The Football Combination 1888

When William McGregor founded the Football League there was conjecture who was included and who was excluded. McGregor wanted regular guaranteed fixtures that were financially viable, thus ensuring a steady income allowing the member clubs to sustain professionalism. It was the nature of this exclusivity that led to the condition that only 'one club per town' would be admitted. 

McGregor's initial letter stated:
I am only writing to the following – Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion, and Aston Villa, and would like to hear what other clubs you would suggest.

McGregor's chosen 12, as we have seen ,were:
Accrington (Lancashire)
Aston Villa (Birmingham)
Blackburn Rovers (Lancashire)
Bolton Wanderers (Lancashire)
Burnley (Lancashire)
Derby County (Derby East Midlands)
Everton (Liverpool- Lancashire Merseyside)
Notts County (Nottingham East Midlands)
Preston North End (Lancashire)
Stoke (Staffordshire West Midlands)
West Bromwich Albion (Staffordshire West Midlands)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (Staffordshire West Midlands)

Preston were considered the strongest team in the country and McGregor and his associates courted them patiently. Blackburn Rovers were also a dominant force, winning the FA Cup 3 times in succession in the mid 80s.
The other clubs could all be said to have local rivals with an equal if not more credible claim to being included in the elite 12 of British football. (The Football League was never the English league- McGregor hoped that Scottish clubs would be attracted by the venture  cross border friendlies were a proven crowd puller).  Bootle could have been perceived as more deserving of a place than Everton, but Everton were chosen for their commercial potential. Halliwell were strong rivals to Bolton Wanderers and both St George's (then known as Mitchell St George's) and Small Heath were local rivals of McGregor's own Aston Villa club.
One club official was so disgruntled at missing out on the financial security that league football seemed to promise that he set about establishing what has been seen as an alternative to the Football League.
JG Hall of Crewe Alexandra recruited 20 teams and formed not a league as such, but a fixture circle, at least guaranteeing members some regular engagements that would be honoured. The 12 clubs joining the League, of course, would not be readily available for lucrative friendlies in the face of their new commitments. 
The Combination, as the new body was known, failed for a number of reasons. Firstly it was too large to operate as a proper league. There just weren't enough Saturdays between September and April (hence the 16 game rule) It lacked a central organising structure, and placed responsibility for arranging fixtures on individual clubs. This led to  a lack of clarity over the status of fixtures and also to fixtures being unfulfilled.  Also a  number of member clubs were already in a precarious financial position.  The Combination was wound up in April 1889. 
 The most comprehensive reference to Combination fixtures that I have found has been with reference to Newton Heath's season.


Clubs in The Combination for the 1888-89 season were:


Birmingham St George's (Birmingham West Midlands)
Formerly Mitchell St George's- the name change being made in 1888. The club made an unsuccessful application to join the Football League at the end of the 1888-89 season, and joined the Football Alliance.The Alliance combined with the Football League in 1892 but Birmingham St. George's were the only  Alliance member not to be accepted. They disbanded in 1892 because of financial difficulties.

  Blackburn Olympic (Lancashire)
The only team in the Combination to have won the FA Cup, Olympic were now being overshadowed by Blackburn Rovers and went out of business in September 1889.

Bootle

Bootle (Lancashire Merseyside)
The strongest side in Merseyside in the early 1880s. They were shunned in favour of Everton when the Football League was formed. Having applied unsuccessfully in 1889 and 1890  Bootle joined the Football League in 1892 but resigned after one season and were replaced by... Liverpool. 

Burslem Port Vale (Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, West Midlands)
Currently playing in the 3rd tier of the English pyramid. Joined the Football League with the introduction of the second division in 1892. Became Port Vale in 1907 and dropped out of the Football League until 1919. 

Crewe Alexandra (Cheshire)
Formed in 1877 and currently playing in the 3rd tier of the English pyramid. FA Cup semi finalists in 1888. Played in the Football Alliance until they became founding members of the Second Division in 1892. Lost their league status in 1896, returning in 1921.

Darwen (Lancashire)
The best side in Lancashire until the rise of neighbours Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End. Darwen pionered the use of Scottish professionals. Played in the Football league from 1891-1899 then survived until 2009 in the Lancashire Combination.


