Hamburg Blue Devils

City:

Hamburg

Founded:

1992

Head coach:

Peer Barkmann

League (2020):

Regionalliga North

Greatest successes

Eurobowl winner

1996, 1997, 1998

German champions

1996, 2001, 2002, 2003

Stadion

Surname:

Kroonhorst sports complex

Address:

Kroonhorst 117, 22549 Hamburg

Play surface:

Natural grass

Contact

Internet:

bluedevils.hamburg

Data status

June 28, 2017

Eternal GFL balance
year	total			home			Selection			TD ratio
year	S.	N	U	S.	N	U	S.	N	U	TD ratio
1995	6th	5	1	4th	2	0	2	3	1	282: 209
1996	8th	4th	0	5	2	0	3	2	0	274: 190
1997	10	0	0	5	0	0	5	0	0	338: 128
1998	9	2	1	5	1	0	4th	1	1	350: 223
1999	9	3	0	6th	0	0	3	3	0	331: 186
2000	1	9	0	1	4th	0	0	5	0	148: 315
2001	10	1	1	6th	0	0	4th	1	1	447: 148
2002	9	3	0	4th	2	0	5	1	0	330: 155
2003	9	2	1	5	1	0	4th	1	1	315: 181
2004	8th	4th	0	4th	2	0	4th	2	0	378: 249
2005	7th	3	0	4th	1	0	3	2	0	224: 119
2006	8th	4th	0	4th	2	0	4th	2	0	356: 215
2007	7th	5	0	4th	2	0	3	3	0	305: 219
2008	6th	6th	0	4th	2	0	2	4th	0	201: 185
2012	2	12	0	1	6th	0	1	6th	0	257: 586
2013	4th	10	0	3	4th	0	1	6th	0	225: 448
total	113	73	4th	65	31	0	48	42	4th	4761: 3756

eVendi-Arena Hamburg (during construction)

eVendi-Arena Hamburg

helmet

The Hamburg Blue Devils (HBD) are a Hamburg American football club that played with its first team from 1995 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2013 in the German Football League (GFL, 1st German League).

history

In 1991 the Hamburg Hornets , which had emerged from a merger of the Hamburg Dolphins and Harburg Rubberducks , initially became the "Team Hamburg", which was originally supposed to start in a European league planned by a television station.

On January 11, 1992, Hamburg Blue Devils e. V. founded. Under the name Hamburg Hornets , the Hamburg team took part in the third division north and was promoted to the second division. After the television plans burst, they played individual games against selected European opponents in the "Schweppes Cool Masters" named after the main sponsor as a team without a fixed league under the name Hamburg Blue Devils . Blue Devils President Axel Gernert initiated this game series . The first game of the Blue Devils took place on September 12, 1992 in the Volksparkstadion against the Moscow Bears.

After the Braunschweig Lions protested that several players were playing in both Hamburg teams, the Hamburg Hornets withdrew from the game in 1993. The Hamburg Blue Devils were still not part of any division.

From 1993 the Blue Devils hosted the annual charity game "Charity Bowl" in which they mostly competed against university teams from the United States. For the first event of this kind in mid-June 1993, 15,000 spectators came to the Volksparkstadion to see the devils playing against the team from Pacific Lutheran University. The fact that Hamburg's then First Mayor Henning Voscherau attended the event and took over the award ceremony showed the importance that the Blue Devils had meanwhile assumed in the sporting landscape of the Hanseatic city. In the following years, the charity game in Hamburg regularly generated audiences in the five-figure range.

At the end of 1993, the then HBD President Axel Gernert took up the old plans and founded the Football League of Europe (FLE) past the AFVD , in which the Devils and other German and European clubs took part in 1994. In the final of the FLE they lost to the Stockholm Nordic Vikings with 35:43 in the Volksparkstadion . The FLE was a financial failure, and the Blue Devils were also in economic trouble in the summer of 1994.

