Gene Olaff

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Gene Olaff
Personnel
Surname Eugene A. Olaff
birthday September 23, 1920
place of birth Bayonne , New Jersey ,  USA
date of death 17th January 2017
Place of death Florence Township , New Jersey ,  USA
size 185 cm
position goalkeeper
Juniors
Years station
1933-1937 Bayonne High School
1933-1935 Bayonne Rangers
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1935-1936 Bayonne Rangers
1936-1937 New York Brookhattan B
1937-1939 Hatikvoh FC
1939-1941 Swedish FC
1941-1953 Brooklyn Hispano
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1949 United States 1 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Eugene "Gene" A. Olaff (born September 23, 1920 in Bayonne , New Jersey , † January 17, 2017 in Florence Township , New Jersey) was an American football player in the position of goalkeeper . He was mainly active between the 1930s and 1950s and completed a single international match for the US national soccer team in 1949 . Although he was considered the best goalkeeper in the United States of the 1940s, he only made one international match, as the United States was due to World War II have not played any international football matches for around a decade.

In 1971 Olaff was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame for his services to US soccer .

Career

Youth, start to football career and first jobs

Gene Olaff was born on September 23, 1920 as the son of the Scottish-born Irene MacGregor and the Swedish Victor Olaff in the city of Bayonne in the US state of New Jersey. His father, Victor Olaff, a seaman, once came to the United States by ship and was signed up by the US National Guard here in order to obtain US citizenship . Ironically, shortly after obtaining citizenship, he was shipped back to Europe, where he took part in the First World War with the National Guard and was stationed in France . In 1927, Gene Olaff's only sibling, sister Adele, was born. Both parents subsequently died at a young age; the mother in 1937 at the age of 39 and the father in 1941 at the age of 43. For this reason, Olaff, who was only in his early 20s at the time, had to raise his sister, who was around seven years younger, because the family in the United States no longer had any other relatives. He began his football career while his parents were still alive and was already active in club football at the age of twelve.

In the years 1933 to 1937 he was in the soccer team of the sports department of his local high school, Bayonne High School, and played in parallel from 1933 in the junior team of the local Bayonne Rangers club . Since he was already the greatest player on the team at that time, he was appointed goalkeeper and held that position throughout his football career. In 1935 he rose to the men's team and was active in it up to and including 1936. He then moved to New York City , where he was with the semi-professional New York Brookhattan team in the American Soccer League , but was only used in the reserve team, the so-called B team. After graduating from Bayonne High School, his first job was janitorial at a Bayonne t-shirt factory, where he made $ 7 a week. After only one month, he changed his job and became a travel agent at the Raven Screen Co. in New York City, where he was already receiving double pay. In later years he worked for General Motors in Linden , New Jersey, where he worked as a metalworker and earned a weekly wage of 45 US dollars.

Via Hatikvoh FC and Swedish FC to Brooklyn Hispano

Since he already in 1937 in Brooklyn was active as a football player, he moved subsequently within the boroughs to Hatikvoh FC with gaming operations in the National Soccer League of New York , shortly NSL or NSL of NY . With this he won the National League Cup in 1939 . However, he also lost his amateur status during this time, as he was one of the few players at the time who received money for playing football ($ 9 per game), and left the team in the same year for Swedish FC. He lost his amateur status, after those in charge of Hatikvoh FC announced to the national association that he had received remuneration for his services, whereupon he was declared a professional player by the then secretary of the association, the later Hall of Famer Joseph Barriskill . This happened to many players at that time, including Jack Hynes , which meant that these players no longer had a chance to participate in the Summer Olympics . In this process, often described as " dictatorially implemented", the players had no opportunity to lodge a complaint or ask for a hearing. For the team, which also had their game operations in Brooklyn, the 1.85 m tall Olaff was active until 1941 and won the second National League Cup of his career with the team in 1940 . In 1941 he joined the Brooklyn Hispano team, also from the same borough . The team had their game operations in the American Soccer League and was among other things a league competitor of New York Brookhattan. In the same year he married his girlfriend at the time, Doris Stanley (1922-2003), at which time he was 21 and his wife was 18 years old.