Derby Junction (Derby, East Midlands) 
Founded by Junction Street School former pupils' and renamed Derby Junction in1885. They reached the semi finals of the FA Cup in 1888, beating Blackburn Rovers (who had won the Cup in the previous 3 seasons). Founder members of the Midland League in 1890, Derby Junction dropped out in 1893 and ceased to exist by 1895.

Derby Midland (Derby, East Midlands)
Founded in 1881,  joined the Midland League in 1890 and were absorbed by Derby County in 1891.

Grimsby Town (Cleethorpes Lincolnshire)
Formed in 1878 as  Grimsby Pelham. In 1889 the club applied to join the Football League, an application that was refused. Instead the club joined the Football Alliance.
Grimsby Town entered the Football League when it was expanded to two divisions in 1892 .Having failed re-election in 1910 they reentered the league in 1911 and remained members until 2010 . They now play in the 5th tier of English football. 


Halliwell (Bolton, Lancashire)
In the 1880s Halliwell were serious rivals to Bolton Wanderers, but missing out on League status seems to have signaled their demise. In the 1890-91 season they were on the receiving end of a 12-0 thrashing from The Wednesday in the FA Cup. They joined the Lancashire Combination in 1891 but were expelled for failing to fulfill fixtures.

Leek (Staffordshire, West Midlands)
On their first appearance in the FA Cup in 1884-85 Leek lost  2-3 to Queen's Park . Founder members of Midland League, they joined the second incarnation of The Combination in 1890 and left in 1896. Their most successful season was 1893-94 when they finished 3rd.
(Leek have no connection with the current Leek Town).

  Lincoln City (Lincolnshire)
Having being founder members of Division 2 Lincoln  were in and out of the Football League up until its expansion in 1920-21, having faced re election on numerous occasions.
They currently play in the 5th tier of the English pyramid.

Long Eaton Rangers (Derbyshire, East Midlands)
After finishing bottom of the Football Alliance in 1891 Long Eaton joined the Midland League , where they remained until 1899. 

Newton Heath 

Newton Heath (Lancashire, Manchester)

Nottingham Forest (Nottingham, East Midlands)
Forest were a strong club , and their older rivals, Notts County, were on the wane, but the one club per town rule excluded them from joining the chosen 12.

Notts Rangers (Nottingham,  East Midlands)
Formed in 1868. Founder member of Midland League,1889, but expelled in the first season for non- fulfillment of fixtures. 

Small Heath (Birmingham, West Midlands)
Small Heath were founder members of Football League Division Two in 1892-93 and in 1905 changed their name to Birmingham, adding the City in in 1943.

South Shore (Lancashire)
Merged with neighbours and rivals Blackpool in 1899.

Walsall Town Swifts (Staffordshire, West Midlands)
 Walsall Town F.C. and Walsall Swifts merged in 1888 to become Walsall Town Swifts.
Joined the Football League (Division 2) in 1892-93 but survived only one season. Having rejoined the Football League from the Midland League they survived until 1898–99 and then played in minor league or Southern league football until the expansion of the Football League in 1920-21,
 In 1896 they changed their name to Walsall F.C.


Witton (Blackburn)
Not connected with the present day Witton Albion. As St Mark's the Blackburn club were founder members of the Lancashire FA. Witton's high point was probably holding Darwen to a draw in the 3rd round of the 1887-88 FA Cup. In 1890-91 they joined the second version of The Combination, but failed to complete the season. The following year they finished 11th out of 12 in the Lancashire League, having conceded an average of 5 goals per game. Thanks to reader Nemo for helping to clear up some confusion over the identity and location of this club.  


During the 1888-89 season 5 Combination teams reached the last 16 of the FA Cup(Walsall Town Swifts, Birmingham St George's, Nottingham Forest, Halliwell, and  Grimsby Town).

Two players won International honours whilst playing in the Combination:
Frank Burton   (Nottingham Forest) England v Scotland.
Tinsley Lindley  (Nottingham Forest) England v Ireland.

acknowledgemnets to  the F.C.H.D. 

El Campeonato Sudamericano de Selecciones-Player of the Tournament

1916: Isabelino Gradín (Uruguay)
The Peñarol  forward scored three goals in the tournament. His inclusion drew complaints from Chile, claiming he was'African'. Gradín was four-time South American athletics champion in the 400 and 200 metres sprint.

