Bundesliga
On this day: Bundesliga TV history
The Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach players are familiar faces to armchair football fans around the world now, but on 11 December, 1984, the players of the era's most successful teams were only starting their journey to becoming household names as the DFL broadcast the first Bundesliga game live on national TV in Germany.
Mönchengladbach's home game with Bayern at their iconic Bökelbergstadion two weeks before Christmas was the maiden top-flight match broadcast nationally, giving many fans in Germany a live glimpse of their football heroes for the very first time and a taste of what had been - and remains - a classic Bundesliga match-up.
There were two living legends on the bench: Jupp Heynckes, who would go on to lead Bayern to an unprecedented trophy treble in 2012/13, was in his first senior coaching role with the hosts; in the opposite dug-out, Udo Lattek, who had preceded Heynckes as Gladbach coach and had won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 1976 and '77 with the Foals as well as guiding them to the 1978/79 UEFA Cup.
The cast on the pitch for the Matchday 12 encounter was just as impressive.
Germany's 1990 FIFA World Cup-winning captain, Lothar Matthäus, was in his first season at Bayern having left Gladbach the previous summer; the brother of current Bayern president Uli Hoeneß, Dieter, led the visitors' front line, while centre-back Klaus Augenthaler — another 1990 world champion — and legendary Belgian goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff were part of a formidable rearguard.
The hosts had Bernd Krauss, who would go on to coach Gladbach and Borussia Dortmund, and another future Foals boss, Michael Frontzeck, in their ranks as well as attacking midfielder and future German Footballer of the Year Uwe Rahn, and the prolific Frank Mill, who also helped take his country to the summit of football at Italia '90.
Mill, who averaged virtually a goal every other game over five seasons at Gladbach, opened the scoring with a powerful header on 21 minutes, sparking a glut of three goals in the next 12 minutes. Reinhold Mathy soon levelled for league leaders Bayern, but Ulrich Borowka's long-range stunner and a Frontzeck tap-in had Gladbach 3-1 up just after the half-hour mark and TV viewers glued to their sets.
After their toe-to-toe slugfest of the first 45 minutes, the two sides, who collectively had won 11 of the 13 league titles between 1968 and 1981, tired after the break, but Hoeneß' 87th-minute strike did make it a nervy finale before Gladbach could celebrate the two points awarded for a win at that time.
Heynckes would go on to steer his side to a more-than-creditable fourth place come the season's end, while the defeat for Bayern — one of only five they suffered all campaign — did not stop them claiming the title.