Schoenfeld, Heinrich : Jews In Sports @ Virtual Museum

Schoenfeld, Heinrich

A center forward, Schoenfeld was a great player for Hakoah-Vienna in the mid-1920s. After helping the club win the Austrian League title in 1925, he toured the United States with Hakoah in 1926. During the tour, they played ten games in front of a total of 200,000 people, including a single-game record crowd of 46,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York City (the attendance record stood until 1977). The Hakoah-Vienna soccer team has been inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

After the 1926 U.S. tour, Schoenfeld remained in the United States and played in the American Soccer League. Following his playing career, Schoenfeld coached Hakoah Hallein, a club founded in 1950 whose players came from the refugee camp located in Hallein (20 miles south of Salzburg). Registered with FIFA, Hallein played exhibition games against second division clubs and amateur clubs in the early 1950s.

Birth and Death Dates:
unknown

Career Highlights:
In 1926, Schoenfeld was the starting center forward for Hakoah-Vienna on their U.S. tour. Over the ten games, Hakoah won six, lost two, and tied two against the top American teams. In a game against the Brooklyn Wanderers (owned by Nat Agar), Schoenfeld registered a hat trick in Hakoah's 6-4 victory. Following the tour, Schoenfeld signed with Agar's Wanderers of the American Soccer League.

During the 1926-27 season, Schoenfeld appeared in six games and scored three goals. After a brief absence from the ASL, he returned in 1929 with the Brooklyn Hakoah, a new team made up of former Hakoah-Vienna players. That season, he appeared in 12 games and scored 11 goals to lead the team (eighth in the league). The league folded early that season and merged with its rival, the Eastern Soccer League. The Eastern League had a team named the New York Hakoahs which merged with Brooklyn and was re-named the Hakoah All-Stars in the reconfigured ASL. Schoenfeld played for the Hakoah All-Stars, but the new team finished in third place as Schoenfeld played in only six games and did not score.

Origin:
Austria



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References:
The American Soccer League, 1921-1931: The Golden Years of American Soccer, by Colin Jose (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1998)
New York Times, May 23, 1926