1917: Héctor Scarone (Uruguay) Scarone was at the heart of the Uruguay team during the Golden Decade of the 1920s. In 1917 his illustrious international career was just beginning. The 18 year old  made his debut just a few weeks before the South American Championships kicked off . He scored the first of his 31 international goals in the 4-0 win over Brazil and another against Argentina. Of the 9 goals that Uruguay scored in the tournament, 5 came from the Scarone brothers, Carlos and Hector. Their Nacional partner Angel Romano was tournament top scorer with 4.

1919: Arthur Friedenreich (Brazil)

At the time Friedenreich's club was Paulistano. Fried scored a hat trick in Brazil's opening game, a 6-0 win over Chile, and the winning goal in the final play off against Uruguay . This made him the tournament's top scorer. He was a national hero, with his boot being paraded around Rio and displayed in a shop window. 

1920: José Piendibene (Uruguay) Peñarol's Piendibene scored one goal in three matches. He was a creative player influential in the further development of a Uruguayan style of football.

1921: Américo Tesoriere (Argentina)  Argentina's goalkeeper kept a clean sheet throughout the tournamnet, (3 matches) as the Albiceleste won their first title.  Tesoriere's club at the time was Sportivo del Norte, in  the only season of his career spent away from Boca Juniors. Juniors.

1922: Agostinho Fortes Filho (Brazil) Fortes was a wing half who played for Fulminense, As an 17 year old he had played in Brazil's first triumph in 1919.

1923: José Nasazzi (Uruguay) The legendary captain, El Gran Mariscal, was in his first season of international football and playing for the Bella Vista club when he won his first of 4 South American championships.

1924:Pedro Petrone (Uruguay) Artillero moved from Solferino to Nacional in 1924. He was the South American Championship's leading scorer for the second year in a row. 

1925: Manuel Seoane (Argentina)  La Chancha scored 6 goals ( he scored in every game and got a hattrick against Brazil) as Argentina claimed their second title.  He was acknowledged to be un futbolista completo by the Argentine sporting press. 

1926: Jose Andrade (Uruguay) La maravilla negra was another of Uruguayan football's black stars of the Golden Decade of the 1920s. Andrade controlled the midfield as he won his third South American Championship. 
















1927: Manuel Seoane (Argentina) Seoane became the first man to be named player of the tournament twice. His only goals (2) came in a 7-1 demolition of Bolivia, but his influence created plenty of opportunities for others as Argentina clocked up 15 goals in the tournament.

1929: Manuel Nolo Ferreira (Argentina) A versatile player and a great motivator.  Argentina got some degree of revenge for their previous year's defeat in the Olympics (then considered a world championship) beating Uruguay 2-0 in the final game of the competition.














1935: José Nasazzi (Uruguay) Nasazzi's personal haul of honours was very impressive by now, as he had led Uruguay to 2 Olympic Gold medals, a World Cup and now his 4th South American Championship. 
He ran the Uruguay defence as they conceded only 1 goal in a tournament that yielded an average of 3 goals a game.



1937: Vicente de la Mata (Argentina) An expanded champioship of 6 teams. 19 year old de la Mata scored twice in extra time in the play off  as Brazil were beaten 2-0.

The demise of Cardiff City

In just ten seasons from 1923-24 to 1933-34 Cardiff City manged the remarkable feat of falling from the top of Division One to the very foot of the Third Division South. 

1923-24: Having led the First Division for much of the season Cardiff went into the last game 1 point ahead of Huddersfield Town.  Playing 14th placed Birmingham City away, Cardiff were held to a 0-0 draw. They (in the shape of top scorer Len Davies) also  missed a penalty (which no one wanted to take).  Huddersfield Town beat Nottingham Forest and became League Champions on goal average. 

Fred Tunstall  scores Sheffield United's winner

1924-25: Cardiff finished 11th in Division 1 and lost to Sheffield United in the FA Cup Final.

1925-26: Cardiff finished 16th in Division 1. On New Years Day they lost 11-2 to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. 

1926-27: 14th in Division 1 and FA Cup winners.

1927-28: 6th in Division 1. 

1928-29: Finishing bottom of Division 1 having only won 8 (out of 42 games) in the season, Cardiff bizarrely conceded fewer goals than any other team in their division (but scored at least 13 less than every other side).

