Gerhard "Gerdi" Springer (6 February 1927 – 28 July 1999) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and coach. He was also an ice hockey player (bronze medalist with the Austrian team at the World Championships 1947; member of the Austrian team in the men's tournament at the

1956 Winter Olympics The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games ( it, VII Giochi Olimpici invernali) and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 ( lld, Anpezo 1956 or ), was a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from ...

.) and coach. Springer's grave is in his home-town Klagenfurt, Carinthia ("Friedhof Annabichl"). He coached, inter alia,

SK Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian ...

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

Austria Klagenfurt Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ci ...

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be o ...

, 1. Wiener Neustädter SC,

Alpine Donawitz DSV Leoben is an Austrian association football club based in Leoben. It was founded in 1928. They play at the Donawitz Stadium. History WSV Donawitz The club was founded on 1 February 1928 opgericht as ''Werkssportverein Donawitz'', playing ...

. Due to his "defence-playing system", Springer's nick-name was "Karawanken-Herrera" - "Karawanken" are the higher mountains in South Carinthia (near of Klagenfurt) - Helinio Herrera (team-manager in Italy, initiator of "Catenacco").

References

External links

Rapid Archiv
1927 births 1999 deaths 1. Wiener Neustädter SC managers Austrian football managers DSV Leoben managers Grazer AK managers SK Rapid Wien managers SK Sturm Graz managers Austrian ice hockey players Olympic ice hockey players of Austria Ice hockey players at the 1956 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Innsbruck {{Austria-footy-bio-stub