Bayern Munich has a long basketball tradition. Besides its most successful years in the 50s and 60s (German Championship in 1954, 1955 and German Cup in 1968), the club enjoyed remarkable popularity in 1956 when it even drew 40,000 fans to an open-air test game against Lancia Bozen, once a top basketball club from Italy. Later, in 1966, the club was a founding member of the Basketball Bundesliga.[1] In the following years the club slowly but surely faded into obscurity and in 1974 was even relegated to the 2nd Division. Since then, the club never completely recovered and only had a few successful years (Bayern moved up to the First Division in 1987 and stayed there until 1989).[1] Since 2008 the declared goal of the team is to return to the club’s former glory and return to the Basketball Bundesliga. In the near future the club seeks to become a major force in Europe so that Bayern Munich will not only be well known for its football (soccer) operations but its basketball operations as well.[2]
The club was founded in May 2004 in the wake of the insolvency of former top club Brandt Hagen. Brandt Hagen was forced to cease club operation in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) immediately in December 2003. Phoenix Hagen is not the legal successor of Brandt Hagen, but an independent new club founded to continue the basketball tradition in Hagen. Phoenix Hagen was playing in the PRO A division of the German second basketball league until the 2008-09 season. The club rented the license for operating in this league from BG DEK/Fichte Hagen. In the 2008-09 season of the Pro A Phoenix Hagen secured the second place. This position qualifided the team for promotion to BBL in the season 2009-10.
Starting with season 2008-09 a Phoenix Hagen women's team is playing in the second women's league DBBL. This team is run in collaboration with the sports club TSV Hagen 1860, from which all players originate.
Phoenix Hagen wants to promote young basketball talents to ensure high-performance sport for the long term. The young talents team Phoenix Hagen Juniors plays in the north-west division of the first league for Germany's up-and-coming players (NBBL). In the first season of existence of the NBBL (2007-08), the Phoenix juniors team became vice champions.
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