Figure 1.--These boys are playing soccer near the Karl-Marx Hof of Vienna during 1932. We can see in their shoes in the foreground that the boys took off to play. They are piled up to mark a goal post and presumably a second pile marks the other goal post. Perhaps not all the boys had shoes. Looking at the shoes, however, it is possible they were not very confortable to wear while playing sports. A reader writes, "It is also possible that shoes did not give the kind of slip free movement in grass and/ or shoes were too good to get messy. It also may have been warm so wearing shoes was hotter than not wearing them."

Soccer is the most popular sport in Austria, as in the case for the rest of Europe. The sports picture is dominated by soccer. Many European boys, including Austrian boys, are happy to play soccer all year round. There is some interest in ice hockey during the winter. The Europeans do not have seasonal team sports like Americans. We are not sure when boys begn playing soccer in Austria. We first notice images after World war I in the inter-war era. Winter sports like skiing and skating are very popular in Austria. A German reader tells us that there is an Austrian style of wrestling known as Rangeln. Rules are similar to Olympic Gamess or U.S. colleges, but "holds can be taken on the clothes and rangglers wear a tough canvas shirt and cotton trousers, which make spectacular throws easier." There are competitions at Hundstein. A variant of it is called Hosenlupfen (trousers wrestling) Since 1947 the Salzburger Ranglerverband was founded that standardised the rules." Modern Ranggeln bouts last 6 minutes. There are no points, only a fall counts and a rolling fall or to bridge is counted as a fall. Submission holds and strangles are forbidden and there are no draws; a drawn bout eliminates both competitors. Therefore bouts are fast and furious since the wrestlers must gain a pin to survive into the next round. " It is thought to be an accient competition held by the Celts to honour Lugh. Caesar wanted rangeln held only for him and the Christians didn't like it either.

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Created: 12:51 AM 2/26/2012
Last updated: 12:51 AM 2/26/2012