History
The club was formed in 1886 in Handschuhsheim, a suburb of Heidelberg, one of the centres of German rugby.
For most of its existence, it has stood in the shadow of the other, more successful rugby clubs in town, the SC Neuenheim, Heidelberger RK and RG Heidelberg.
TSV had a breakthrough in 1953, when it reached the German championship final for the first time. It played in three more finals in the next four years, winning its sole championship in 1957. Three more final appearances followed in the 60's.
With the establishment of the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971, success dropped off for the team and after one more finals appearance in 1978 a long draught followed.
After a 27 year title-wait, TSV took out the German Cup in 2005 but lost the championship final that year. Both games were against DRC Hannover.
In 2008 it won the cup once more, surprisingly beating German champions RG Heidelberg 24-23 after extra time in front of 1,000 spectators, quite a reasonable crowd for German rugby.
In 2008-09, the club sat in fourth place at the winter break with good chances of making it into the expanded finals, where the top-four now qualified but narrowly missed those with a sixth place finish. Its reserve team played in the 2nd Bundesliga South/West this season. The club also reached the German Cup final once more, losing to champions SC 1880 Frankfurt.
The 2010-11 season saw the club finish third, behind the two professional outfits Heidelberger RK and SC 1880 Frankfurt, prompting it to be referred to as German amateur champions. It also saw the retirement of its most reliable try-scorer Alexander Pipa at the end of the season. TSV finished fifth in their group in the 2012-13 season and failed to qualify for the championship round, instead entering the second tier DRV-Pokal, where it came first in the south/west division. The club took out the German Cup with a 42-10 victory over Heidelberger TV. The club's reserve team took out the championship in the 3rd Liga South/West.
The clubs rugby department had a membership of 360 in 2007.
Read more about this topic: TSV Handschuhsheim
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