Promotion series, part 4: The 1964/65 campaign

26 June 1965, 17:42, full time at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, FC Bayern beat Tennis Borussia Berlin 8-0 - done and dusted: FC Bayern are finally promoted to the Bundesliga.

Friday is the fiftieth anniversary of that promotion. Looking back at that great achievement, fcbayern.de brings you a five-part series on the rise of FC Bayern as they set out on the road to conquering the world of football, in Germany and across the globe.

Promotion series, part 4: The 1964/65 campaign

How would Bayern respond after missing out on promotion so narrowly in the summer of 1964? The team coached by Tschik Cajkovski provided a swift answer with a 10-0 victory over Darmstadt 98 on Matchday 1 in the 1964/65 Regional League campaign. Home-grown youngster Rudolf Nafziger was the only one of the new boys to play in that match and he made an impressive start with two goals on his first outing. Gerd Müller was sidelined with an injury (broken arm) and Cajkovski opted to leave Franz Beckenbauer out (there were no substitutes in football back then). “Played great football. Kept the ball moving. Lots of shots. Went well,” was the coach’s analysis after the successful opening fixture.

Two away defeats in succession (at Fürth and Kassel) brought the Reds back to earth with a bump. FCB returned to winning ways on Matchday 4 with a 3-0 victory against Bayern Hof. The Cajkovski side then went 19 games without defeat, clocking up twelve wins on the bounce from Matchdays 12 to 23. 9-2 (Wacker Munich), 9-1 (TSG Ulm), 7-0 (FC Emmendingen), 7-2 (Darmstadt 98) - the Reds were on an unstoppable march up the table and a 6-0 win at FC Schweinfurth on Matchday 17 (29 November 1964) saw them take top spot.

Beckenbauer and Müller were now amongst the first names on the team sheet. Beckenbauer made his debut on Matchday 6 in a 2-0 home win against Stuttgarter Kickers, Müller on Matchday 12 in an 11-2 away success at Freiburger FC with the future record goalscorer finding the back of the net. That was the first game where the Maier - Beckenbauer - Müller backbone of the team played together.

FCB had a comfortable five-point lead over nearest rivals SSV Reutlingen by the end of January. However, the Reds then stumbled. The next six matches produced just six out of a possible twelve points while Reutlingen raced from one win to the next. They even took over top spot on Matchday 31 - and FCB were away to Reutlingen a week later.

Rainer Ohlhauser, Peter Grosser and Gerd Müller ensured a convincing 3-0 win for Bayern to regain first place but that was followed by two draws. After Matchday 34 the two teams shared the lead on equal points with five matches to play (including one rearranged fixture) - and Bayern had the greater staying power. FCB picked up four wins in the final games and Reutlingen just one.

The men from Munich sealed the title on the last game of the season with a brilliant 6-1 victory against FC 1896 Pforzheim. By the end, the lead over Reutlingen was three points. FCB had an outstanding goal difference of 146 to 32 with the best defence and the best attack in the league. Rainer Ohlhauser was the leading scorer with 42 goals in 36 games, Müller netted an impressive 33 goals in 26 games, and Beckenbauer scored 16. However, in a repeat of the previous season, the final outcome of the campaign depended on the play-offs.

Part five of the promotion series on Friday: The play-offs.