Stuttgarter Kickers

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Stuttgarter Kickers is a German football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on September 21, 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Kickers. Its members made a deliberate and emphatic choice early on to play football exclusively and to turn their backs on rugby – their chosen sport's close cousin – at a time when both of these new English games were still evolving.

History

In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Bezirksliga Württemburg. With the reorganization of German football during the Third Reich in 1933, the team – now known as SV Stuttgarter Kickers – found itself in the Gauliga Württemburg, one of sixteen top tier regional leagues established in the country during that time. It continued to have good results locally, but was unable to impress beyond its own area. In the final year of World War II the Kickers fielded a combined wartime squad with Sportfreunde Stuttgart.

After the war the club resumed play in the Oberliga Süd and performed as a mid-table team early on. By 1950 it had slipped to the lower half of the table with a seemingly solid grip on 14th place, constantly struggling to avoid relegation throughout the decade. Kickers spent the early 60's in tier III football, but after the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional league, in 1963, the club was moved up to the tier II Regionalliga Süd. In 1974 that league went professional and became the 2.Bundesliga. Between 1963 and the late 1980s the team had varying results, but finally stabilized in the upper half of the standings toward the end of that period. It has one losing appearance to its credit in the German Cup in 1987 and in 1988-89 it made it to the Bundesliga for the first time. The team was immediately relegated after a 17th place finish, but continued to deliver some of its best performances. Die Blauen advanced to the semi-finals of the 1990 German Cup and then had a second turn in the Bundesliga in 1991-92, but with the same result as its earlier time up. Over the next decade the club played largely in the second divsion, before slipping to the Regionalliga Süd (III) in 2001, where it still is today.

The Stuttgarter Kickers also have handball, athletics, table tennis, and cheerleading departments. The association is also recognized for its training of football referees and other game officials.

Honours

Traditionally a strong local club, Kickers hold 24 Württemberg championships.

2.Bundesliga Süd champions: 1951, 1959
2.Bundesliga champions: 1988, 1959
Regionalliga Süd champions: 1995, 1996
German Cup finalist: 1987
German Cup semi-finalist: 2000

The club's youth teams have enjoyed quite a bit of success on the national scene.

German champions Junior: 1979
German Cup Junior champions: 1990

External links

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