Leopold Gernhardt
Gernhardt began playing football at ASK Graphia. He was taken by his friend Hermann Dvoracek to a training of the Rapid's youngsters. There he caught the eye of coach Leopold Nitsch and soon changed clubs. He made his debut in the squad in September 1939. In his first two seasons he made only five appearances, but slipped into the first team in the final round of the German championship due to an injury to regular middle half Johann Hofstätter. Gernhardt played all other games of the competition and reached the final against FC Schalke 04 with Hütteldorfer. There he saved a ball on the goal line when the score was 1:3 and was finally able to celebrate a 4:3 victory with his team.