Leonhard Nunberger stormed for Bayern in the late 1950s and with his goals played a key role in the Reds' first DFB Cup victory.
Dorfen - The boy from Unterhausmehring is briefly a problem.
Of course he likes to be an acolyte, but he prefers a footballer.
When a mass now overlaps with the game of the young generation from Dorfen, Leonhard Nunberger is represented by a specialist in the church service.
Of course, nobody at home is allowed to know.
Too bad that he scored a goal for TSV - which is promptly in the newspaper.
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Later, Leonhard Nunberger will be in the newspaper very often: as a footballer for FC Bayern Munich.
In the 1950s he will play with the Reds in the Oberliga Süd, the top football class at the time.
Hans Bauer, Karl Mai and Max Morlock - all of them world champion heroes from 1954, will be his teammates or opponents.
And he will celebrate the first DFB Cup triumph in club history with Bayern.
But let's start over.
Born on December 7, 1930, Nunberger grew up in Unterhausmehring - right next to the tennis courts in Dorfen.
The white sport will become another passion of the young man.
Hardy, as he is called at home, completed an apprenticeship with master electrician Lang in Rosenaustraße after the war.
Here he also worked as a journeyman before moving to Munich because he earned more at the larger Loy company and was aiming for the master's school.
Three weeks of football in Turkey
In 1952 he joined the ESV Munich in the state capital.
There he matures into a dreaded center forward who also causes a sensation on various football tours.
"Later he didn't get around the world as far as he did with the railroad workers, even with the Bavarians," says Ilse Nunberger, his future wife.
Switzerland, Italy, Spain - all journeys the railway workers make by train, of course.
"In Turkey alone, where they also play against a team from Fenerbahçe Istanbul, they were on the road for three weeks," says Ilse Nunberger.
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As much as Leonhard Nunberger loves these games abroad, he doesn't want to leave Munich.
There would have been enough offers from higher-class clubs.
In the meantime, however, he has completed his master craftsman's examination and has a good position as a master inspector with the Munich public utility company.
Then FC Bayern came and brought the now 25-year-old into their amateur team.
It is May 1956 and the Reds only have 1,600 members.
The amateurs - the second FCB line-up - have just been promoted to the Bayern League and are benefiting from the newcomer, who scores 20 goals in 32 games and is therefore also allowed to play in the Oberliga team.
Player bonus must be approved by the OB
“Where did FC Bayern hide the Nunberger for so long?” The fans wonder when the former Dorfener shoots the Reds in the lead as an amateur for the first time in the relegation duel at BC Augsburg.
BCA national player Uli Biesinger manages to equalize, but the former boy from Unterhausmehring feels ready for further tasks.
"I imagined it would be more difficult," says Nunberger in an interview.
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In the next home game against Eintracht Frankfurt, he scored 2-0 and 3-0 in a 4-1 win.
Together with super technician Erich Witsche Hahn and the Yugoslav Bosco Sencar, he harmonizes brilliantly in the Bayernsturm and secures early relegation.
This is followed by a 3-2 in the relegation-threatened Stuttgarter Kickers.
"After a dramatic fight", so it later said in the Stuttgart press, Nunberger strikes in the 86th minute and scores the winning goal.
In the 4-0 win over Schwaben Augsburg, there is also a certain Sepp Berg in the Bayern team, who later became the football legend of Himolla Taufkirchen.
Nunberger shoots the 2-0 and prepares Bergs 3-0 with a precise cross.
For the new season, Nunberger receives a contract as a major league player with monthly compensation of 320 marks for the first time.
As a civil servant, he has to get permission from Mayor Thomas “Damerl” Wimmer for this additional wage.
Two goals in the South German Cup final
After FC Bayern was the most successful team in the South German Oberliga in the last eight weeks of the 56/57 season, the next highlight is waiting: the South German Cup final against Schweinfurt.
Bayern wins 4-1.
Sturmtank Nunberger struck again twice, laying the foundation for Bayern to play in the DFB Cup finals.
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Nunberger uses the short summer break to ride a Vespa over the mountains with his girlfriend and later wife Ilse.
Back again in the totocup follows a 7-0 victory over TSG Ulm 46. His storm colleagues are Jobst, Velhorn and Lettl.
In the cup game against Spandauer SV, however, he is not there.
Bayern have now signed Kurt Sommerlatt and Gerd Siedl, as well as the Hungarian national goalkeeper Arpad Fazekas, who, like Berg, will later play in Taufkirchen.
Although the public utility company accommodates him as an employer, it will be difficult for Nunberger to always meet the increased expectations of Bavaria.
The semi-professionals have it much easier with their pseudo jobs.
But he still comes to his missions in the league association round 1957/1958.
For example in the 3-2 win against Reutlingen.
But then the flu forces him to take a break.
In the 2-1 win over VfB Stuttgart, he is back in the game.
It seems like he has finally gained a foothold.
In the 4-0 win against Fürth, he contributed a goal and an assist.
He also plays against Eintracht Frankfurt and Schweinfurt.
He's missing in the cup final
But on December 29, 1957, it was not on the snow-covered square of the Rosenaustadion in Augsburg.
It is Bavaria's first ever DFB Cup final.
“Even if he never talked about it, it obviously worried him,” his wife says today.