After he was a member of the team from 1941 to 1944, he was able to win the US Football Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup , twice in a row in 1943 and 1944 . He prevailed with his team in 1943 in a replay against Morgan Strasser from Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, and was successful against Morgan Strasser the following year. Even at this point in time, only a limited number of teams took part in the competition, as a large number of the players were in action during World War II . Before this final encounter, the players announced a strike and only started after they had been promised a reward of 30 US dollars per player for this game; the highest amount ever paid out to date. In the same year, the team succeeded in the double , which also emerged as the winner of the American Soccer League. After the cup success, it was time for Olaff and he was drafted by the US Navy for military service. Before that, he was a member of the Navy and, during the war that was already underway, was stationed as a First Class Diver mainly on the east coast of the United States , where he attended various Navy training centers and continued to work for Brooklyn Hispano. When he was stationed in Bari , Italy at the end of 1944 and throughout 1945 , he took part in various rescue operations in the Adriatic . It was not until 1946 that he returned from the war and rejoined his previous club, Brooklyn Hispano. There he was supported by his coach Duncan Othen , who treated him like a son and who also played a father role for him, and after he wanted to end his career after a 6-0 defeat, motivated to continue. He also got on a government program that paid him $ 20 a week for the next 52 weeks until he was supposed to find a new job. However, this did not last long in Olaff's case, as he already joined the New Jersey State Police founded by H. Norman Schwarzkopf senior in March 1946 . At that time, it was still heavily influenced by the military and was not yet a real executive body as it is today.

Police career and employment in a security company

With the state police he had to live in barracks with the other state troopers and had four day and nine night shifts a month, with a monthly salary of 150 US dollars. His career with the New Jersey State Police continued until 1975, where he climbed the career ladder and held various ranks over the course of almost three decades. He also held leading positions, including trainer at the academy, planning officer, deputy superintendent and chief of staff under David B. Kelly, who died in 1997 . During the turbulent 1960s, he served in various command positions, including the 1967 Newark Riots and the fight against organized crime, which led to the arrest of numerous well-known bullies . One of his outstanding achievements in the police force was the establishment of the nation's first state police underwater unit, the NJSP Diving Recovery Unit , in 1958. In 1966, at that time with the rank of captain , he was responsible for planning and entrusted the security of the historic meeting between US President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet President Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin at the Glassboro Conference . He was promoted to colonel in 1975 and was appointed superintendent of the New Jersey State Police that same year. Since he was 55 years old that year and thus reached the maximum age for his compulsory retirement, he only held this position for one year before he left the police force. He then served as president of the private security company Jafee Security Agency for three years . Shortly thereafter, he joined the security company DB Kelly Associates , founded by his former supervisor David B. Kelly, whom he had replaced as superintendent . After having only 15 employees in 1978, the company grew to 2,500 employees by 1996, when it was sold. Olaff himself acted as president of the company for 17 years, until 1995, before he finally retired at the age of 75.

Further football career in addition to the police career

Parallel to his career in the police force, he continued to belong to the professional soccer team Brooklyn Hispano in the years that followed. With this he won, among other things, the Lewis Cup in 1946 , the trophy for the winner of the League Cup of the American Soccer League. Olaff's career in the police force also had a clear impact on his international football career, never being able to play games outside of the northeastern United States . That's why he often had special shifts to take part in the Hispano games. Because of this, Brooklyn Hispano had to increase its number of goalkeepers as it was never certain that Olaff would get free for a game. As the best goalkeeper of the late 1940s, as he was considered, he completed games for the All-Star selection of the American Soccer League against FC Liverpool (1946), Djurgårdens IF (1948), as well as Scotland and Inter Milan (both 1949). He also belonged to the New York All-Star selection in the games against CF Atlante (1942), Hapoel Tel Aviv (1947), Liverpool FC (2 games; 1946), Belfast Celtic (1949) and Manchester United ( 1950).

In 1948 he was part of the US squad in the international match against the national team of Israel . The game is still rated in different ways by the participating associations; while the Israel Football Association regards it as an official friendly game against the United States, the US Association regards the game as an unofficial international match in a US Olympic selection. Gene Olaff himself was only present as a substitute goalkeeper and had to give way to Archie Strimel , who was over two years older than him. He made his actual international debut in the following international match, around nine months later, when he was used in the 4-0 home defeat against Scotland . The game, which, like the previous one, was also played in New York City, also shows slight controversy. While the US Association rates the game as the official international match of the United States this time, the game does not appear in the official internationals of the Scottish national football team.

