SpVgg Bayern Hof is a German association football club based in Hof, Bavaria. The club was founded on 1 June 1910 as Ballspielclub Hof, but within a year was renamed Britannia Hof. In 1913, they merged with FC Roland Hof and FC Phoenix Hof to become FC Bayern Hof.
History
FC Bayern Hof was a decent, but unremarkable, local side through its early decades. It spent five seasons in the tier-one Bezirksliga Bayern from 1927. In 1944, the team won promotion to the Gauliga Bayern, Staffel Oberfranken, one of sixteen top flight division that had been created in 1933 in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. However, by that time World War II had overtaken that part of the country and Gauliga play was ended there in the fall.
After the war Bayern Hof advanced to the Landesliga Bayern (II) in 1946 where they came out on top of the Staffel Nordbayern only to lose the divisional playoff to Wacker Munchen (3:4, 0:4). League re-structuring saw the club in the 2. Oberliga Sud (II) to open the 1951–52 season. They remained competitive throughout the decade, generally finishing in the top half of the table.
A second-place result in 1959 put the club into Oberliga Sud (I) to play first division football for the first time. They managed only middling results against the stronger, better established teams there and so did not qualify for play in the Bundesliga – Germany's new professional league – when it was established in 1963. BH played in the Regionalliga Sud (II) and through the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, the team played good football and earned some solid finishes – including a division title in 1968 – but failed in three tries to make it through the promotion rounds to the new top division in 1967, 1968 and 1972.
In the pre-season 1969–70 Bayern Hof had a taste of international football as they took part in the 1969 Cup of the Alps. They hosted three games at their Stadion Grune Au against Hellas Verona, Lausanne S
This page also has a version in other languages : Бавария (Хоф) (russian)