Toni Fritsch
Anton "Toni" Fritsch , (born July 10, 1945 in Petronell-Carnuntum ; † September 13, 2005 in Vienna ) was an Austrian football player with SK Rapid Vienna and an American football player in the National Football League (NFL), where he as a kicker with the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl VI won.
Soccer
In 1957 Fritsch began his career in the youth team of Rapid Vienna . In 1958 his parents died. Robert Körner became the young player's mentor. In the spring of 1964, the 18-year-old was used for the first time in the combat team. From 1964 to 1971 Toni Fritsch played a total of 123 championship games as a winger for Rapid Vienna and was three times Austrian champion ( 1964 , 1967 , 1968 ) and twice Austrian cup winner (1968, 1969 ).
The then 20-year-old Fritsch got his nickname "Wembley-Toni" when he scored two goals in a sensational 3-2 win over England at London's Wembley Stadium on October 20, 1965 when he was first playing for the Austrian national team .
American football
1971 came Tom Landry , the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys , to Europe, to a football player as a kicker to search for his team. He brought Toni Fritsch to the USA , where he played American football for the next 14 years . The Cowboys won the specialist for field goals after the 1971 season to the Super Bowl VI and stood after the 1975 season in the final of the Super Bowl X against the Pittsburgh Steelers . After a season with the San Diego Chargers , Fritsch returned to Texas in 1977 and played for the Houston Oilers for the next five years , where he was elected to the Pro Bowl in the 1979 season . After a detour to the New Orleans Saints , he returned to Houston, but now to the Gamblers of the United States Football League (USFL).
On September 13, 2005, he died of heart failure.
Stations as a player
-
Austrian Bundesliga
- SK Rapid Vienna 1964–1971
-
National Football League (NFL)
- Dallas Cowboys 1971-1976
- San Diego Chargers 1976-1977
- Houston Oilers 1977-1982
- New Orleans Saints 1982-1984
-
United States Football League (USFL)
- Houston Gamblers 1984-1985
Awards (excerpt)
- 2002: Gold Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
- In 2011 the Toni-Fritsch-Weg in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after him.
Web links
- Profile at rapidarchiv.at
- Profile at nfl.com
- Detailed statistics at pro-football-reference.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fritsch, Toni |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wembley-Toni (nickname); Fritsch, Anton (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian soccer player and American football player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1945 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Petronell-Carnuntum , Lower Austria , Austria |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 2005 |
| Place of death | Vienna , Austria |