First Division. Not much of a dramatic championship, really. 13 teams were largely concerned with avoiding the last 5 places in the league and the last three were unequal as well, so there was one-team dominance this year. The title was decided early and that was that. As for the battle on the bottom, it was also not much of a fight – some teams were clearly weaker than the rest and the others were seemingly satisfied only to accumulate enough points and secure their place in the new league.
The relegated were: First Vienna FC, last with 17 points.
Austria (Salzburg) – 15th with 18 points.
Favoritner AC – 14th with 21 points,
SV Spittal/Drau – 13th with 24 points (the eternal problem with Austrian names – sponsor names are incorporated, so… it could be SV Spittal/Drau, but it could be SV Gabor Spittal at the same time), and Wiener Sport-Club – 12th with 25 points. Tough luck.
Good luck for DSV Alpine (Donawitz) – or Donawitzer SV Alpine – take it as you like, but they clinched safe 11th place with 27 points. Top row from left: Rauch, Janjanin, Ivsic, Haberl, Koiner, Hofer, Lederhaas, Klug.
Middle row: Dr. Wilthold, Auffinger, Ettl, Harrer, Haberl J., Crnjak, Haider, Sobl, Jursitzky, Windisch.
Crouching: Stocker, Schicker, Angerer, Gruber, Oliveira. Perhaps the Yugoslav Janjanin was the only recognizable name, however faintly.
Grazer AK was 10th with 28 points,
VOEST (Linz) – 9th with 28 points, SC Eisenstadt – 8th with 28 points, Austria (Klagenfurt) – 7th with 31 points,
SK Sturm (Graz) – this is only a possible photo of the team – 6th with 32 points, FC Admira/Wacker (Wien) – 5th with 32 points, Wacker (Innsbruck) – 4th with 32 points. That was the bulk, which managed to secure participation in the reformed First Division.
LASK (Linz) – Linzer ASK – was another matter. They finished comfortably 3rd with 38 points. One of their strongest seasons, but it was strong season only in their own terms: they had no squad to challenge the usual leaders and third place was the most they can do. Better than the rest of the league, that was their measurement, not Rapid and Austria. Nothing to do with the title.
Rapid (pictured here in a friendly with Yugoslav Mladost (Litica) had nothing to do with the title, but for different reasons than those of LASK: seemingly, they gave up on the championship and concentrated on international football this season. Otherwise it is difficult to explain why they finished 9 points behind arch-rivals Austria – their squad was as good as Austria and European performance denies the idea they were out of form. But with 45 points, they were very distant 2nd. Still vastly superior to LASK, though – 7 points ahead, no rivalry at all.
Sitting from left: Alfred Drabits, Hans Dihanich, Franz Zore, Friedl Koncilia, Franz Wohlfahrt, Andreas Ogris, Dzemal Mustedanagic, Istvan Magyar (moved to SC Eisenstadt shortly after this picture was taken).
Middle row: Thomas Paritz – coach, Schreitl – masseur, Herbert Prohaska, Erich Obermayer,Toni Polster, Tibor Nyilasi, Karl Daxbacher, Ernst Baumeister, Holdhaus (?) – condition coach.
Top row: Janotka (?) – assistant coach, R. Sara, Josef Degeorgi, Fritz Drazan, Josef Heiling, Ewald Turmer, Gerhard Steinkogler, Pelzmann – masseur.
There was no contest at all – Austria (Wien) won 25 games, tied 4 and lost just 1. 85-17 goal-difference and 54 points. They were champions long before the end of the season, very likely all was finished at the end of the fall half of the season and this casual superiority left no particular memories: even the club’s website does not signify this victory with team photo. Thus, the squad is a bit of enigma: it is practically the same of the year before. The biggest change was the new coach – the former Austrian international Thomas Paritz.