Juventus Oeconomicus
That was the name of a soccer team founded on 23 April 1974, by University of Mannheim business administration and commerce students. What’s remarkable about it is that although the team played its final match in 1979, the players are still friends today and get together on a regular basis. Wolfgang Ressel is one of them, sharing fond memories of how the team got started.
Credit: Juventus Archiv
“It all began in the spring of 1974,” he says. “Two of the founding members were sitting together in a Neckarstadt restaurant talking about how university life was very anonymous and how it was hard to meet new people. That’s when they came up with the idea of starting a soccer team. In a lecture a few days later they approached two fellow students who also had a couple of friends to come along – and soon enough, a full-fledged team of eleven players was on the pitch for the first game on April 30.” They quickly found a suitable name for the squad: Juventus Oeconomicus – Young Economists – which, Ressel admits, is not exactly correct Latin, but they generously ignored that bit.
The team was active from 1974 to 1979 and consisted of almost the same set of players until their graduation. Only occasionally did new players join or leave the team. In total, Juventus Oeconomicus played 72 matches and competed in the university championships against teams such as “Rote Lokomotive” and “Hab Mitleid” at the Schnickenloch sports field in Mannheim’s Lindenhof district.
After the games, the players would head towards the “Zentrale” restaurant in Mannheim. For Ressel, looking back, this was one of the best parts of it all: “We would sit down and go through the game again. The discussions could get quite heated when the beer flowed. But eventually things would calm down, and we would talk about this or that seminar,” the 72-year-old recalls with a laugh.
Credit: Alexander Münch
Christmas parties and holidays
The team spirit was very strong, he says. Even the fact that the players went in different directions professionally and geographically after graduation did not affect their strong relationship. “The first time we met again after graduation was in 1981. We wanted to keep that up, so we arranged to meet every two years for Christmas parties.” They also reconnected at summer events, which took place in Marburg, on the North Sea coast, in Brussels, Würzburg or Berlin, for example, and traveled together to South America and China.
In April 2024, Juventus Oeconomicus celebrated a special milestone: the team’s 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, former players gathered at the University of Mannheim and reminisced together. But it wasn’t all about the past but also about the future: Among other things, they resolved to meet annually from now on, says Ressel. “Calendars are already marked for the next ten years!”
Text: Tamara Gminsky / August 2024