out of.

In 1980 they beat Refstad IL 20–18 to win the Norwegian Cup, and four years later took the Sluttspillvinner playoff title in the 1983/84 season, sandwiched between a league silver in 1979/80 and a bronze in 1981. Goalkeeper Jan Marcussen and players such as Frank Egeland and Morten Michelsen were part of that 1980 side; Steinar Ege started his goalkeeping career at the club, and Hermann Bredal Oftedal came through KIF as a junior.