Rot-Weiss Oberhausen Rot-Weiss Oberhausen In December of 1904, Emschertaler SV and Oberhausener TV 1873 got together to form Oberhausener SV. In January 1923, the Duisburg club Styrumer BV merged, and the club was now known as SV 1904 Oberhausen-Styrum. This however only lasted for some 6 months, as many members left to form 1.FC Mülheim-Styrum. The remainder stayed on, and renamed the club to SC Rot_Weiß Oberhausen in 1934. During the Nazi era, RWO was a decent club in the Gauliga Niederrhein, but that division was essentially owned by Fortuna Düsseldorf, so there wasn't much to achieve.
After WWII, RWO eventually established itself in the top regional Oberliga West, and was a founding memeber of the new Regionalliga West in 1963. In the early 1970s, RWO played 3 seasons in the Bundesliga, before finally dropping in 1973. Basically, it was a workhorse team of no-names, although Lothar Kobluhn did manage to win the scoring title for the Bundesliga one season. There were accusations of attempted bribery to sully the name of the club. The DFB penalized RWO 5 points (on 2 pt scale) before the start of the 72/73 season, which was essentially automatic relegation. The next season they finished runner-up in the Regionalliga West, but crashed out in the promotion playoffs. 1975 saw a disaster in the new 2.Bundesliga Nord and relegation down to the 3rd division.
The elevator ride continued as after a few seasons in the 3rd, RWO was back in the 2nd division for about 5 seasons in the 1980s. However, once again the taint of scandal brought a close to the chapter, as financial difficulties led to the DFB denying a professional license. By 1990, RWO had fallen to the 4th division.
Club management started to clean things up, and the club stabilized, so by 1998, they were back at the 2nd level. The 1998-99 season started off poorly, and the pundits prediction of a quick drop to the 3rd division looke pretty obvious, with RWO dead last. But then a new coach, Alexander Ristic, managed to turn things around, and the team put together a great unbeaten run that carried them out of the hole. Although things remained tight, there was little doubt they would stay up, despite a weak finish. As things stabilized, it's not unbelievable to think that RWO may once again make an appearance in the top flight. The 5th place finish in 2004 seemed to indicate that. But the 2.Liga is merciless, and if you miss the boat, don't be surprised if you miss everything...Oberhausen was relegated in 2005.
| Fullname | Sport-Club Rot-Weiß Oberhausen e.V. | ||||||||||||||||
| City | Oberhausen (Nordrhein-Westfalen). Pop: 222,000 (2002). | ||||||||||||||||
| Address |
Rechenacker 62, 46049 Oberhausen Phone: (0208) 25730 | ||||||||||||||||
| Colors | Red and white. Away uniform White shirt, light green horizontal stripes, white pants, light green socks. | ||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Die Kleeblätter (four leaf clovers) | ||||||||||||||||
| Stadium |
Niederrheinstadion. Capacity: 21,318 (4,039
seats) Built in 1926. From the visiting side, you can look into the harbour. The advertising board was apparently bought from Bayer Leverkusen when they refurbished their stadium. | ||||||||||||||||
| Tickets |
7.50-22 euros (2004)
| Supporters |
Things slowly looking up, averaged about 6,300 in 2004 (2.Liga).
About 27 registered fan clubs listed on web site.
| Friends |
|
Foes |
Heated rivalries with other Ruhr teams, Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Schalke
etc.
| Heroes |
3 German internationals. Willy Jürissen (6 caps in th 30s),
Jürgen Sundermann (1 cap in 1960). Also Erich
Juskowiak, from the 50s, capped once for RWO, another 30 for
Düsseldorf. Midfielder Lothar Kobluhn sensationally won
the scoring title in 1971 with 24 goals - 12 in the last 8 games to
save RWO by 1 goal. | Zeroes |
| Pub Grub |
RWO runs it own Gaststätte from the club house.
| Beer |
König-Pilsner is a sponsor.
www.koenig.de
|
The Net |
An official web site, RWO-Online, got started late, but is fairly
decent: www.rwo-online.de .
| |
Recent History:
--------------
1963-64 (II) Regionalliga West 7th
1964-65 (II) Regionalliga West 4th
1965-66 (II) Regionalliga West 4th
1966-67 (II) Regionalliga West 6th
1967-68 (II) Regionalliga West 3rd
1968-69 (II) Regionalliga West 1st
1969-70 (I) Bundesliga 14th
1970-71 (I) Bundesliga 16th
1971-72 (I) Bundesliga 15th
1972-73 (I) Bundesliga 18th
1973-74 (II) Regionalliga West 2nd
1974-75 (II) 2.Bundesliga Nord 18th
1975-76 (III) Amateurliga Niederrhein 5th
1976-77 (III) Amateurliga Niederrhein 8th
1977-78 (III) Amateurliga Niederrhein 2nd
1978-79 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordrhein 1st
1979-80 (II) 2.Bundesliga Nord 15th
1980-81 (II) 2.Bundesliga Nord 14th
1981-82 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordrhein 4th
1982-83 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordrhein 1st
1983-84 (II) 2.Bundesliga 16th
1984-85 (II) 2.Bundesliga 12th
1985-86 (II) 2.Bundesliga 11th
1986-87 (II) 2.Bundesliga 16th
1987-88 (II) 2.Bundesliga 16th license denied
1988-89 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordrhein 19th
1989-90 (IV) Verbandsliga Niederrhein 14th
1990-91 (IV) Verbandsliga Niederrhein 5th
1991-92 (IV) Verbandsliga Niederrhein 3rd
1992-93 (IV) Verbandsliga Niederrhein 1st
1993-94 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordrhein 7th
1994-95 (IV) Oberliga Nordrhein 1st
1995-96 (III) Regionalliga W/SW 8th
1996-97 (III) Regionalliga W/SW 2nd
1997-98 (III) Regionalliga W/SW 1st
1998-99 (II) 2.Bundesliga 12th
1999-00 (II) 2.Bundesliga 6th
2000-01 (II) 2.Bundesliga 12th
2001-02 (II) 2.Bundesliga 12th
2002-03 (II) 2.Bundesliga 14th
2003-04 (II) 2.Bundesliga 5th
2004-05 (II) 2.Bundesliga 16th
2005-06 (III) Regionalliga Nord 17th
2006-07 (IV) Oberliga Nordrhein 1st
2007-08 (III) Regionalliga Nord
(c) Abseits Guide to Germany : www.abseits-soccer.com