Stories: The Black and Reds are born

After long discussions with the club board, the men led by Ferdinand Stader succeeded in convincing enough gymnasts to play football and were able to set up their own section. Walter Scharf writes in his book ‘50 Jahre Bayer 04 – Die Geschichte einer Sportvereinigung’ (50 years of Bayer 04 – The history of a sports club): "We see you, dear readers, rising from your seats in spirit when we now introduce you to the names of the first Leverkusen football players, the founders of the football section: Ferdinand Stader, Ernst Meurer, Lorenz Meurer, Willi Lerch, Gustav Lerch, Ernst Hahn, Heinrich Thiel, Walter Geist, Kurt Barthel, Karl Teske, Hans Fischer, Ernst Geiger, Oskar Heun, Paul Linke, Max Sandbach, Ludwig Jone, Heinrich Alt.”

These men are the founders of our Bayer as we know it. What started on that night as a football section became a club in 1923 and many years later turned into SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The condition for gymnasts to be allowed to take part in football was the regular participation of the football players in the weekly gymnastic evenings, which they accepted with gritted teeth. The football section is so big a year later that their members reverse that condition at the annual general meeting and are then able to play football every day from that point on.

The first team photo in the new kit, back then called a ‘costume’, was taken at the inauguration of the Erholungshaus recreational hall in October 1908. Our first Leverkusen players proudly presented themselves in their new kit with black shorts and black shirts with red collar and cuffs, which they had to pay for themselves. Including the very expensive football boots, the ‘costume’ costed 16.90 marks. That colour combination, even though the club colours of TuS 04 are black and white, is still the reason for our club colours of black and red today.