At the beginning of 1995 the Devils accepted an offer from the AFVD to play as a lateral entrant in the 1st Bundesliga, today's German Football League . In the same year the Devils became German runners-up in the German Bowl against the Düsseldorf Panthers . The 2nd team of the Devils (Hamburg Gray Devils) merged with the Hamburg Patriots in 1995 , renamed itself Hamburg Wild Huskies (meanwhile Hamburg Eagles ) and switched to SC Victoria Hamburg . At the 1995 Charity Bowl , the Blue Devils won against St. Xavier University from Chicago 20-0. It was the first success of a European team against a US college.

In July 1996, the Hamburg Blue Devils won the Eurobowl under head coach George White . In September 1996, White died of a heart attack during a team night. A few days later, the devils, now being looked after by the previous assistant coach Chris Merritt , moved into the German Bowl and won it at the beginning of October 1996 in front of 19,700 spectators in the Volksparkstadion against defending champion Düsseldorf (31:12). Then there was a mental game to build a stadium with around 15,000 seats in the Volkspark that was used exclusively for football, but this was never implemented. In 1997, the Devils missed the German Bowl, but won the Eurobowl for the second time.

In 1998 the Devils became the first team to win the Eurobowl for the third time in a row, but lost in the German Bowl as well as in 1999 against the Braunschweig Lions . The 1999 final in front of a record number of spectators of 30,400 in the Volksparkstadion went down in history as a memorable event: From Hamburg's point of view, it was just four minutes before the end of 24:25. Blue Devils kicker Timo Erbs only hit the goal post when trying to score an extra point, which shattered the dreams of the Hamburg coaches trained by Chris Merritt.

The 2000 season was a failure. The Englishman Lee Rowland had been hired as head coach. You owe at least one title to the Hamburg audience, he announced before the start of the season. Even President Gernert demanded: "A title has to be." Before the opening game there was a change in the coaching staff, after a defeat in the first game of the season against Cologne, the US players Derek Milner and Stacy Washington were sacked for performance reasons. After two more defeats, the newspaper Die Welt wrote of "probably the worst crisis in the club's history". There were victories afterwards, but in the lost Eurobowl final the old grievances reappeared. The kind of defeat in the final cost Rowland his job, the Englishman was fired in June 2000. At the end of June 2000, Florian Berrenberg became the team's new head coach. The season was finished in last place in the table, only by the withdrawal of the Bremen Bravehearts was the relegation avoided. The highlight of the year was the friendship game against a selection of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish . But there were also dark economic clouds: The Devils had taken over financially, according to the press alone, the stadium rent was 300,000 DM, and in the summer of 2000, Devils President Gernert announced that there was no more money, but the season was definitely over want to play by pursuing a strict austerity course. Gernert, who was accused of a lack of transparency, withdrew in September 2000. The team's future was initially uncertain.

At the end of April 2001 Christian Baarz became the new President of the Blue Devils. According to TAZ , the 2001 season was particularly about “consolidating again in year one after the collapse. In all areas - sporty, economical and in terms of image ”. As of May 2001, the association had almost DM 350,000 in debts, which the new board wanted to repay by the end of 2002. The Blue Devils started the 2001 season with a team budget of 1.7 million DM and played like a substitute compared to the previous year. Reinforced by star running back Estrus Crayton and master coach Kent Anderson (bringing with Braunschweig in previous years, three times the German championship titles) they remained unbeaten, reached the fifth time the German Bowl and won by 31:13 in front of 23,000 spectators in Hannover against the Braunschweig Lions their second German championship title. At the end of August 2001, the contract with coach Anderson was extended to the end of December 2005.

