Roman Neumayer (1930/1931 – 23/24 December 2015) was a German ice hockey executive, coach and player. He served as the sport director of the

German Ice Hockey Federation The German Ice Hockey Federation (), commonly abbreviated as DEB, is the governing federation of German ice hockey associations. It was established on 16 June 1963 in Krefeld. Until 1990 it served only the old Federal Republic of Germany and West ...

from 1970 to 1986, and as technical director for the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

from 1986 to 1996. He received the

Paul Loicq Award The Paul Loicq Award is presented annually by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to honour a person who has made "outstanding contributions to the IIHF and international ice hockey". Named after Paul Loicq Paul Loicq (11 August 1 ...

for service to international ice hockey, and his career was recognized by induction into the

German Ice Hockey Hall of Fame The German Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, also called Eishockeymuseum in German, was founded in 1988 and is located in Augsburg. The hall honors individuals who have contributed to ice hockey in Germany, and displays memorabilia depicting contributions of ...

Early life

Neumayer was born in the historical region of Bukovina in the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...

. He later moved westward and played

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 h ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and

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 ...

. After retiring from playing, he became an ice hockey coach and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach in Austria.

Hockey career

Neumayer served as the sport director of the

from 1970 to 1986. During that time, the

West Germany men's national ice hockey team The German men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Germany and is controlled by the German Ice Hockey Federation. It first participated in serious international competition at the 1911 European Hockey Championship. Whe ...

won its only Olympic medal, a bronze in ice hockey at the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria. He was also involved in founding the German Ice Hockey Museum on behalf of the national ice hockey federation. Neumayer served as the technical director for the

(IIHF) from 1986 to 1996. As the technical director, he was an ex-officio member of all IIHF committees and acted in an advisory role to the respective chair of the committee. After retiring from the IIHF, he remained in a technical advisory role at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, Japan, and served as chairman of other IIHF tournaments. Neumayer received the

in 1999, in recognition for his service to the IIHF and promoting ice hockey worldwide. Two years later, he was honored with induction into the

in 2001. Neumayer and team executives from the

Augsburger Panther The Augsburger Panther are a professional ice hockey team in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The team is based in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. They play their home games at the Curt Frenzel Stadion. Founded in 1878, the team's name was Augsburger EV ...

assisted in founding the Windhoek Lions in 2003, the first ice hockey team in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. The Panthers donated jerseys and ice hockey equipment. Neumayer assisted in the planned construction of an arena in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

and used his connections to convince Bernd Haake from Germany to coach the team and set up a training camp playing against teams in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Later life

Neumayer died during the night from the 23 to 24 December 2015 at age 84 in

Olching Olching (Central Bavarian: ''Oiching'') is a town in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km (12 mi) northwest of Munich. Geography Olching lies approximately halfway between Dachau ...

, Germany. He was remembered by Franz Reindl, the president of the German Ice Hockey Federation at the time. Reindl said Neumayer was an outstanding and formative personality who had a significant leadership role in winning the bronze medal during the 1976 Winter Olympic Games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumayer, Roman 1930s births 2015 deaths Austrian ice hockey coaches Bukovina-German people German expatriate ice hockey people German ice hockey coaches German ice hockey executives German tennis coaches Germany men's national ice hockey team executives International Ice Hockey Federation executives Museum founders Paul Loicq Award recipients People from Fürstenfeldbruck (district) Sportspeople from Upper Bavaria Year of birth uncertain