Ewald “Wetti” Riegler simply switched to cycling before death caught up with him. The soccer legend of SK Forward Steyr and later society reporter of the “Steyrer Zeitung” died unexpectedly on March 11 at the age of 79.
Actually, his parents would have christened him Ewald. But the nickname “Wetti” caught on as a boy, when Walter Hackl, a secondary school teacher in Garsten, called the football talent that. Wetti Riegler, who was a toolmaker by trade, would have had what it takes to be a professional soccer player. When he landed the ball in the opponent’s Kreuzeck with a magnificent shot in the 20th minute of a guest appearance at Austria Salzburg in 1965, the Violetten fans chanted as a wink to the Salzburg club board: “Buy the nine! Buy the nine!” The team bus was only able to start its journey home to Steyr with a considerable delay, because Riegler’s change of club was negotiated in the dressing room. For a year, the “Legionnaire” from Steyr, wearing jersey number 9, played for Salzburg in the Bundesliga until he was stabbed in the right knee. The surgeons tried five operations, but they couldn’t get the joint right – end of Riegler’s career.
Like the Wurstel in Vienna, nothing could beat Wetti in Steyr: the man, a beau, who had always attached importance to a well-groomed appearance, was hired by the “Steyrer Zeitung” as a social reporter. The heartthrob, which he had already been as a dribbling artist on the football pitch, suited him in a new role. Women from the city sent photos of applicants to the editors in order to appear in Wetti Riegler’s weekly report “The beautiful Steyrerin”. The series had an impressive 100 episodes before Riegler entertained readers with a new format: “Celebrities, quite private” was an early local form of the home story.
After retiring from his job as an employee at a polling institute, Riegler did what a reasonable person does to avoid becoming a doddering old man: he kept fit by cycling and loved exchanging wisdom and balancing with friends in the coffee house. As a listener, you could hear that the Steyr original, to which Riegler had matured, loved life and the people immensely. The deceased will be confirmed on April 5th at 2 p.m. in the Garsten mortuary, and his urn will then be buried in the family grave.
Source: Nachrichten
