FC Koln W

Predecessor sides

Kölner BC was formed on 6 June 1901 by a group of young men who were unhappy as part of the gymnastics club FC Borussia Köln and were more interested in football. BC participated in the Zehnerliga West in the years before World War I and took the Westdeutsche championship in 1912 and advanced to the preliminary rounds of the national finals. Their next best result was in the 1920 league final, where they lost 1–3 to Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Spielvereinigung 1907 Köln-Sülz was established in 1907 as Sülzer Sportverein and on 1 January 1919 merged with Fußball Club 1908 Hertha Sülz to form SpVgg. They won the Westdeutscher title in 1928, but lost in the early rounds of the national finals. They went on to play as a top flight club in the Gauliga Mittelrhein, one of sixteen premier level divisions established in 1933 in the reorganization of German football under the Third Reich. After winning a divisional championship in 1939, – they then entered a period of decline in the early 1940s. After the 1941 season, the Gauliga Mittlerhein was split into two new divisions: the Gauliga Köln-Aachen and the Gauliga Moselland, which included clubs from occupied Luxembourg. Sülz struggled until they were united with VfL Köln 1899 for the 1943–44 season, to form the combined wartime side Kriegspielgemeinschaft VfL 99/Sülz 07, which would end up winning the Gauliga Köln-Aachen title by a single point over SG Düren 99 in a close race. The club did not play the next campaign as war overtook the region.

A successful new club

After the union of these two predecessor sides (1948), 1. FC Köln began play in the Oberliga West in the 1949–50 season, and, by 1953–54, had won their first divisional championship. In 1954, they lost the DFB-Pokal final 1–0 to VfB Stuttgart. Die Geißböcke won their second Oberliga West title in 1959–60, and appeared in the national final against Hamburger SV, where they lost 3–2. Köln also finished first in the Oberliga West from 1960–61 to 1962–63. They won the 1962 German championship final 4–0 against 1. FC Nürnberg, becoming German champions for the first time, and qualified for the 1962–63 European Cup, where they were one of the favourites to win the trophy. In the first round, Köln visited Dundee of Scotland and lost 8–1, and despite winning the second leg back in Germany by 4–0, they were eliminated from the tournament. In the following year's German championship final, they lost 3–1 to Borussia Dortmund.

Continuing success

In 1963, FC Köln became one of the 16 founder members of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league. Köln continued their winning ways by becoming the first Bundesliga champion, in the league's inaugural 1963–64 season. As German champions, Köln entered the 1964–65 European Cup, where it met England's Liverpool at the quarter-final stage. After two 0–0 draws, a third game was played which was also a stalemate, this time 2–2. As the penalty shootout had not yet been introduced as the means of deciding a tie, Köln went out of the competition on the toss of a coin. Ironically enough, there was the need for a second coin toss because the first time the coin stuck vertically in the ground. Köln also became the first Bundesliga side to field a Brazilian player, when it signed Zézé from Madureira for a then club record fee of DM 150,000. Domestically, Köln recorded a second-place finish in the 1964–65 Bundesliga season and won its first DFB-Pokal in 1967–68.

At the start of the 1970s, Köln reached three DFB-Pokal finals in four seasons, losing all three; to Kickers Offenbach in 1970, Bayern Munich in 1971 and Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1973. The team also achieved another second place Bundesliga finish in 1973, before reaching another DFB-Pokal final in 1977, beating Hertha BSC over two legs to win the trophy for the second time.

In 1977–78, Köln enjoyed their most successful season, winning the Bundesliga title, its third national title overall, and retaining the DFB-Pokal, beating local rivals Fortuna Düsseldorf 2–0. Köln became the second club to claim the double in the Bundesliga era.