"He helped the team get into the final at all." But coach Willibald Hahn decides in this game for the playing center forward Rudl Jobst and not for the striker Nunberger.
Incidentally, Jobst also scores the golden goal in a 1-0 win over the favored Fortuna from Düsseldorf.
Ilse Nunberger is also in the stadium.
She went to Augsburg with her father.
She can't remember a big victory celebration.
"After the game there was nothing." Her husband later fondly remembered the reception at the town hall by Mayor Wimmer.
Incidentally, there was no monetary bonus, but FCB is giving each player a golden signet ring.
Incidentally, Nunberger's piece is on display in the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt in the Allianz Arena.
His nephew Franz Mertl, who looks after the football legacy of his company sponsor, made this ring available to Bayern.
“He is in good hands there,” says the 52-year-old.
He himself had a duplicate made, “and the medal that my uncle received from the city of Munich for winning the cup is on my Charivari”.
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In the DFB Cup final in 1957, he was not in the starting line-up, but he first shot FCB with his goals.
Of course he (2nd from right) was also present at the celebrations in the town hall with Mayor Thomas Wimmer.
© Private
Back to the league scoring round.
Sometimes Nunberger is in the team, then again not - much to the displeasure of the Munich press, by the way, which calls for the thoroughbred center forward to be built into the team in the long term.
The result of the season: Bayern are seventh in the table.
Of the 49 games (including cup, friendship and Alpine Cup games) Nunberger plays 23, scoring five goals.
His contract will be extended, but he will only be used again on matchday six: of all things, in the 1: 2 defeat against the Lions.
He travels to the island with Bayern for friendly matches (0-3 against Hibernians, 2-3 against Leeds United).
His next league appearance is only on matchday 13.
Again the opponent is called VfB Stuttgart.
In the 4: 3 win, he takes out a penalty.
This is followed by further missions in Nuremberg and against Reutlingen, where he shoots the 2-1.
It looks like he should be back in business after suffering intermittent injuries after playing six straight league games.
But then he is out again and is only used in two league games.
A few more friendlies, but then his move to the second division club year Regensburg is certain.
Georg Bayerer, ex-Leo and now Jahn's trainer, kept pushing him to do it, says Ilse Nunberger.
Promotion hero in Regensburg
At the time of the change of club, the two are already married.
His Ilse, whom he once met at the Oktoberfest, always has his back.
“Football was just his life,” she says.
For this he also took on the constant commuting between Munich and Regensburg.
It was of course not financially viable, says Ilse Nunberger, because he did not earn his money from football, but from the municipal utilities.
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But he helped the Regensburgers to one of the greatest successes in Jahn's history: promotion to the top division.
"It was ultimately up to Nunberger to finish off the season with a 1-0 win against Freiburg FC on May 22, 1960," writes Prof. Dr.
Wolfgang Otto 60 years later on the Jahn homepage.
A few months later, the career ends.
His wife Ilse has to watch as he sustains a serious knee injury.
“It probably wouldn't be a problem these days,” she says.
At that time, however, a lot went wrong.
It was not until 25 years later that it was noticed that the meniscus was in tatters and that the cartilage was damaged.
"We were told that the meniscus had been removed," says Ilse Nunberger, annoyed.
The children love him
In 1965, the now 34-year-old reported back to Bayern.
He plays in the old league with legends like Jakob Streitle.
The team gets around a long way.
After a tour in the USA, Nunberger says: “The best thing was the flight back to Munich.” His wife also knows why: “He was an electrician through and through.” In New York he was appalled at how the cables were laid there: “ They have a lot to do with it. "
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The team photo shows Nunberger with the FCB Old League in Budapest's Nep Stadium.
© Private
Nunberger doesn't let anything come of his Munich, but he also likes to return to his village.
“We were always really happy when Uncle Hardy visited us,” says niece Gabi Jell.
"He always played with us children."
And nephew Franz Mertl adds: “He was also a child's head in an absolutely positive sense.
He always did gymnastics with us and was always better at it than us. ”And he talks about a summer festival where a goal wall was set up.
“My uncle was the only adult and played against all the children.
But regardless of the situation, he always hit one of the two holes.
This precision was incredible. ”Gabi Jell added that he wasn't just a good footballer.
Tennis, table tennis, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing, cycling - Leonhard Nunberger is versatile, and he is also an athlete in other ways.
“He was a health apostle and lived totally healthy.
No alcohol, no fatty meat, nor did he smoke, ”remembers the niece.
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Nunberger was also happy to visit the relatives in Dorfen with his wife Ilse (right).
© Private
All the more stunned is what happened on June 2, 1991.
He wants to play doubles on the Hypo tennis court in the north of Munich.
Together with his partner he waits for the opponent and suffers a heart attack.
All help comes too late.
He only retired six months earlier.
“He still had so many plans, bought a new car,” says the widow.
But at the age of 60, Leonhard Nunberger, the center forward of the early FCB, dies.
Dieter Priglmeir and Georg Brennauer
The funny company sponsor
Franz Mertl fondly thinks back to the annual birthday parties: “We watched Dick & Doof films on Super 8. Most of the time I didn't know whether I had to laugh like that because of the comedians or because of my uncle.
Especially because he then kept running the films backwards.
I could throw myself away today. "
(Pir)
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