Division 4 and it was struck by some severe economical and internal problems. The 1970s started just as badly as the previous decade ended. The club fell out of Division 4 and held discussions with IF Warta about a merger. A discussion had been up several times earlier but had not gone as far as now, at the day of the voting the IF Warta members voted for a merging while the BK Häcken members voted against it. In 1971 the club won Division 5, the club then played in Division 4 until 1975 when they won it and in 1977 they won Division 3 with former Swedish international Agne Simonsson as manager, when the club earlier won Division 3 in 1951 they climbed directly up to Division 2, however this time they had to play a qualifier against IK Brage, Motala AIF and Degerfors. The club won and took the step up to Division 2. During 1978–79 the club played successfully in Division 2 with a 3rd place as the best position. In 1978 BK Häcken also started a ladies team. Reaching Allsvenskan The new decade started as strong as the last one ended, Agne Simonsen continued to bring success to the club as they won Division 2 and qualified for a position in Allsvenskan, however IF Elfsborg proved too strong with a 0–1 home defeat at Gamla Ullevi and then a 1–1 result in Borås at Ryavallen. However, during the game at Gamla Ullevi, BK Häcken sets the club record for biggest home audience with 19 205. However the club was not let down by this and came in 2nd place in 1982 and this time they qualified for the promotion play-offs against IFK Norrköping, BK Häcken is able to reach a 2–0 result home at Rambergsvallen and then achieve a 1–1 away at Idrottsparken in Norrköping and the club reached Allsvenskan for the first time in club history. The time that BK Häcken spends in Allsvenskan is however short, the club's successful manager Agne Simonsen leaves for a local competitor and Reine Almqvist takes over, the club ends up last in the league and is relegated back to Division 2 where they play for the rest of the 1980s. BK Häcken starts the 1990s with winning Division 1 söder and faces GIF Sundsvall in the promotion play-offs, and despite an impressive 5–2 victory at home for Häcken,