ESV Westbahn Linz
The ESV Westbahn Linz is a football club from the Upper Austrian capital Linz , Austria and played in the season 1951/52 in the second highest Austrian football class, the State League .
history
ASK Rapid Linz
The association was founded in 1921 by a handful of Linz workers and railroad workers under the name Rapid Linz Workers' Sports Club . The club colors red and white , which are still valid today, were already determined when the club was founded. With a lot of idealism, an area made available by the Linz municipality in the Linz harbor area was converted into a sports field.
From 1922 to 1937 the club played in the Upper Austrian championship and immediately took fourth place in its first season in 1922/23 . In the meantime, the Rapidler migrated to the Association of Austrian Workers' Footballers, where they played an important role alongside the traditional SK Vorwärts Steyr club . During the war years , club activities were put to a severe test. In 1939 the sports field had to be cleared for military purposes, and after a large number of players were called up for military service with the outbreak of war, the ASK Rapid Linz was practically on the verge of dissolution with no sports field and no players. In 1940 Rapid Linz was therefore merged with SK Ostmark , which itself was only created in 1938 from the merger of SK Donau (today ASKÖ Donau Linz ), Blaue Elf Linz and SV Kleinmünchen , but which had ceased operations shortly before.
Reichsbahn SG Linz
The continuation of gaming operations could only be achieved through a merger with the Reichsbahnsportgemeinschaft Linz, which had its own sports facility in Unionstrasse. The merger was more like a connection, since the traditional club name of the ASK Rapid had to be given up, but the now merged club Reichsbahn SG Linz played quite successfully in the championship until 1945.
ESV Westbahn Linz
After the end of the war, the name of the association Reichsbahn SG was immediately changed to ESV Westbahn Linz . As a railway sports club, the Linzers now played in 1st class and in 1949 they made it to the state league. After winning the title in the regional league in the 1950/51 season , the club even rose to the national league B, which was then the second highest division in Austria. Although this league had to be left after a year, the railroad athletes secured their place in the annals of Austrian football history.
In 1954 the club lost its home because the ÖBB needed the Westbahn sports facility for a new material store to be built. The Linzers then had to stop playing for a year, but were able to acquire an area on the dam in Urfahr and get back into the championship. Due to this involuntary forced break, however, the club had to accept the relocation by the association to 1st class east. In 1957, the new railway sports facility in the Neue Heimat district of Linz was finally used as a home. The year 1957 was also a milestone in the history of Westbahn in other respects, as the ESV was the first Austrian amateur club to go on a foreign tour through Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
From the 2003/04 season the ESV Westbahn Linz played in the Upper Austrian Regional League East, which is the 6th level in Austria.
In the 2005/2006 season the ESV Westbahn Linz failed to stay in the league and was relegated to 1st class middle. In the 2016/17 season, the club formed a community of players with FC Stahl Linz , which was dissolved again in the following season.
successes
- Upper Austrian regional champion: 1950/51
- 1 Participation in the State League B (2nd division): 1951/52
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ After a failed marriage: FC Stahl Linz with a new beginning , Ligaportal.at, accessed on August 15, 2017.