The footballers are today part of a larger sports club which has departments for athletics, badminton, handball, judo, swimming, table tennis, and volleyball.

SpVgg Union 08 Herford was the most successful of the club's predecessor sides having taken part in the early rounds of national championship play in 1930–31.

The team also found its way to the first tier Gauliga Westfalen in 1944, but only played a pair of matches that year as the division collapsed as World War II drew to a close and Allied armies advanced into Germany.

The combined side earned a second-place finish in 1971 before plunging to the bottom of the table the next season and was headed to relegation.

The club's turn in second-tier football left them with a considerable debt, and they began a slow, but steady slide that saw a descent to the Verbandsliga Westfalen Nordost (V) by the mid-1990s.