Edi Finger

Eduard “Edi” Finger (born 29 January 1924 Klagenfurt - 12 April 1989 in Maria Enzersdorf ) was an Austrian sports journalist , and football and general sports commentator .

Early life

Eduard “Edi” Finger was born in 1924, the son of Gottfried and Josefine Finger. His father was a day labourer, sometimes employed as a bricklayer, sometimes as a construction manager. In the interwar period of fascism, Gottfried Finger was considered politically unreliable and was not even employed in the construction of the Großglockner High Alpine Road . Josefine Finger had to support the family. She received a weekly wage of 15 shillings for hauling heavy mortar containers. Despite the meager family income, Edi went to the Higher Federal Trade School in Klagenfurt , specializing in electrical engineering. He graduated in 1943,  in the middle of the Second World War .  His father Gottfried was taken to a hospital in Graz in the winter of 1942, with kidney inflammation, where he died.

Edi Finger moved to Vienna and enrolled at the Technical University Wien.

He was a goalkeeper in the SK Austria Klagenfurt youth football team. In 1942, he suffered a torn ligament and a torn meniscus as well as an overstretching of the collateral ligament . For him, that meant the end of the goalkeeper career.

Ferdinand Lube, the sports club youth leader at the time, who wrote sports reports for the Kleine Zeitung, suggested Edi Finger, who was working for the Mining Union at the time, as his successor. Finger was denounced, and was drafted into military service despite his football injury. According to his own statements, he “ acted as stupid and clumsy as the ‘ good soldier Schwejk ’”, so that he returned from the last months of the war relatively safe and sound.

After his first attempts at print journalism at the Kleine Zeitung , Finger, back in his native Klagenfurt, was approached by Roman Ritter, a former footballer who had founded the Kärntner Illustrierte in 1945 with the approval of the British occupying forces. During this time he was also involved with the Red Falcons .

In 1946, the British Troops Austria, installed the Alpenland broadcasting group, and were looking for talented young sports reporters. Finger, who went there to apply, found himself surrounded by unemployed actors, older journalist colleagues and war veterans . Gerdi Springer , a former ice hockey player on the Austrian national team and later well-known football coach, encouraged him to stay. He then became a commentator for the game between Waidmannsdorf and Annabichl (Annabichler Sportverein, ASV) for five minutes and was appointed to fill in. Two months later, Finger was ordered by the British officer in charge to the Mallnitz ski championships to comment on the first broadcast by the Alpenland station.  This marked the beginning of his 42-year sports reporting career.

In 1951, Finger moved to Vienna as a full-time reporter .He became head of the radio sports department at RAVAG ; Between 1954 and 1964, he was the first TV reporter and TV sports director . He built up the sports department and moderated the first direct TV sports broadcasts: In 1956, Finger became the first live television broadcast, from a soccer match, when Brazil beat the hosts 3-2 in Vienna. He reported on this event by saying that he "squatted low on the green grass" so as not to "get in the way of the camera." From 1967, Finger was head of the ORF radio sports department.

Along with Heribert Meisel , Edi Finger senior was one of the two most popular Austrian football reporters in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1978, he reported on the World Cup game between Germany and Austria, which was an Austrian upset.

In 1979, he suffered a heart attack. He retired. On April 12, 1989 after another heart attack, Edi Finger died at his home in Maria Enzersdorf.

Books

• Finger, Edi (1988). I wear narrisch! (in German). ISBN 3-224-16043-8.