The Sportklub Rapid Wien or SK Rapid Wien is one of the two large football teams in Vienna. The second team, Rapid's eternal rival, is FK Austria Wien. The Rapid squad is often known as the "Green-Whites" (those being the team's colors) or as Hütteldorfer on tha basis of the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium, which is located in Hütteldorf, part of Vienna's 14th district.

History

SK Rapid Wien was founded in 1898 under the name of Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club (First Workers Football Club of Vienna). At that time, the team's colors were red and blue, which is sometimes used today in away matches. After a couple of months it was renamed to its present name of Sportklub Rapid Wien (Sport Club Rapid Vienna), following the model of Rapid Berlin. In 1904, the colors were changed to Green-White.

Rapid became one of the dominant teams during the interwar years, when Austria was one of the leading football nations on the European continent. After the Anschluss of Austria to Germany in 1938, Rapid won the German Cup in 1938 and the German Championship in 1941. Due to strength and endurance, the traditional virtues of Rapid players (the Rapidgeist or "Rapid spirit"), Schalke 04's lead of 3:0 could still be turned into a 4:3 for Rapid in the last fifteen minutes of the final.

Since those days, the legendary "Rapidviertelstunde" refers to the last fifteen minutes of the game, which are always announced by Rapid's home audience by rhythmic clapping. Over the decades, there were many instances where Rapid managed to turn around a game and win just before the final whistle.

Achievements

• Austrian Championship titles: 30

1912, 1913, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1996

• Austrian Cup Titles: 14

1919, 1920, 1927, 1946, 1961, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1995

• Austrian Supercup Titles: 3

1986, 1987, 1988

• German Championship Titles: 1

1941

• German Cup Titles: 1

1938

• Mitropa Cup Titles: 1

1930

• Zentropa Cup Titles: 1

1951

• Cup Winners' Cup Finalist: 2

1985, 1996

Known players

• Hans Pesser
• Gerhard Hanappi
• Hans Krankl
• Franz Binder
• Carsten Jancker
• Dietmar Kühbauer
• Andreas Herzog
• Trifon Ivanov
• Peter Schöttel
• Ernst Happel
• Michael Konsel
• Andreas Ivanschitz
• Dejan Savicevic
• Josef Uridil
• Antonin Panenka
• Gerhard Rodax

External links

• Official Homepage (http://www.skrapid.at)
• http://www.skrapid.at/
• http://www.rapidarchiv.at/
• http://mitglied.lycos.de/rapidwien/titel.htm (Rapid's achievements)
• http://mitglied.lycos.de/rapidwien/geschich.htm (Rapid's history)
• http://www.scr-forum.net (Rapid forum)