Udo Scholz (stadium announcer)

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Udo Scholz (born April 15, 1939 in Bruges near Lüdenscheid ; died July 1, 2020 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) was a German stadium and hall spokesman for football, ice hockey and handball. Scholz is considered to be the inventor of the soccer battle song "Take off Bayern's lederhosen".

life and career

The son of a locomotive driver, who, according to his own statements, gained his first experience with microphone announcements at the Bruges train station at the age of 14 , began his career at the stadium microphone in 1962 at his home club Rot-Weiß Lüdenscheid , where he played as a right-winger: when Scholz was injured He was asked if he could stand in for the sick announcer. In the following season 1962/63 , Scholz was hired by Borussia Dortmund as a stadium announcer, in which he was able to celebrate the championship title in the “Kampfbahn Rote Erde” , as well as winning the cup in 1965 and the European Cup in 1966 . Scholz stayed with Dortmund for nine years, until 1972.

This was followed by the 21 years that made Scholz famous among football fans across Germany: from 1973 to 1994 he was the “voice of Betzenberg ” as the stadium announcer for 1. FC Kaiserslautern . On the occasion of a game between Lautrer and Bayern Munich , Scholz was the inventor of the Bundesliga battle song "Take off Bayern's lederhosen!" To the melody of the Beatles song Yellow Submarine . With the “Red Devils” from Kaiserslautern, he celebrated winning the DFB Cup in 1990 and the championship in 1991. At the same time, Scholz was active in the home games of the "little Red Devils", with the handball Bundesliga club SG Leutershausen ( German runner-up in 1992 ).

In 1994 Scholz changed the main sport; Until 2019 he was a regular hall spokesman at the home games of the Bundesliga ice hockey club Adler Mannheim , which he accompanied to seven of the club's eight championships and two cup victories in their home arena - initially in the Friedrichspark Stadium , since 2005 in the SAP Arena . The official mascot of the SAP Arena, a hamster, has been named after his first name since 2005. Scholz also remained loyal to the second and third handball league of SG Leutershausen as the hall spokesman.

The highlights of his career included the 50 international A matches of the German national soccer team that he moderated , including the legendary " Water Battle against Poland " in Frankfurt am Main at the 1974 World Cup .

Scholz got involved in many ways for disadvantaged children in Mannheim and the surrounding area.

Udo Scholz died on July 1, 2020 in Ludwigshafen as a result of cardiac arrest . On July 21, 2020, Scholz was buried in the cemetery of the Palatinate community Friedelsheim in the Bad Dürkheim district . Daniel Hopp, the managing director of Adler Mannheim, gave a funeral speech at the urn funeral.

Publications

  • A life for the microphone. The stadium announcer of Adler Mannheim remembers. Gerhard Hess Verlag, Bad Schussenried 2017, ISBN 978-3-87336-608-4 (memoirs)

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Peter Annweiler: Stadium announcer and bridge builder , SWR1 , church in the SWR, Sunday morning encounters, broadcast from Sunday, March 18, 2012; accessed July 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Pulls Bayern's Lederhosen off" was made during the Murnau vacation , Münchner Merkur , Garmisch-Partenkirchen local section, January 13, 2014; accessed July 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ Jasper Rothfels: “I'll do it until I fall over” , Mannheimer Morgen , February 18, 2019; accessed July 1, 2020.
  4. ↑ Jens Lepthien: "Haardtblick" Friedelsheim: Adler stadium announcer Udo Scholz goes - but not quite yet , Die Rheinpfalz , February 11, 2019; accessed July 1, 2020.
  5. ↑ SAP ARENA mascot is called "UDO" , saparena.de; New Year's Party in the Business Club , adlerkids.de, February 21, 2017; both web links accessed July 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Peter Annweiler: Stadium announcer and bridge builder , SWR1 , church in the SWR, Sunday morning encounters, broadcast from Sunday, March 18, 2012; accessed July 1, 2020.
  7. ↑ Oliver Wehner: Obituary: Udo Scholz is dead , Die Rheinpfalz , July 1, 2020; accessed July 1, 2020.
  8. ↑ Metropolitan region: "Companions say goodbye to Udo Scholz" by Stephan Alfter on the homepage of the daily newspaper Mannheimer Morgen, www.morgenweb.de, ( Mannheimer Morgen ), July 21, 2020, accessed on July 28, 2020
  9. ↑ Newspaper articles also accessible via: Happy Birthday Udo , Fanforum der Mannheimer Adler; accessed July 1, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Scholz, Udo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stadium announcer
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Bruges , North Rhine-Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 2020
Place of death Ludwigshafen am Rhein