Shortly after the game against Scotland he was asked by the US national coach Ernö Schwarz , who was replaced shortly afterwards by William "Bill" Jeffrey , for the United States to participate in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil , although he did his police service for should lay down at least the duration of the World Cup. His commanding officer in the New Jersey State Police then gave him a choice - either football or his career as a police officer. However, since he had no prospect of vacation leave and did not want to jeopardize his career with the police, he decided against Schwarz's offer. At the same time, Olaff was also seen as the successor to the legendary goalkeeper and later Hall of Famer Stanley "Stan" Chesney , who was Olaff's idol from his youth. He often mimicked Chesney during his career and, like Chesney, wore a baseball cap and baseball pants to play . Since team training, as it is common today, was completely unusual at the time, Olaff trained for himself, where he and friends at a local soda factory in Bayonne imitated a football goal with soda boxes, stood in this "goal" and his friends let himself be shot.

Retirement and death

After he had initiated a youth recreational program in Florence Township , New Jersey, shortly after the end of his active playing career in 1954 and was one of the co-founders, he served for 20 years as President of the associated Florence Township Recreational Youth Committee . After his career as a soccer player, he continued his activities in recreational and high school soccer. With his wife Doris, who died in 2003 at the age of 80, Gene Olaff had two sons, Gene (* 1948) and Gary (1950–2007). They, in turn, passed on their love for football to their children, and two of his grandchildren are now also present as young football coaches. Gene Olaff, who attended Northwestern University in Evanston and Chicago , and Temple University in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , among others, continued to serve on the Board of The New Jersey State Police Museum Association after official retirement and was a master in Mount Moriah Lodge # 28 of Bordentown , New Jersey, and a lifetime member of the American Legion Post # 194.

In 1971 he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame for his achievements in the "Player" category . He was also a strong and active supporter of the city of Oneonta , New York State, in founding the National Soccer Hall of Fame and in obtaining the necessary funding from the US Football Association. In later years he was also a founding member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame Veterans Committee . In his hometown of Florence Township, he was a member of the Florence United Methodist Church and served, among other things, as a Sunday School teacher and chairman of the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee . He also founded and organized the Boys and Girls Club , where he primarily taught boxing to boys . He was also a founding member and president of the 200 Club of Burlington County , which supports police officers, firefighters and ambulance personnel, among others. After joining Burlington County Country Club in 1975 , he played a number of golfers throughout the 1980s and also served as club president during the clubhouse expansion and course redesign in the early 1990s.

Gene Olaff died on January 17, 2017 at the age of 96 in Florence Township, where he had lived since 1950. In addition to his wife Doris, who died in 2003, he also survived his son Gary, who died in 2007. He himself was survived by his first-born son Gene, five grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren and buried in the family grave at the Odd Fellows Cemetery and Mausoleum in Burlington , New Jersey.

Play style

His success in goal is largely attributed to his ability to anticipate the game and calculate the angles he had to cover in goal. His “wingspan”, which is described as “enormous”, is said to have contributed significantly to this success, and it was precisely this combination that made it difficult to conquer. He was also known for his dominance on high balls, although he was generally considered to be hard to beat in the airspace of the penalty area. His height of 1.85 m was a great help at the time and allowed him to fend off bumps with his shoulder from his opponents. These bumps were legal as long as the players attacked each other shoulder to shoulder and the goalkeeper had both feet on the ground. During this time, the balls and the goalkeepers were often "jostled" into the goal, which is said to never have happened to the steadfast Gene Olaff with a weight of 180 pounds (around 82 kg). Furthermore, Olaff was also known for the length of his committees, with which he usually reached midfield and also got beyond, which was not so easy for the time, as the ball was many times heavier than today's brands even when dry .

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ USA - Israel (3: 1) on the official website of the Israel Football Association ( memento of the original from February 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed February 7, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eng.football.org.il
  2. ↑ a b Israel Official Games 1948–1959 at rsssf.com (English), accessed February 7, 2017
  3. ↑ Scotland's international match statistics on the official Scottish FA website , accessed on February 7, 2017
  4. ↑ Doris Olaff at findagrave.com (English), accessed on February 7, 2017
  5. ^ Gary Olaff at findagrave.com , accessed February 7, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Olaff, Gene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Olaff, Eugene A. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American football goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayonne , New Jersey , United States
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 2017
Place of death Florence Township , New Jersey , United States