1929-30: Finished 8th in Division 2. 

1930-31: Only 8 wins and an astonishing -40 goal deficit saw Cardiff finish bottom of Division 2. 

1931-32: 9th Division 3 South.

1932-33: 19th Division 3 South.

1933-34: Cardiff City finished at the very bottom of the Third Division South and sought re election to the football league. 

Special mention to goalkeeper Tom Farquharson who played in the Birmingham City game in 1924  and  also in  City's last game of the Third Division South season against Northampton Town in 1933-34.

This combination might be known as the Association Football Union...

William McGregor, a Scottish draper who had settled in Birmingham,  wrote the following letter on 2nd March 1888 to the committees of  Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion, and Aston Villa (his own club):

Every year it is becoming more and more difficult for football clubs of any standing to meet their friendly engagements and even arrange friendly matches. The consequence is that at the last moment, through cup-tie interference, clubs are compelled to take on teams who will not attract the public.
I beg to tender the following suggestion as a means of getting over the difficulty: that ten or twelve of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home-and-away fixtures each season, the said fixtures to be arranged at a friendly conference about the same time as the International Conference.
This combination might be known as the Association Football Union, and could be managed by representative from each club. Of course, this is in no way to interfere with the National Association; even the suggested matches might be played under cup-tie rules. However, this is a detail.
My object in writing to you at present is merely to draw your attention to the subject, and to suggest a friendly conference to discuss the matter more fully. I would take it as a favour if you would kindly think the matter over, and make whatever suggestions you deem necessary. I am only writing to the following – Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion, and Aston Villa, and would like to hear what other clubs you would suggest.
I am, yours very truly, William McGregor (Aston Villa F.C.)
P.S. How would Friday, 23 March 1888, suit for the friendly conference at Anderton's Hotel, London?

Soccer—The Game of the Working Class (3)

Football by Yuri Pimenov (1926)

A further extract from Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR by Robert Edelman (1993)- reproduced without permission.

