Very few still know about the dramatic game exactly 60 years ago in Wuppertal’s “Stadion am Zoo”, in which the small SC Tegel achieved the biggest surprise success in Berlin’s football history at the time. With a very narrow 1-0 win against the big favorite Tura Bonn, the Berlin club secured the German amateur championship for the first time on June 30, 1962.
One person who was there at the time still has fond memories of that day: Volker Behnke. “The people of Bonn snuck away like watered poodles, and we were incredibly happy,” says the now 82-year-old. For the 50th anniversary ten years ago, Behnke had drummed up some of his teammates from back then and performed a song he had written himself, mainly consisting of the names of the first eleven, to the melody of Greek wine by Udo Jürgens, which he still likes to sing today: “Faist was in goal, defender Jan Hahn, Lehmann, Mrosek, Bold were our runners.”
Behnke tells of the political importance that this game had at that time, because Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic in 1962 and pretty much everyone was convinced that Tura would win. Just not the team from SC Tegel, who believed in the miracle. “For us, with eight Reinickendorfers in the starting XI, it was a huge event,” said Behnke. “You can be a little proud that you can be so successful without money and only with comradely behavior, ambition and talent.”
Bonn, on the other hand, came to Wuppertal a little arrogant, the ribbons of the wreaths already bore the inscription “Deutscher Meister Tura”, and goalkeeper Schattulat didn’t think it necessary in the middle of the second half to put up a wall for a free kick from around 20 meters. A mistake, as it quickly turned out, because Karl Bölk converted to Tegel’s lead, which the sports club held until the end. “They had all made the wreaths for Tura Bonn and we were the undergrounds from West Berlin, completely without a chance,” says Behnke. “But we had the will, one for all under the motto: You have to be eleven friends.”
SC Tegel no longer exists, since the merger with SC Heiligensee the club has been called Nordberliner SC, which has also contributed to the fact that the Berlin champions are more and more forgotten. But Behnke never tires of reminding himself of the championship and has set himself the goal of still being able to sing about the glorious times of the small club from Tegel at the age of 85.
