Wormatia Worms

The colours, red and white, were not chosen at a boardroom table — they were copied from the paint of a steamship called Wormatia.

Wormatia took the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen four years running from 1928 to 1931, then added three Gauliga Südwest/Mainhessen titles before the Second World War, and stayed in the country's top flight until the Bundesliga was formed in 1963. A place among the founding members of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974 lasted one season: Wormatia finished bottom and lost its licence in the same breath, and the drop back down was immediate. Debts of 1.5 million Deutsche Mark forced the club into insolvency in 1994, a collapse that came after a loan fraud scandal under president Winfried Heyn had already done damage in the late 1970s. A new entity, 1. FC Wormatia Worms 1994, was formed to carry football on in the city.