The Conduct of Players and Fans

In the early years of Soviet soccer, matches were taken very seriously, and gentlemanly play was far from the norm. Player conduct on the field was often extremely rough and undisciplined, and the situation was made all the worse by the fact that skilled and experienced referees were few. As a result, fights and other forms of "hooliganism" were common. Perhaps the most famous incident of this sort took place in November 1926. The Moscow selects were invited for two games in Odessa against that city's first and second teams. In the first few minutes, it was clear that the Muscovites were far stronger than the second Odessa team, and, to compensate for their lack of talent, the Odessa players began to foul regularly. Soon one of the Moscow stars was seriously injured, leading to the disqualification of the guilty Odessa defender. In the second half, the Muscovites lost their patience and began to retaliate. Several Odessa attackers
were brought down in their tracks by Moscow defenders, and eventually one member of the Moscow team began to kick an Odessa player who was lying on the ground. This action provoked a riot, and the crowd invaded the field—from which they were cleared only with great difficulty, by mounted policemen. An investigation ultimately found the causes of the incident to be weak refereeing and (what would become a constant theme), "insufficient educational work" among the players.
Fights, dirty play, and other transgressions were not just products of the supposedly lower moral standards of the NEP period. Unnecessary roughness was still common in the 'thirties. In one game during the 1935 Moscow city championship, a player was disqualified for kicking an opponent in the head.
A year before, a game in Leningrad dissolved into a mass brawl and had to be abandoned. At a game in Simferopol, two "notorious hooligans," the Bolsenov brothers, began to beat up their opponents' goalie. When the referee intervened, the brothers punched the referee in the mouth. At other games in
Simferopol, players showed up drunk and kicked opponents in the face.
 In what would become a familiar theme, Krasnyi sport attributed these incidents to. . . the low cultural level of the players. During the game and after it they are to be found in the closed atmosphere of the sporting crowd. . . . No one is surprised by the corrupt, hooligan jargon of these players. It is considered a normal part of our sport. . . . Sport is not only a pleasant way to pass time. It is a weapon of culture, a means of education, and a way to organize the cultured leisure time of the masses.
Soccer, in particular, was not a sport of the intelligentsia. Those who played it were largely a rough-and-ready crowd who had not accepted the values of orderliness and discipline that the authorities sought to inculcate through sports. "Cultured" (kul'turnyi) sportsmen did not kick prostrate and injured opponents, nor did they punch referees in the mouth. Educational (vospitatel' nyi) work was required of team captains and leaders, but their efforts were miminal and ineffective.
The citizens who came to see these games also did not watch them with any special regard for official values. Very early, the public, especially the working class, adopted favorite teams and players, whom they rooted for with a passion and intensity not unlike that of their counterparts in capitalist countries. The vicarious and not always healthy pleasures of fanship were much the same as they were elsewhere in the world. For some workers, their identity as followers of a team became more important than their identity as proletarians, as the diseases of diversion and apoliticism emerged even within postrevolutionary society. Passive watching, as opposed to active participation, was, in official eyes, something to be feared. In 1927, Krasnyi sport described a hypothetical worker they called "Ivan Spiridonovich":
What could be Ivan Spiridonovich's relationship to sport?. . . Does he run the hundred meters or pole vault? No, he is a soccer player. And not the kind of player who runs on the field in shorts. Quite the opposite, he is part of the public.... By his profession, Ivan Spiridonovich is a metal worker but in his true essence he is a food worker [pishchevik]. "The food workers, there's a soccer team," he says. And sure enough the food workers [Pishchevik] do have a team.
Given its importance to workers, sport was supposed to play a role in raising the cultural level of the proletariat, and soccer's popularity among the working class made it especially important but potentially problematical.
Krasnyi sport noted this fact in 1927: 
"Let's take a big factory center like Orekho-Zuevo or the workers' suburbs in Leningrad. We will see that sport, and football in particular plays a role of the first importance in the leisure time of the worker. At the last trade union congress it was noted that big games draw so many spectators that the mines in the Donbass are completely empty on the days of important matches."
For this reason, it was especially unfortunate that the experience of watching a game was difficult and testing for the spectator. Not only were most stadiums less than comfortable, they were poorly run. Only one or two ticket windows might be open, and the same held true for entrances. On big game days, the box offices and entryways were the scenes of what Krasnyi sport called "real battles." In this crowded and disorderly atmosphere, any confrontation on the field or act of bad refereeing could have serious consequences for public order. Riots were by no means uncommon, and drunkenness and hooliganism were very much part of the sports scene throughout the 1930s.
By the end of 1935, it was clear that Soviet soccer had its share of problems on and off the field. It had become, by far, the Soviet Union's most popular sport, but clearly it could not continue along the semi-professional lines of the past.
 A change in course was required. The leaders of the game finally took action early in 1936.

Cesáreo Onzari

A great picture of  Huracán's Cesáreo Onzari placing the ball for a corner kick. 
A one club man, Onzari  played  over 200 games for Huracán (1921-1933), winning  4 championships (1921, 1922, 1925, 1928).
He represented Argentina 15 times.

Sportklub Tirana

The Tirana club was founded in 1920 as Agimi Sports Association, taking the name Sportklub Tirana in 1927. 
Tirana were a progressive force in  Albanian football , the first to use a specialist coach and also the first to employ a foreign coach, the Hungarian Samo Singer in 1934.

Here is their impressive record in the Kategoria e Parë, the Albanian First Division:

Season	League pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A
1930	Champions	10	5	4	1	17	7	Play off*
1931	Champions	4	2	1	1	6	2	Play off**
1932	Champions	8	5	3	0	29	6
1933	4TH	8	3	2	3	14	12
1934	Champions	12	10	1	1	54	8
1935	No Championship
1936	Champions	14	11	3	0	50	8
1937	Champions	18	17	1	0	74	8

*1930 play off was never contested, and Tirana were awarded a 2-0 2-0 victory over KS Skënderbeu Korçë. Both teams had finished the season on 14 points. Their 2 league encounters that season ended in 0-0 draws. ** A 2 group competition produced a  Tirana v Teuta final which Tirana won 4-1 on aggregate. (1-1 0-3)

German National Champions 1920-33

1920 1. FC Nuremberg 
The regional leagues produced 7 qualifiers, joined by defending champions SpVgg Furth, to contest the national championship. The final was a local derby in which 1. FC Nuremberg defeated Furth 2-0 at Frankfurt. Acrowd of 35,.000 saw Luitpold  Popp put Nuremberg ahead in the 12th minute. Hungarian international  Péter Szabó added a second in the 73rd minute. 

