A project like this is never really finished. So check for a update in another ten years. I might ad some more text to some pictures. Ore ad a photo of a missing year, if I find one, I might even replace the first years with a better scan quality. P.S. go to www.challengers.ch if you want to know more about the Challengers ore Swiss baseball.




Challengers History

It all started back in 1980. The Musical “Grease” hat the effect of a huge 50 ties revival all over Europe. Some People started to listen to Rock n’ Roll music again, wear 50 ties style close, and drive big American cars. In Europe they where called “Teddy’s” and they liked everything to do with America. Some even started to play Baseball. But that was not easy. In the hole of Switzerland you couldn’t find a single bat ore glove. So everything had to be bought in Italy, witch was the closest place to Switzerland, where baseball was played. So these couple of “Teddy’s” from Zurich started a team. Since one of them owned a Dodge Challengers convertible, in witch they often road around, they decided to call the team Challengers. They soon found enough players to be a 9 member squad. Later that year at a Rock n’ Roll dance on a ship on lake Zurich, they met a bunch of guy’s from Lucerne, who also claimed to have a baseball team. So a plans for a game where made, witch took place in December. The rumour goes that the game had to be called because of heavy snowfall, but the way I heard it they simply run out of balls. At about the same time, teams where formed in Basel, in the Italian part of Switzerland a team already existed in Ceresio. A Swiss baseball federation was founded and in 1982, and the first national championship was played. The Challengers won it in 1982 and also the next year. In 1984 the Ceresio team took for the playoff two semi pro’s under contract, who finished the season with their Italian teams. They used to play in the double ore triple A minor leagues. So the Challengers lost the 1984 finals to Ceresio, witch led to restrictions concerning foreigners on Swiss teams, and player licences.


The pictures of the first five years are of poor quality, they get better after 1986, incidently the year I joined the team


If you click on some of the pictures, you will find additional information below