In December 2001 the newspaper Die Welt reported : “In terms of sport, the year one after Axel Gernert's resignation was a complete success with the surprising win of the German Bowl with a 31:13 in the final over the Braunschweig Lions, but financially the Blue Devils are in good shape the water up to their necks again. ”Among other things, the Blue Devils suffered from the high rental costs for the home games in the Millerntor Stadium (50,000 marks per game plus additional costs). At the beginning of 2002, Devils President Christian Baarz called the financial situation "very tense". At the beginning of July 2002 head coach Kent Anderson was dismissed without notice, after the relationship between the American on the one hand and sports director Dietrich-E. Proud and other club employees on the other hand had been significantly disturbed due to several incidents. Anderson had called Stolze "not a good football president", Stolze in turn spoke of "running up, money-hungry rascals like Kent Anderson". After Anderson was kicked out, player Maximilian von Garnier temporarily took over the position of head coach before John Rosenberg came as the new coach in July. Rosenberg led Hamburg in October 2002 with a 16:13 final win against Braunschweig to win the German championship.

In April 2003 Baarz resigned as club president. Successor in this office was Herbert Espig. In 2003, the Hamburg Blue Devils had to file for bankruptcy and were only able to end games under strict conditions and with financial support from fans and sponsors. In autumn 2003 Karsten P. Steffens got involved as a sponsor. Despite the economic difficulties, the championship title could be won again, master coach was Kirk Heidelberg .

The entry of the new investor secured the 2004 season , which ended with a defeat in the quarter-finals at the Marburg Mercenaries . In December 2004, Joe Roman was announced as the new head coach for the 2005 season.

After plans to play in the Billtalstadion in the future were broken in 2005 , it was announced on February 28th that the sports field on Memellandallee in Hamburg-Altona would be converted into a stadium of its own, the later eVendi Arena . After Karsten P. Steffens, managing director of the Blue Devils marketing company, filed for insolvency for the company in May 2005 (according to the court ruling, around 60,000 euros were still available as stadium rent to be paid to FC St. Pauli), the newly founded Sports Marketing secured Hamburg GmbH takes over gaming operations. Despite this turbulence, the Devils reached the German Bowl and were only just beaten with a 28:31 against the Braunschweig Lions .

In the 2006 season , the Devils reached second place in the GFL-Nord. In the semifinals they were defeated by the host Marburg Mercenaries with 33:20.

In spring 2007, the Blue Devils announced their return to the Millerntor Stadium at a press conference held jointly with FC St. Pauli . In the play-off quarter-finals of the 2007 season they were defeated by the Stuttgart Scorpions .

In the 2008 season, the Blue Devils missed the play-offs as fifth. Until the end of the 2008 season, Joe Roman was Hamburg's head coach, his successor being Maximilian von Garnier.

The Blue Devils have played in the GFL for 14 years without interruption, which otherwise only the Braunschweig Lions and the Stuttgart Scorpions , both of whom have also played in the GFL since 1995, achieved. This series ended shortly before the start of the 2009 season when the new club president Dominik Seyler announced his withdrawal from the top German division. A financial bottleneck was the reason why the GFL license was returned. The team then entered the Regionalliga Nord, which was increased from six to seven teams.

In 2010 they made it to GFL 2 North. At the end of August 2011, the promotion to the GFL was clear after a 30: 6 victory over the Lübeck Cougars.

On January 1, 2011, the Hamburg Blue Devils signed a cooperation agreement with Hamburger SV and were then called HSV Hamburg Blue Devils. From 2011, the HSV Hamburg Blue Devils played in the Adolf-Jäger-Kampfbahn .

In 2012 and 2013 the Blue Devils competed in the GFL. After the 2013 season, the cooperation with Hamburger SV was ended.

Although the Hamburg Blue Devils had athletically qualified to participate in the 2014 season in the top division, the club withdrew the license application for participation in January 2014. The club justified the withdrawal with the current stadium situation.

On April 25, 2014, the Blue Devils published a press release announcing the men's team's complete withdrawal from 2014 games. Garnier's head coach resigned from his position. In the 2015 season, the Blue Devils played under head coach Peer Barkmann in the fifth-rate Verbandsliga Nord and finished the season in third place in the table. In the 2016 season they took second place in the table and rose to the fourth-class Oberliga Nord . There they made the direct march into the regional league in the 2017 season.

