Bayer 04 were in the Second Oberliga West 50 years ago. The Werkself had been trying to get into the top-flight for five years. There is a top match against Wuppertal SV on matchday four in the 1961/62 season. The date is 27 August and 12,000 spectators want to watch this clash. Against a defensive Wuppertal team built around central defender Erich Ribbeck, Bayer 04 go top after a 2-1 win. At the end of the season, the team with the two future Bundesliga players and coaches Heinz Höher and Uwe Klimaschefski achieve promotion to the First Oberliga West.
A certain Manfred Manglitz is in goal for Bayer 04 – both a very good Bundesliga keeper as well as involved in the Bundesliga scandal of 1971. And the Ribbeck with Wuppertal is THE Erich Ribbeck who led Bayer 04 to winning the UEFA Cup 27 years later. The goals for Bayer 04 were scored by the captain Werner Röhrig, who ends his playing career at the age of 28 because his professional opportunities in the works were more important, and Hans Zimmerman.
21 August 1966 brings the first matchday in the Regional League West. The visitors at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium our newly promoted SSV Hagen and the local newspapers discuss the possible margins of victory. The newcomers from Hagen put up a battle. The Werkself win 18 corners to four and create lots of goalscoring opportunities but again and again are denied by the Hagen keeper Müller – and the physical approach of the Hagen players.
Above all, the defender Stöcker takes care of Karl-Heinz Ripkens, Helmut Brücken and Fredi Hennecken one after the other – and back then there were no substitutions leaving the Werkself to search for victory with only seven outfield players. The three injured players, as usual, remained on the pitch but were unable to play an effective part in events. In the last minute, SSV Hagen make it 3-2 and the visitors take both points from the game at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
Michal ‘Katsche’ Kadlec was born in the Czech town of Vyskov on 13 December 1984. At the age of six, he moved to the Pfalz region in Germany with his parents because his father Miroslav accepted an offer from FC Kaiserslautern where he played as a sweeper for the Red Devils for eight years. Katsche learned German in the kindergarten at Kaiserslautern. And he played football at an early age: first as a teenager at SV Alsenborn and then for FC Kaiserslautern.
Show moreHelmut Röhrig was born in Leverkusen on 14.12.19 44. He learned to play football at Bayer 04 and became a Middle Rhine champion with the U19s in 1963 finishing ahead of FC Köln. He played in the second team at the Werkself in his first year in senior football.
Show moreBernd Schuster was born in Augsburg on 22.12.19 59. His first club as a teenager was local side SV Hammerschmiede. From that time there was an anecdote that a former groundsman told us when we had a Pokal game in Augsburg in 1993. Bernd was always the first person on the training ground after school. With a running track around the pitch and goals without nets, the young Bernd practised free kicks and corners in the knowledge that he had to collect the ball himself. In that way he not only practised his technique but also worked on his stamina as a teenager.
Show moreWolfgang ‘Wolle’ Rolff was born on 26.12.1959 in Lamstedt, a community in the Lower Saxony administrative district of Cuxhaven. He started his football career at TSV Lamstedt. He moved on to OSC Bremerhaven with the U17s as he trained to be a retail salesman. He started in senior football at the Nordsee Stadium in Bremerhaven.
Show moreThe 1969/70 season begins with four defeats for Bayer 04. That puts the team coached by Theo Kirchberg bottom of the table. The Werkself only lift themselves out of the relegation zone on Matchday 10 with a 4-2 away win in Marl-Hüls. The position in the table improves over the course of the season.
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