VfR Wormatia 08 Worms is a German association football club that plays in Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club and its historical predecessors were regular participants in regional first-division football competition until the formation of the national top-flight Bundesliga in 1963. History SC Wormatia was formed on 23 May 1908 and renamed VfL Wormatia Worms in 1921 just before merging with VfR Wormatia Worms in 1922. VfR was the product of the 1919 merger of Union 08 and Viktoria 1912. Both VfL and VfR were playing in the Kreisliga Hessen (I). The combined side played in the Bezirksliga Rheinhessen-Saar earning mid-table results. In 1927, SC joined the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen and enjoyed first- and second-place finishes in that league's Gruppe Hessen. German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen Gauligen, or regional upper class leagues, in 1933. Wormatia found themselves playing in the Gauliga Südwest (I) where they continued to play well, capturing the division title three times. The side was merged into Reichsbahn TuSV Worms in 1938 and then played on under that name. The Gauliga Südwest was broken up into a two divisions in 1941 and the club went to the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau, playing there for only a couple of seasons before the end of World War II and the collapse of league play. The club re-emerged as VfR Wormatia Worms after the war and joined the Oberliga Südwest (I) earning finishes in the upper half of the table in its first decade of play there, but only once advancing into the national championship rounds. That performance slipped somewhat in the years leading up to the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's first professional league, in 1963. In the late 1960s, Wormatia became one of the first clubs to display advertising on its jerseys. Wormatia was seeded into the second division Regionalliga Südwest (2. Bundesliga after 1973) where, except for two seasons in the mid-1970s, the club played until 1981. The club's best results came in 1965, when it finished second and played in the Bundesliga promotion rounds, and in 1979, when it earned a third-place finish in the 2. Bundesliga. The 1979 season was full of drama for Wormatia. At the mid-way point of the season the side led the 2.Bundesliga Süd as the Herbstmeisterschaft, or Autumn champions. Their second round German Cup match against Hertha BSC Berlin was called at 1–1 when the lights in Berlin's Olympiastadion failed