BSC Saturn 77 Köln, commonly known as Saturn Köln or Saturn Cologne, was a professional basketball club based in the fourth-largest city of Germany,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. Established in 1977, Saturn won its first

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

title in 1981, crowning themselves German champions. Saturn went on to win four titles in the 80s, as well as three

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

titles. In 1993, the club was dissolved.

History

The club originated in 1977 from the divested basketball department of

ASV Köln Athletik-Sport-Verein Köln e.V. is a multi-sports club from Cologne, Germany. It has sections for rugby union, athletics, triathlon and karate General history The club was formed on 27 February 1929, under the name of Akademischen Sportverein Kö ...

. Legally, the spin-off took place, however, only in 1978. The basketball department of ASV Köln played already from 1969–70 to 1971–72, in the season 1973–74 and 1975 to spin-off in the National Basketball League. Saturn have won four German Championships and three national Cup all the titles in the glory days of 80s. The main sponsor was since June 1977 Fritz Waffenschmidt, then owner of the Saturn stores. The sale of the Saturn stores on the Kaufhof department store group in March 1984 it was the end of the funding for the club to the top basketball ended abruptly in Cologne. Attempts to financial cooperation with Galatasaray Istanbul failed miserably. The Club 1989 renamed due to the cooperation in Galatasaray Cologne, introduced in 1990 for bankruptcy and had to stop the game mode. In 1993, the club was formally dissolved. Highlights in the history of Saturn Köln for the European competitions came to late 80s in FIBA European Champions Cup where they arrived until quarter final group stage in 1987–88 season and face the best European basketball clubs of the era as

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...

Tracer Milano Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

Orthez Orthez (; eu, Ortheze; oc, Ortès, ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, and region of New Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies 40 km NW of Pau on the Southern railway to Bayonne. The town also encompasses the sma ...

and

Nashua Den Bosch Heroes Den Bosch is a Dutch professional basketball club based in 's-Hertogenbosch. The club plays in the BNXT League since 2021 and in the top basketball division in the Netherlands since 1972. Founded as EBBC in 1951, the club had several sponso ...

. The next season Saturn eliminated in the round of 16 by the Dutch Nashua Den Bosch. Also Saturn after a significant qualification against

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

arrived until quarter final group stage in

1983–84 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup The 1983–84 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup was the eighteenth edition of FIBA's 2nd-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, contested between national domestic cup champions, running from 27 September 1983, to 14 March ...

where they made excellent performances and eliminated with a 3 wins-3 defeats record by Simac Milano and

Cibona Košarkaški klub Cibona, commonly referred to as Cibona Zagreb or simply Cibona, is a men's professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association, and competes ...

Titles and achievements

German League * Winners (4): 1980–81, 1981–82, 1986–87, 1987–88

* Winners (3): 1979–80, 1980–81, 1982–83

Notable players

Germany: * Stephan Baeck *

Holger Geschwindner Geschwindner taking a jump shot for the West German national team during the 1972 Summer Olympics Holger Geschwindner (born September 12, 1945 in Bad Nauheim, Hessen) is a German former professional basketball player. He is known as the long- ...

Hansi Gnad Hans-Jürgen "Hansi" Gnad (born 4 June 1963) is a retired German professional basketball player and coach. He represented the senior German national basketball team, and played in the German League team Bayer Giants Leverkusen (1995–1997, 199 ...

Michael Jackel Michael Jackel (born October 19, 1959 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian–German retired professional basketball player. A 6’7' tall small forward, he won the EuroBasket 1993 with the senior German men's national team, and he was th ...

Michael Pappert Michael Pappert (born 15 August 1957) is a former West German basketball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angel ...

Klaus Zander Klaus Zander (born 6 September 1956) is a former West German basketball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angele ...

Europe: * Dragan Kapičić USA: *

Johnny Neumann Carl John Neumann (September 11, 1950 – April 23, 2019), nicknamed "Johnny Reb", was an American professional basketball player and coach. At 6'6" and 200 pounds, he played at the shooting guard and small forward positions. High school and col ...

Head coaches

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 20 ...

: (1983–86) *

Tony DiLeo Tony DiLeo (born August 8, 1955) is a former American basketball executive and former coach. He served as the 21st head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, taking over the position mid-season on December 13, 2008 after then-head coach M ...

: (1986–1988) {{DEFAULTSORT:BSC Saturn Koln BSC Saturn Köln 1977 establishments in West Germany Basketball in North Rhine-Westphalia Basketball teams established in 1977 Basketball teams in Germany