Heider SV

Heider SV is a German association football club from the city of Heide, Schleswig-Holstein. The club was founded 14 October 1925 by what was the reserve side of VfL 05 Heide. The reservists thought they were the better side and challenged the first team to a match, which they won. Despite this, no changes were made to the first team roster, so the reservists left to form SV.

History

Small town on the big stage

The team is known popularly as kleiner HSV (en: Little HSV), a play on the name of better known Hamburger SV. They represented the smallest town competing in top-flight German competition in the regional Oberliga Nord (I) in 1956–57 and 1960–61 against the likes of larger clubs including Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, Werder Bremen, and FC St. Pauli. The club's appearances in the top flight were brief, but they were enthusiastically supported, regularly drawing large crowds. The highlight of Heider SV's 1956–57 season was a 2–0 victory over Hamburger SV before a crowd of 12,000, an attendance record that still stands to this day.

In 1951, 1953, and 1955, Heider SV took part in the country's amateur championship with their best result coming as an advance to the semi-finals in 1955 where they were lost 3–1 to Sportfreunde Siegen. The club also made failed attempts to return to Oberliga play in 1954, 1958, 1959, and 1962.

Post-Bundesliga

After the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's first fully profession league, in 1963, Heider SV became part of the Amateurliga Schleswig-Holstein (III) after failing to qualify for the new Regionalliga Nord (II). The team did eventually win its way to the Regionalliga for a single season turn in 1968–69, and again for a four-season stint in 1970–74. After slipping down through the Amateurliga, Heider SV became a fixture in fourth-tier play in the Landesliga Schleswig-Holstein (1975–78), the Verbandsliga Schleswig-Holstein (1978–94), and the Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein (1994–2004), before