Toni Fritsch
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| Toni Fritsch | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | July 10, 1945 |
| Place of birth | Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria |
| Position(s) | Kicker |
| Pro Bowls | 1980 |
| Statistics | |
| Team(s) | |
| 1971-1975 1976 1977-1981 1982 |
Dallas Cowboys San Diego Chargers Houston Oilers New Orleans Saints |
Toni Fritsch (born July 10, 1945 in Petronell, died September 13, 2005 in Vienna) was an Austrian football (soccer) player who later started a successful career in American football in the U.S..
Contents |
[edit] Soccer career
Toni Fritsch started to play football (soccer) at an early age and joined the Austrian record titleholder Rapid Vienna at the age of 13. After six seasons, he was admitted to the club's first league team and played his first professional game in fall 1964. During his time there, he played 123 games for Rapid, scoring 15 goals. The team won the Austrian Championship three times (1964, 1967, 1968) and the Austrian Cup twice (1968, 1969). He was described as a small, but extremely fast striker.
Fritsch played for the Austria national football team nine times. He scored two goals when Austria defeated England 3-2 in London's Wembley Stadium on October 20, 1965, from which his nickname "Wembley-Toni" is derived. This was only the third time for a continental team to beat England at home (following Hungary in 1953 and Sweden in 1959).
[edit] American football
In 1971, Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, went to Europe looking for strong-legged soccer players. The first city he went was Vienna, and the first player he tried was Toni Fritsch. Though hardly speaking any English at all, Fritsch decided to take a chance. He accepted the offer, moved to the US and joined the NFL team as a placekicker. In 1972, he won the Super Bowl with his team, and remains the only Austrian having done so. In 1976, he switched to the San Diego Chargers, and later he played for the Houston Oilers, the New Orleans Saints and the USFL's Houston Gamblers. In 1980, he was voted into the Pro Bowl. He scored 758 points in 125 games during his 11-year NFL career, among those 317 for Dallas. His NFL record of having kicked a field goal in 13 straight playoff games has not been beaten yet.
Even though Fritsch worked for his former Austrian football (soccer) club Rapid Vienna for one year in 1992/1993, he remained a resident of Houston throughout the rest of his life.
[edit] Death
On September 13, 2005, Toni Fritsch suddenly collapsed on a Vienna street after a meal at a restaurant. He died of heart failure at the age of 60.
