SpVgg Bayreuth

1921 to 1945

Founded in 1921 when the side left gymnastics oriented sport club TuSpo Bayreuth, SpVgg Bayreuth was one of many clubs banned and replaced with a state-sanctioned organization in 1933 during the Nazi campaign against existing sports and other social organizations. A handful of club members reformed a rump side called FSV Bayreuth to carry on the activities of the original association. This team was made up largely of soldiers stationed locally, which resulted in a constantly changing lineup as they were transferred in and out of the area. The old club was quickly resurrected after World War II.

1945 to 1963

The club initially stood in the shadow of two local rivals, FC Bayreuth and VfB Bayreuth, with the later taking out the Amateurliga Nordbayern (III) title in 1956. SpVgg had earned promotion to this league in 1954, having won the 2nd Amateurliga Oberfranken-West title that year and then dominated its promotion round.

The club achieved good results in the Bayernliga and managed to win its division in 1959. The team then went on to beat southern champions Schwaben Augsburg in the finals for the Bavarian title. As the Bavarian champions, the club was entitled to enter the promotion round to the 2nd Oberliga Süd, where it had to overcome VfR Pforzheim 2–1 after extra time in a narrow decider for promotion to the second division.

The club spent three seasons in the second tier of Southern German football, achieving a remarkable fifth place in its first year. The second season was a struggle against relegation and, in the third and last one, it was sent down back to the Bayernliga again.

A fourth place in the last season before the league reform in 1963 saw the club qualify for the new single-division Amateurliga Bayern from 1963.

1963 to present

After the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, Bayreuth played as a third division team until 1969. Another Amateurliga championship meant promotion to the second tier once more, now the Regionalliga Süd. It proved a short stay and SpVgg was narrowly relegated, losing a decider to ESV Ingolstadt 5–2 after finishing on equal points.

Back in the Bayernliga, the club won an undisputed championship, losing only two out of their 34 games, 15 points clear of the second-placed Wacker München. After another difficult first year in the second division, the club established itself in the league, coming fourth in 1973 and fifth in 1974, results that proved enough to qualify for the new 2nd Bundesliga Süd.

The club did quite well in the new league and they came close to moving up to the Bundesliga in 1979 after a second-place finish in 2nd Bundesliga Süd (the southern division of 2.Bundesliga), but lost in the promotion round 1:1 and 1:2 to Bayer Uerdingen. It managed to qualify for the new single-division 2nd Bundesliga in 1981, too, but the first season in this league was very disappointing and the team was relegated to the Oberliga in 1982, having come last.

The team became a top-side in the Oberliga but took until 1985 to take out the league title again and returmn to the second division.

Although relegated to Amateur Oberliga Bayern (III) in 1988 and 1989, the team was spared further demotion when clubs that had finished ahead of them were denied licences due to their financial problems. Bayreuth could not evade relegation after a third consecutive poor finish in 1990, and in 1994 slipped further still to the Bayernliga (IV). A strong campaign returned the side to the Regionalliga Süd (III) for 2005–06. The club was denied a license for the Regionalliga in the 2006/07 season and forcibly relegated to the 4th division Bayernliga. The club won the Bayernliga title for a seventh time, building up a convincing margin to the second placed team, and fulfilling the on-the-field qualification to the Regionalliga. On 11 June 2008, the club was refused a licence for this league and has to remain in the Bayernliga. The clubs financial trouble however continued, having to declare insolvency on 22 October 2008, despite sitting second in the league.

In the 2010–11 Bayernliga season, the club unsuccessfully struggled against relegation, dropping down to the Landesliga after a 1–2 extra-time loss to Bayern Hof in a relegation decider.

At the end of the 2011–12 season the club qualified directly for the newly expanded Bayernliga after finishing fourth in the Landesliga. Two seasons later the club won the league and earned promotion to the Regionalliga Bayern. The club, by then had added the title Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) to its name, relocated some of its home games to near-by Weismain and split from the main club with the help of two regional investors.

Stadium

The club's stadium was originally built in 1967. In 2002 it was renamed the Hans-Walter-Wild-Stadion. Hans Walter Wild is the former mayor of Bayreuth. It is due for renovation in the Fall of 2016.

Honours

The club's honours:

Youth

Recent managers

Recent managers of the club:

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:

DFB Cup appearances

The club has qualified for the first round of the German Cup one quite a number of occasions, reaching the quarter finals in 1979–80 as its best result:

Source:"DFB-Pokal". Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 29 May 2009.