In September 2019, Peer Barkmann resigned as head coach of the Blue Devils, his successor was Florian Voss.

Board

The board of the Hamburg Blue Devils eV consists of: Sascha Hinz (President), Maximilian von Garnier (1st deputy), Dirk Rißmann (2nd deputy), Peer Barkmann (3rd deputy) and Reinhard Petersen (child and youth guardian).

successes

1994 FLE runner-up (35:43 against Stockholm Nordic Vikings from Sweden )
1995 German runner-up (10:17 against Düsseldorf Panther )
1996 European Cup winner ( EFL ) (21:14 against Aix-en-Provence Argonautes from France ) and German champion (31:12 against Düsseldorf Panther)
1997 European Cup Winner (EFL) (35:14 against Phoenix di Bologna from Italy )
1998 European Cup winner (EFL) (38:19 against Paris Flash from France ) and German runner-up (14:20 against Braunschweig Lions )
1999 Vice European Cup Winner (EFL) (23:27 against Braunschweig Lions) and German runner-up (24:25 against Braunschweig Lions)
2000 Vice European Champion (EFL) (20:42 against Bergamo Lions from Italy)
2001 German Champion (31:13 against Braunschweig Lions)
2002 German Champion (16:13 against Braunschweig Lions)
2003 German Champion (37:36 in overtime against Braunschweig Lions)
2004 German indoor flag football champion (20:14 against Hamburg Gray Devils)
2005 German runner-up (28:31 against Braunschweig Lions)
2009 Champion Regionalliga Nord (undefeated)
2010 Champion Regionalliga Nord (undefeated)
2011 Champion GFL 2 North

Teams in the Hamburg Blue Devils eV

Hamburg Blue Angels

Hamburg Blue Devils (Tackle Football | Regio Nord)
Hamburg Blue Devils Prospects (tackle football 2nd team)
Hamburg Blue Devilyns (Tackle Football Women | 1st DBL)
Hamburg Junior Devils (U19 Youth Tackle Football | GFL-J Nord)
Hamburg Rookie Devils (U16 youth tackle football)
Hamburg Little Devils (U13 youth tackle football)
Hamburg Flag Devils (Youth Flag Football)
Hamburg Blue Angels (Cheerleading)
Hamburg Glitter Angels (Cheerleading)
Hamburg Gray Angels (Cheerleading)
Hamburg Junior Angels (Cheerleading)
Hamburg Tiny Angels (Cheerleading)
Hamburg Peewee Angels (Cheerleading)

Individual evidence

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1996/pdf/19960412.pdf/ASV_HAB_19960412_HA_020.pdf

↑ Lars Dzikus: American football in West Germany . In: Annette R. Hofmann (Ed.): Turnen and Sport: Transatlantic Transfers . Waxmann Verlag GmbH, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-8309-1381-8 , p. 221-237 .

↑ Wohlerswelt - 25 years of Hamburg Blue Devils: Episode 2. In: Hamburg Blue Devils on youtube.com. Retrieved January 26, 2020 (German).

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1993/pdf/19930614.pdf/ASV_HAB_19930614_HA_019.pdf

↑ http://www.fk-hbd.de/HBD2013-180515.pdf

↑ https://taz.de/!1556547/

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1996/pdf/19960708.pdf/ASV_HAB_19960708_HA_019.pdf

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1996/pdf/19960921.pdf/ASV_HAB_19960921_HA_023.pdf

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1996/pdf/19961007.pdf/ASV_HAB_19961007_HA_017.pdf

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/2003/pdf/20031009.pdf/HAHA20031009lf028.pdf

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/2000/pdf/20000418.pdf/HAHA20000418lf0000131.pdf

↑ https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article545717/Blue-Devils-trennten-sich-von-Cheftrainer-Lee-Rowland.html

↑ https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article520617/Florian-Berrenberg-ist-ab-sofort-Cheftrainer-der-Devils.html

↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/2000/pdf/20000803.pdf/HAHA20000803lf0000130.pdf