1921 1. FC Nuremberg 
Nuremberg defended their title, defeating Berliner FC Vorwärts 1890 in the final at Dusseldorf.  Luitpold  Popp scored 3 and fellow German international Heiner Träg got 2 in a 5-0 victory. The legendary Hungarian Dori Kürschner was now in charge of Nuremberg.

1922  Hamburger SV*
 Nuremberg's attempt to secure a third successive championship was thwarted in what was one of the most remarkable encounters in football history. 
1. FC Nuremberg met Hamburger SV in the final at Berlin's Deutsches Stadion on 18th June 1922. The scores were level at 2-2 on 90 minutes. Following a conventional period of extra time an attempt was made to play to a result, but  referee Dr. Peco Bauwens was forced to abandon the game after 180 minutes due to darkness.
The 2 sides met again in Liepzig on August 6th. Nuremberg were reduced to 10 men when Dr. Bauwens sent off Willy Böß in the 18th minute. Nuremberg were further weakened when Anton Kugler was forced to retire with an injury with 15 minutes remaining.  Hamburg were unable to capitalize, and with the scores level at 1-1 the game again, ominously , moved into extra time. Heiner Träg was ordered off in the 100th minute and 5 minutes later Luitpold Popp, incapacitated by asthma, left the field.  With Nuremberg reduced to 7 players the referee ended the game, mistakenly believing the laws of the game demanded it. 
There was some controversy over the award of the championship. The DFB awarded the title to Hamburg by default, but they declined to accept it. 

1923 Hamburger SV
Hamburg returned and secured the title in a more conventional manner, beating SC Union Oberschöneweide at Deutsches Stadion watched by 64,000.

1924 1. FC Nuremberg .
Nuremburg and Hamburg resumed their rivalry in the 1924 final. Georg Hochgesang and Wolfgang Strobel scored in Nuremberg's 2-0 victory at Deutsches Stadion.

1925 1. FC Nuremberg 
The national championship had now expanded to include 16 teams. 
Ludwig Wieder scored an extra time winner as FSV Frankfurt were beaten 1-0 in the brand new Waldstadion (Frankfurt ).

1926 SpVgg Fürth
The Waldstadion was again the venue as SpVgg Fürth beat Hertha BSC 4-1.  Former Blackburn Rovers star William Townley was manger of Fürth.

1927 1. FC Nuremberg  
A  fifth title for Nuremberg, 50,000 were at Deutsches Stadion to see them beat Hertha BSC 2-0.  Fred Spiksley was back as manager, having previously been at the club at the outbreak of the 1914-18 war. Trag was dismissed in the 75th minute for Nuremberg.

1928 Hamburger SV
It was not a case of third time lucky for Hertha BSC. They lost their third final in a row, beaten 5-2 by Hamburg at Altona. The finals were played in high summer, having been delayed by the absence of top players at the Amsterdam Olympics
.

1929 SpVgg Fürth
Another late end to the season, this time because fixtures had been disrupted by the very harsh winter.  Misery again for Hertha  They beat Nuremberg in a replayed semi final (the first game had gone to 150 minutes without a goal being scored) - the final was played at Nuremberg's ground, and Hertha received a very hostile reception from local fans as they lost their fourth consecutive final. Hertha were reduced to 10 men by an injury to  Gerhard Schulz with the score at 1-1.Karl Rupprecht won it for Fürth (3-2) five minutes from time. 

1930  Hertha BSC
Hertha supporters and players must have been fearing the worst when , appearing in their 5th successive final, they were 2-0 down to Holstein Kiel after just 8 minutes. The game see sawed but  
Hans Ruch gave the Berlin side their long awaited victory with an 87th minute strike to round off the 5-4 thriller. Holstein had levelled at 4-4 despite being down to 10 following a sending off in the 80th minute.

1931  Hertha BSC
Hertha had developed a new habit-scoring late winners.  SV 1860 München were beaten 3-2 in the final thanks to Willi Kirsei's 89th minute goal. 

1932 Bayern Munich
The National final of 1932 was a repeat of that season's South German final . Eintracht Frankfurt won that game, with Bayern joining them in the National championship as runners up. Bayern got revenge in front of a 55,000 crowd at Nuremberg, beating Eintracht 2-0.  It was Bayern Munich's first title.