The team played in the Ostkreisliga and took divisional titles there in 1912, 1913 and 1914 before moving on to participate in the Süddeutsche (South German) regional playoffs for the national championship round.

Fürth won their first national title, the 1914 German football championship, under English coach William Townley with left winger Julius Hirsch, who had joined the team the prior season.

A 154-minute-long thriller,[tone] the longest completed game in German football history (the 1922 Final was abandoned after 189 minutes due to darkness), ended with Fürth scoring a golden goal to secure the title.

The rivalry between the two clubs was such that a star[tone] player with SpVgg was forced to leave after he married a woman from the city of Nuremberg.

Fürth became part of the Gauliga Bayern, but their success over the next dozen[quantify] seasons was limited to a division title there in 1935, alongside regular appearances in competition for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor to today's DFB-Pokal (German Cup).

[citation needed] In 1954, two players from the SpVgg, Karl Mai and Herbert Erhardt, were members of the "Miracle of Bern" team that won Germany's first World Cup.

[citation needed] They slipped to playing in the tier III Bayernliga, with a short three-year spell in the fourth division Landesliga Bayern-Mitte in the late 1980s.

][vague] In 1990, Fürth celebrated a 3–1 victory in the opening round of the DFB-Pokal play over first division side Borussia Dortmund before going out 0–1 to 1.

[citation needed] But still, the club's financial issues became bigger,[vague] and they were forced to sell their ground to the local businessman Conny Brandstätter.

Meanwhile, the small village team of TSV Vestenbergsgreuth was established 1 February 1974 and debuted as a fourth division side.

[4] They advanced into the Amateur Oberliga Bayern (III) in 1987, just as SpVgg Fürth was descending to play in the division the more junior club had just escaped.

Their best performance came in the 1995 DFB-Pokal when they upset Bayern Munich 1–0, and then beat FC 08 Homburg 5–1, before being eliminated in the third round of the competition by VfL Wolfsburg on penalty kicks.

At this time, the Sportpark Ronhof, now called Playmobil Arena, faced the first major redevelopment since the post-war years and the construction of the old main stand in 1950.

transfer strategy, they have consistently finished in the top half of the 18-team table in the 2000s,[vague] despite having one of the lowest budgets most of the time.

However, Fürth had a difficult first season in the Bundesliga as the club amassed only four victories in the 34-game campaign, one of them at the ground of their rivals 1.

Under manager Stefan Leitl, the team secured promotion on the last matchday of the season with a 3–2 victory over Fortuna Düsseldorf.

[11] Fürth also fields a reserve side which has played in the Oberliga Bayern (IV) since the 2001–02 season and finished second there in 2006–07.

FC Nürnberg is by far Furth’s biggest rival, going back to the early days of German football when, at times, those two clubs dominated the national championship.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

[18] Kissinger was an honorary member of SpVgg, and for decades he kept himself informed about match results and held contact to the club.

[citation needed] During his time serving in the White House in the 1970s, he reportedly asked his staff to have the team's weekend result ready for him on Monday mornings.