In his time as the Bayer 04 chairman there were a lot infrastructure changes implemented together with Dr. Ulrich Haberland, chairman of the board at Bayer AG. In addition to the construction of the Ulrich Haberland Stadium and the adjoining training pitches as well as the sports facility in Manfort named after him. The Manfort Stadium was built in 1927 but the new sports hall was opened in 1957.
Dr. Fritz Jacobi said farewell to the club members with following words: “During my 17 years, I have grown very attached to the sports club that has given me their support for so long. In spite of some worries and work, the joy of the rich sporting life at the club is so great that I will always be happy to remember these times and I will always feel connected to the club.”
At this general meeting, Dr. Fritz Jacobi is appointed honorary president for life by the SV Bayer board. Unfortunately, that only lasted seven years as the first honorary president at SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen passed away on 2 July 1974.
His successor was elected unanimously in February 1967. The Bayer director Dr. Wilhelm Meyerheim took over the reins and was in charge of the five sections at SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen: football, handball, athletics, boxing and fistball.
Bayer 04 started the new season on 20 July 1950. To the applause from almost 2,000 spectators, the Werkself stepped onto the pitch at the Am Stadtpark stadium and the season target was clear to the supporters: finally achieve promotion to the Oberliga West. Under the direction of new coach Raymond Schwab, who brought one of his Essen players with him in the shape of Karl-Heinz Spikofski, the team did a couple of laps. Coach Schwab gave a speech in front of all the fans where he clearly imparted his request for calm in the stands and he said he hated nothing more than heckling or laughing when mistakes are made. He hoped the Bayer 04 supporters would follow his advice.
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Horst Knauf was born in Cologne on 16 August 1960. As a teenager he played for PSV Köln before signing for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19s as a talented midfielder in 1976. He made the move up from the second team to the Bundesliga squad in 1980. Over the following three years he played 39 Bundesliga games and scored two goals. Above all in the difficult 1981/82 season for the Werkself with the play-off games against Kickers Offenbach, he played a big part in saving Bayer 04 with 21 appearances. But under the new coach Dettmar Cramer he rarely made a start and he decided to move on.
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Holger Aden was born in Hamburg on 25 August 1965. He learned all about playing football and, above all, scoring goals at the two Hamburg clubs Niendorfer TSV and TSV DuWo 08 Hamburg. After progression from the youth teams, he played for other Hamburg clubs. One after the other he appeared for Concordia Hamburg, Altona 93 and SC Norderstedt. The centre-forward regularly found the back of the opposition net. He scored 22 goals for SC Norderstedt in the 1988/89 season.
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Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz in the GDR on 26 September 1976. He displayed his talent for football at a young age. After his family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, he started playing for BSG Motor ‘Fritz Heckert’ Karl-Marx-Stadt where he constantly continued to develop his ability on the pitch. From year seven he went to the children and youth sports college and there he received systematic support in sport that led, against the background of his increasing ability, to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the age of 16, he had to take a six-month break due to growing pains, but then there was no stopping Michael after that.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of August. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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