Fritz Schmidt
Fritz " Schimmi " Smith ( born March 19, 1943 in Mainz ) is a former German hockey player and Olympic champion.
Fritz Schmidt played at Rüsselsheim RK. The midfielder was in 1968, 1971, 1975, 1977 and 1978 German champion in field hockey, 1973, 1976 and 1979 he won the title in indoor hockey. He was in all these Rüsselsheimer championship successes as player-coach there, because since 1966 he worked in Rüsselsheim as player-coach. After his playing career, he was from 1983 to 1985 still working as a coach.
In 1963 he made his debut in the German national hockey team. At the Olympic Games in 1968, he was with the team in fourth. In 1970 he won the title at the first European Championship. In the first field hockey World Cup, which was held in Pakistan in 1971, Schmidt finished with the German championship in fifth place. At the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 Schmidt was used because of a broken hand only in a preliminary round game, but also won Olympic Gold.
After the Olympics, Schmidt was again a regular player and as successor by Carsten Keller also captain. During these years the German hockey team has been quite successful. The bronze medal at the World Championship in 1973 was followed by the European Indoor Championship title in 1974 and the Vice European Champion 1974 in field hockey. At the World Cup 1975, the German team again won bronze. 1976 won the team again at the European Indoor Championships. Rather disappointing ran the 1976 Olympics, the German team finished only fifth place. In February 1977 he left after 146 international matches together with Dieter Freise, Michael Krause and Wolfgang Rott from the German national team.
1971 was awarded the Paul- Reinberg Plaque of the German Federal Hockey Fritz Schmidt with the Silver Laurel Leaf, the highest sports award in Germany, and in 1979.
Trained baker and pastry chef for decades led his own shop with bakery in Rüsselsheim, over the years several branches were opened. Bakery and branches he gave up in 2003 and said goodbye to an active retirement, in which the restoration of old cars, but especially the sport of golf ( low single digit handicap ) consumes a large part of the time.