For decades, EV Füssen has set the tone in the Bundesliga. A number of national players emerged from the club – including Paul Ambros, Markus Egen and Xaver Unsinn, who later became the national coach. 58 Olympians come from the ranks of the EVF including 5 bronze medalists. Players have represented Germany at World Championships, Olympics and other international competitions. With the Spenglercup, EV Füssen twice won Europe’s most traditional ice hockey trophy in 1952 and 1964. The club and the players received the highest recognition in 1963 with the award of the “Silver Laurel Leaf “, the highest sporting honor in Germany.
One of the highlights for Siegfried Schubert was EV Füssen’s Canadian tour in 1965. In twelve games, the Füsseners went up against teams from the great ice hockey nation – from Newfoundland to Edmonton. In Ottawa, however, she felt homesick. “Then Gmeiner, Nagel and I went to a European deli, bought a salami, a ring of Lyoner, a few cans of beer and had a real Bavarian hotel snack,” Schubert says. “Then the homesickness got even better.”
But they were not only connected to their homeland, but also tough, the players of EV Füssen. Paul Ambros once accidentally hit teammate Max Pfefferle with a slapshot and shot him in the cheekbone. Pfefferle was then hospitalized for 14 days. “So we said to ourselves: ‘You, we need you on Saturday!’”, says Siegfried Schubert. “Then he got up on Saturday night, played two-thirds here, changed and went back to the hospital for further treatment.”
But at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the tide turned for EV Füssen, until then accustomed to success. More and more good players are migrating to the big cities. Small clubs are experiencing financial difficulties. The attempt to redeem success ends for the EVF after its relegation in 1983 in bankruptcy. From then on, the newly founded successor club only played in the lower leagues.
The next low blow came in 2015: a second insolvency necessitated the recovery of the company and thus a new start in the lowest league, the district league. But here too, this means for the club: get up, wipe your mouth, keep going! EV Füssen made a comeback and fought their way into the top league in just four years. “This is the league where we feel comfortable and where we are at home,” says current board member Thomas Zellhuber and hopes for a long future for his club. “Of course, if you look at history, we have to bake smaller loaves of bread today. But continuing the tradition – it’s very important to us.”
EV Füssen celebrates the 100th anniversary with a grand gala in the Festspielhaus and with the “duel of old masters”: On December 11 – the day of its foundation – EV Füssen welcomes its arch-rival SC Riessersee to the large Kobelhang arena.
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