Rudy Getzinger (born April 9, 1943) is a American retired soccer player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was raised in Austria before coming to the US. He spent most of his career with Chicago-based teams, earned eight

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Club career

Born in

Sremska Mitrovica Sremska Mitrovica (; sr-Cyrl, Сремска Митровица, hu, Szávaszentdemeter, la, Sirmium) is a city and the administrative center of the Srem District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the left ban ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, Getzinger spent several years as a boy in Austria. In 1958, his family moved to the United States and settled in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. When he arrived in Chicago, he joined the Schwaben AC soccer club as a youth player. That season, Schwaben won the

Peel Cup The Peter J. Peel Challenge Cup, better known as the Peel Cup, was an open soccer competition that crowned the Illinois state champion until it was replaced by the Illinois Governor’s Cup in 1971. History Origins Peter Peel was born in 1866 in ...

. At the time that Getzinger joined the club, it was the dominant team in the

National Soccer League of Chicago The National Soccer League (Chicago), formed by the merger of the Chicago Soccer League and International Soccer Football League of Chicago in 1928, is a semi-professional U.S. soccer league which is the oldest continuously operating soccer league ...

, having won the league title several years in a row. Getzinger would spend most of his career with Schwaben, winning the

National Amateur Cup The National Amateur Cup, also known as the USASA Amateur Cup, is an American soccer competition open to all amateur teams affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation through United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA). In 1923, U.S. ...

with the team in 1964. In 1975, Chicago was awarded a North American Soccer League (NASL) franchise. The new team, named the

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

, drew on local talent to form the core of the roster. Getzinger spent the 1975 and 1976 seasons with the Sting, scoring one goal in sixteen games in 1975 and no goals in three games in 1976 as he was out with knee injuries most games. He quit playing professional soccer due to knee injuries.

International career

In both 1963 and 1968, he was part of the U.S. Olympic soccer teams which failed to qualify for the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

. While Getzinger played with the Olympic team in both 1963 and 1968, he did not earn his first

with the

until 1972. He also played the Olympics during 1976. That year, he scored in his debut, an August 20, 1972 loss to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. He went on to play a total of eight caps, but scored only that one goal. His last cap came as a substitute for Barry Barto in a November 3, 1973 loss to

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

.USA - Details of International Matches 1970-1979
/ref> In 1991, Getzinger was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

References

External links

National Soccer Hall of Fame profile
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Getzinger, Rudy 1943 births Footballers from Linz Living people Chicago Schwaben players Chicago Sting (NASL) players National Soccer Hall of Fame members National Soccer League (Chicago) players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players United States men's international soccer players Yugoslav emigrants to the United States American men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders