Elemer Hirsch (14 May 1895 – 17 May 1953) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and a football defender,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

Life and career

Elemer Hirsch came from a wealthy Jewish family who owned large portions of land in Beclean. He studied law school in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, starting to work as a

at age 24. He started playing football at CA Cluj. Several years later he moved to

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

, where he also played

. Hirsch also competed in

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

competitions, managing to win three Romanian national titles in 1924, 1925 and 1927, also becoming an international figure skating judge. After he retired from playing football, he became a football

, including arbitrating in a Romanian top-division

Divizia A The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

match. In the 1940s following the Second Vienna Award, due to his Jewish origin, the Hungarian authorities prohibited him from working as a lawyer and deprived him of his property which was later nationalized by the Romanian communist regime. He managed to escape from

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

when the authorities wanted to send him to a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he returned to Cluj and started his coaching career at CFR. Between 1947 and 1948 he was the federal captain of Romania's national team. In 1950 he became coach at Armata Cluj. In May 1953 after the end of a match in Baia Mare he collapsed on his way to the team bus, the

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Nicolae Szoboszlay Nicolae Szoboszlay (18 July 1925 – 2 January 2019) was a Romanian football goalkeeper and manager. Career Nicolae Szoboszlay was one of Universitatea Cluj's players in the hardest period of the club's history. In 1940, the team moved from Clu ...

tried to give him first aid but Hirsch died in his arms.

International career

Elemer Hirsch played in the first official match of Romania's national team at the

1922 King Alexander's Cup The 1922 King Alexander's Cup () was the first edition of the Friendship Cup. It was a single-game tournament in 1922 and the first official match of the national association football team of Romania. Pre-match The trophy was named after Alexande ...

, against

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

. Hirsch bought Romania's equipment for that match from his own money. He was also part of Romania's

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

squad. ::''Scores and results table. Romania's goal tally first:''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Elemer 1895 births 1953 deaths Sportspeople from Cluj County Romanian footballers Romania men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Men's association football defenders Liga I players FC Universitatea Cluj players Romanian football managers CFR Cluj managers Romanian football referees Romanian ice hockey players Romanian male single skaters 20th-century Romanian lawyers Jewish men's footballers People from the Kingdom of Hungary Jewish Romanian sportspeople

Life and career

International career

See also

References

External links