Full name | Büchenbacher Sport Club Erlangen e.V. |
---|---|
Founded | 2 December 1945 |
Chairman | Josef Polster |
Manager | Heiko Schober |
League | A-Klasse Erlangen/Pegnitzgrund (X) |
2015–16 | 13th |
The BSC Erlangen is a German association football club from the city of Erlangen, Bavaria. From 1957 to 1979, the club belonged to the Amateurliga Bayern, the highest football league in the state and then the third division of German football.
The club traces its roots to SC Erlangen, founded in 1919 (exact date unknown). After the Second World War, on 2 September 1945, representatives of two other Büchenbach clubs Mannergesangverein Büchenbach and Radfahrverein Büchenbach agreed to merge with SC, thus SpVgg Büchenbach was born.
The club first rose to prominence in 1957, when it gained promotion to the Amateurliga Nordbayern (III), from the 2nd Amateurliga Mittelfranken.
Avoiding relegation narrowly in its first season, 1957–58, it became a fixture in the highest Bavarian football league for the next two decades, belonging to it for 22 seasons. The club established itself as a mid-table side and in 1961–62 took out the league title. This qualified the club for the German amateur football championship, where it got knocked out in the first round. The season after, a seventh place proved to be just enough to qualify for the now unified Bavarian Amateurliga which kicked off in 1963.
The first two seasons in the Bayernliga, the club had to play against relegation. After this, the SpVgg established itself in the upper half of the table. The club rose as far as to a third-place finish in 1969–70. From 1976, the club's fortunes started to decline and it gradually slipped to the end of the table. In 1978–79, now with the league renamed Amateur Oberliga Bayern, the club found itself relegated, finishing 16th out of 18 teams.
The club had been the last founding member of the league to have belonged to it without interruption. In the all-time table of the Bayernliga from 1963 to 2008, it still holds the 14th place out of 99 clubs.
Playing in the Landesliga Bayern-Mitte (IV) from 1979, the club struggled to establish itself in this league. In 1981, the SpVgg Büchenbach renamed itself to BSC Erlangen.
In the 1983–84 season, the club's fortunes improved somewhat, finishing fourth in the Landesliga. After this season, it rapidly declined and in 1986 a last-place finish meant relegation to the Bezirksliga (V).