FCK Rolling Devils


The FCK Rolling Devils are a wheelchair basketball club located in Kaiserslautern with German soccer club 1. FC Kaiserslautern acting as name sponsor. Their first team played in the Rollstuhlbasketball-Bundesliga from 2014 to 2016 and now plays in the third-class regional league.

History

The wheelchair basketball team of 1. FC Kaiserslautern was founded in September 2009 as a part of the club's basketball department. The Rolling Devils entered league play of the German Wheelchair Sports Federation in the season 2010/11 on the level of the third-class Regional League. The team won the Regional Cup and advanced to the quarter finals of the German National Cup. The Devils finished the season with the championship and promotion to the 2nd German Wheelchair Basketball Federal League.
In the next two seasons the Devils dropped from German Wheelchair Sports Cup in the group stage, but finished as runners-up in the 2nd Federal League. In 2013 the team participated for the German Wheelchair Sports Federation in International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Euroleague 3 and finished in third place.
In March 2013, FCK Rolling Devils re-established as a separate wheelchair basketball department. In the season 2013/14 the Rolling Devils again advanced to the quarter finals of the German National Cup and in the third attempt won the championship in the 2nd German Federal League thereby gaining promotion to the 1st German Federal League. In the season 2014/15, the Devils made it again to the quarter finals of the German National Cup and finished their first season in the 1st German Federal League on rank 7 and thereby as the best promoted team of the last four seasons.
In July 2015, the spin-off of FCK Rolling Devils as independent club with 1.FC Kaiserslautern acting as name sponsor took place. The wheelchair basketball department at 1.FC Kaiserslautern was suspended at the annual general meeting of the club in December 2015. In the season 2015/16, the Devils again made it to the quarter finals of the German National Cup and finished the season on rank 7.
In August 2016, the club withdrew its first team from the 1st German Federal League for financial and sports reasons and continued league play with their second team in the third-class regional league. In the next two seasons, the Rolling Devils finished on rank 3. In the season 2018/19, the Devils won the championship and right for promotion to the 2nd German Wheelchair Basketball Federal League, but decided to stay in the regional league for financial reasons. The season 2019/20 ended ahead of schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Rolling Devils finished with several games less played than the other teams on rank 4. The COVID-19 pandemic also caused such a massive decrease of sponsorship money, that the Devils could not take part with a team on the season 2020/21.

Honors

National

Roster 2020/21

Leaves 2020

Season by season

, *: FCK Rolling Devils 2, **: season end ahead of schedule, ***: no participation on season

Management

Team managers

Head coaches

Notable players and coaches

Notable players

Current players

Former players

Naming

The naming in wheel chair basketball at 1.FC Kaiserslautern is influenced by the club's image from soccer: The team name Rolling Devils traces back to the nickname Red Devils of 1.FC Kaiserslautern's soccer team, the wheel chair basketball team like the club's professional soccer team also has a devil at mascot, and like the Fritz-Walter-Stadion in soccer, the home playing site of FCK Rolling Devils is commonly known as hell .

Fans

From 2012 to 2016, FCK Rolling Devils welcomed on average more than 250 spectators at their home games and were thereby one of the most visited wheel chair basketball teams in Germany. Devils fan culture has strong ties to 1.FC Kaiserslautern's club culture in soccer: the unofficial fan club Rolling Devils Supporters overlaps with soccer fan clubs and the fan culture features many elements from soccer fandom.

Media

FCK Rolling Devils host a homepage, one of the most popular Facebook sites in German wheel chair basketball and from 2014 to 2016 also their own YouTube channel.

Awards

For their social commitment, FCK Rolling Devils in 2011 received the Stern des Sports in bronze from the German Olympic Sports Confederation and in 2013 the Brückenpreis of the federal state Rhineland-Palatinate.