The South was stable and more competitive. No clear favourite here and no license problems. Five clubs competed for promotion – at least judging by the final table. At the bottom there were no hopeless outsiders. There was dividing line, however – 5 points separated 9th from 10th placed teams: half of the league was clearly stronger than the lower half. Some ‘exotic’ members, like in the North – they were relegated. FC Hannau 93 (17th), KSV Baunatal (19th). The other two were the former first division member Borussia (Neunkirchen) – last, and FC Augsburg – better known today, but not at all in the 1970s – which finished 18th. Some clubs played a bit of top league football – Kickers (Offenbach), now in decline, was better known, but the only ‘big’ name was TSV 1860 (Munich). There was a league derby – Freiburger FC and SC Freiburg. Neither team was strong.
SC Freiburg – little known in the 1970s, not even dreaming of playing in first division. 15th place, 3 points ahead of relegation zone, and bellow their local rivals Freiburger FC, which ended 13th with 1 point more.
There were also second teams from cities having big clubs in the Bundesliga – FSV Frankfurt and Stuttgarter Kickers.
Stuttgarter Kickers ended the stronger half of the league – 9th with 41 points. Like FSV Frankfurt, they were regular members of 2nd Bundesliga, unable to look higher. Yet, they managed to outdo FSV Frankfurt and play a little among the best – but that was in the future. The 2nd Bundesliga was seemingly designed for clubs like that – too big for semi-professional and amateur regional leagues, but too small for top division. They were just comfortable in the second tier of German football – the two mentioned above, SpVgg Greuther Furth, Wormatia Worms…
Standing from left: Trainer Baldauf, Pankotsch Klump, Bergmann, Kastner, Löwer, Kirschner, Geyer, Heinlein, Vizepräs. Liebold,
Sitting: Schäfer, Rütten, Hinterberger, Grabmeier, Lausen, Bulut, Lambie, Grimm, Heubeck.
SpVgg Greuther Furth finished 4th – good season for them.
Wormatia came even closer to promotion – 3rd place. Three points short from direct promotion, and only 2 points behind the silver medalists. They also had a star player – the former Yugoslavian national team central defender Dragoslav Stepanovic. ‘Stepi’, now 30-years old, came from Eintracht (Frankfurt), where he played well for two years. May be getting too old and going down? May be not – he was key player this season and Manchester City paid 140 000 pounds for him. Still a star – not everyday old players go from second division to the toughest championship in the world. Wormatia, however, would stay in second division.
TSV 1860 Munich won the league – it was not easy, but they did it. A single point more than the closest pursuer. It was nice – after all, they won the Bundesliga back in the 1960s. They were bigger than Bayern once upon a time.
Third row, from left: Alfred Kohlhäufl, Franz Gerber, Klaus Vöhringer, Herbert Scheller, Alfred Herberth, Wunder, Masseur Springer.
Middle row: Trainer Heinz Lucas, Wolfgang Metzler, Hans Fischl, Ahmet Glavovic, Hans Haunstein, Neumann, Beppo Hofeditz, Schneider, Manager Ettlinger.
Sitting: Anton Nachreiner, Dieter Agatha, Willy Bierofka, Manfred Eiben, Bernhard Hartmann, Jan-Hoiland Nielsen, Rudolf Sturz, Georg Metzger.
No stars here, but champions anyhow. Two foreigners, well respected, but not big names – the Yugoslav Ahmet ‘Glavo’ Glavovic, who was part of the strong team of Velez (Mostar) before joining TSV 1860, and the occasional Danish national team midfielder Jan-Hoiland Nielsen. But foreigners were not unusual in any level of West German football and it was not because of them TSV 1860 won. Going up was nice, especially after years of second division football. May be the decline of TSV 1860 was coming to end. Well, they needed stronger new players for that, but at least were returning to top flight.
SpVgg Bayreuth finished second – unusually strong season for practically unknown club. Bayreuth is known for music, not football. May be the spirit of Wagner helped.
The boys missed direct promotion, but had one more chance – the play-off against the second placed team in the Northern league. Their opponents looked like favourites – at least, they had Bundesliga experience. A single season, but still experience. The contest between the runner-ups was tough: the first leg in Bayreuth was 1-1 tie. At home, Bayer 05 prevailed 2-1.
The Aspirins won the last promotion. Experience or money? Does not matter – Bayreuth was not going to taste first division football and Bayer 05 was going to have a second try.