Peter Strasser (football official)

Peter Strasser (born October 15, 1906 in Germany , † September 13, 1987 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) was a German-American jeweler and football official .

life and career

Peter Strasser was born in Germany on October 15, 1906 , and when he was 19, he immigrated to the United States, where he settled in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ran a jewelry store in Bridgeville . In addition to his work as a jeweler, he was also active as a magician , performing mainly in front of children in the South Hills , the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh. He was also a member of the Pittsburgh Magicians Club Lodge 52 . In the later 1930s or early 1940s, he bought the rights to local Morgan FC soccer team from Morgan , Pennsylvania, and renamed the team Morgan Strasser . The team was then considered to be one of the most successful football teams in the region, especially in the 1940s but also in the first half of the 1950s. The greatest successes during this period include three finals at the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup , of which the team also won a final in 1949, and four times participation in the final of the National Amateur Cup , two of which were won. Peter Strasser was a great patron of sport in Pennsylvania throughout his life. Strasser's next coup was the takeover of the professional football team Pittsburgh Stasser , which he led from then on as president.

After several American soccer teams from the Midwest established a professional and regional soccer league outside of the East Coast, the team took part in this North American Soccer Football League , or NASFL for short . In the first season , which was limited to only eight championship games per team, Pittsburgh Stasser ranked only fourth and penultimate place in the table before the Chicago Vikings . After the team was renamed Pittsburgh Indians for the game year 1947 , the success of the team led by Strasser also came. After the league was expanded by one team and the number of championship games per team increased to ten, the Indians ranked first in the table at the end of the season with five wins, one draw and four defeats and were the league champions this last season. Since the league broke up while the game was running, the team was only de facto champions. The most significant Pittsburgh players at the time included Paul Danilo , a later Hall-of-Famer , and Nicholas DiOrio , who was also elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. In total, Strasser's soccer teams won six Pennsylvania state soccer championships, two National Amateur Cups and a Lamar Hunt US Open Cup . After the dissolution of the NASFL , the team returned to the local league as Morgan Strasser , where they celebrated various championship titles in later years.

In addition, the Bridgeville resident was president of NASFL and has received several awards over the course of his life. For example in 1960 with an American Legion Distinguished Service Award from the American Legion or the Man of the Year Award from the Greater Bridgeville Area Chamber of Commerce in 1968. He was also chairman of the United Fund for 15 years , where he worked for the Bridgeville area, headed the Surplus Food Organization and Special Gifts Committee of the Bridgeville Public Library . In addition, the owner of Bridgeville-based Strasser Jewelry Co. was a founding member and vice president of Bridgeville Savings and Loan , as well as vice president of the Greater Bridgeville Area Chamber of Commerce . He was also a past president of the Bridgeville Hungary Club and a past president of the American Jewelers Association . Other organizations to which he belonged include the Western Pennsylvania Jewelers Association , the German-American National Congress , the Antique Clock Association of America , the Teutonia Men's Choir in the listed Teutonia Men's Choir Hall in Pittsburgh, and the St. Agatha Church in Bridgeville.

He was also a founding member and president of the Kiwanis Club in Bridgeville. In 1970 he was elected to the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame as a sponsor of Pennsylvania football ; four years later he was accepted into the Independent Athletic Alumni Association of Pennsylvania . On September 13, 1987, Peter Strasser died at the age of 80 after a long illness in St. Clair Memorial Hospital in Pittsburgh. He left behind his wife Eva Nader Strasser, his daughter Nancy Hertzell from Upper St. Clair , Pennsylvania, his son Robert Strasser from Canfield , Ohio , six grandchildren, and his brother Louis Fischbacher from East Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania. After farewells at the Fryer Funeral Home , today Beinhauer-Fryer Funeral & Cremation Service , in Bridgeville and a mass in St. Agatha Church , he was buried at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Peters Township .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Strasser (English), in Observer-Reporter - September 14, 1987 at https://news.google.com , accessed on July 4, 2016
2. ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 32 · September 14, 1987 (English), accessed July 4, 2016
3. ↑ Bridgeville Remembered - The Greatest Generation , accessed July 4, 2016
4. ↑ History of Soccer in Pittsburgh , accessed July 4, 2016