American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
team from
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
(German: ''Nürnberg'')
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
The original Nürnberg Rams club was formed in 1981 and renamed to Noris Rams in 1987. It played in the American football in the Bundesliga League, now the
German Football League
The German Football League (GFL) is a professional American football league in Germany. The league was formed in 1979. In 1999, the league changed to its current name from American-Football-Bundesliga.
, from 1983 to 1998, reaching the play-off semifinals as its greatest success in 1987. The club became defunct in 1998 but was reformed in 2007.
History
The origins of the Nürnberg Rams go back to early 1981 when two players of the Ansbach Grizzlies began forming an American football team in Nuremberg. In September 1981 this team joined local sports club TSV 1846 Nürnberg and, in 1982 the Rams joined the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of American football in Germany. The Rams won this league in its first season and earned promotion to the Bundesliga. The club spent the next sixteen seasons at this level, reaching the play-offs in all but two of those years.Noris Rams season by season results football-history.de, accessed: 11 September 2014 Nürnberg Rams website, accessed: 11 September 2014
The Rams qualified for the play-offs in their inaugural 1983 Bundesliga season but were knocked out in the quarterfinals, a fate the club would suffer in twelve of its fourteen play-off appearances. The second season saw the club struggle and nominally being relegated from the Bundesliga but eventually saved by the demise of the
Frankfurter Löwen
The Frankfurter Löwen () were an American football team from Frankfurt, Germany.
The ''Löwen'' were the first American football club to be formed in Germany.ASN Pfeil Nürnberg instead, which forced a rename to Noris Rams for the following season as TSV retained the naming rights. The 1987 seasons saw the club's greatest success, reaching the semifinals of the play-off for the first and only time where it was knocked out by the
Berlin Adler
The Berlin Adler () is an American football club based in Berlin, Germany. The club is one of the most successful clubs in the sport in Germany, having won six German Bowls as well as ten ''Ladies Bowls'' and five ''Junior Bowls''.
International ...
.
The following season the Rams were knocked out in the first round of the play-offs, the only year they did not advance to the quarterfinals. From 1989 to 1997 the Rams reached the quarterfinals each year and won the southern division title in 1989, 1991 and 1996 without ever reaching or even winning a
German Bowl
The German Bowl is the annual national championship game in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the German Football League.
The New Yorker Lions, from Braunschweig, are the record winners of the G ...
. The club's demise came after the 1998 season when the Rams did not win a game all season, were relegated and folded.
After a hiatus of nine years a new Nürnberg Rams club was formed in 2007 and entered the lowest level of competition, the Aufbauliga, in 2008. The new club won promotion in every season from 2008 to 2011 and quickly climbed the league pyramid from the sixth to the second tier. Since 2012 the club plays in the
German Football League 2
The German Football League 2 (GFL2) is the second tier of American football in Germany, below the German Football League. Until 2007, the league was known as the ''2. Bundesliga''.
League structure
The ''GFL2'', formerly the ''2. Bundesliga'', wh ...