the 1970s started just as badly as the previous decade ended. the club fell out of division 4 and held discussions with if warta about a merger. a discussion had been up several times earlier but had not gone as far as now, at the day of the voting the if warta members voted for a merging while the bk häcken members voted against it. in 1971 the club won division 5, the club then played in division 4 until 1975 when they won it and in 1977 they won division 3 with former swedish international agne simonsson as manager, when the club earlier won division 3 in 1951 they climbed directly up to division 2, however this time they had to play a qualifier against ik brage, motala aif and degerfors. the club won and took the step up to division 2. during 1978–79 the club played successfully in division 2 with a 3rd place as the best position. in 1978 bk häcken also started a ladies team.