Ernst Huberty doesn’t sit still
“Mister Sportschau” still feels young at 95
02/22/2022, 07:13 am
Ernst Huberty actually sees the feuilleton as a goal – until he discovers sports reporting for himself. As a man from the very beginning, he has developed into a living legend in the sports show. Today he is 95 years old.
Ernst Huberty was already a television legend during his lifetime. For many decades, the TV presenter and reporter, whose trademark had been the striking “folding parting” during his active time, was the voice and face of ARD. Today, Tuesday, Huberty will be 95 years old.
The celebrant still feels pretty fit even in old age – actually. Just recently, “the doctor rang and brought me the evaluation of my blood values. He says I have the values of a 30-year-old. I’m just wondering: how do I tell my body now?” Huberty said humorously in an interview the “Picture on Sunday”. Laziness is still a foreign word for Huberty today. “So swim as often as possible. Go for a walk because of the fresh air. And I have a bicycle ergometer at home. I can watch TV so nicely,” he emphasized.
When the first ARD sports show was broadcast on June 4, 1961, he was already there. The black and white picture from back then is just as legendary as the people it shows. Huberty in the middle, Dieter Adler on the left, Addi Furler on the right. Around 15 million football fans gathered in front of the TV at the sports show.
Legendary report from the World Cup semifinals
Huberty actually wanted to be in the features section when he started journalism in Koblenz. But things went in a different direction. Sports reporting became his great passion. “Mister Sportschau” they called him, he was it without ifs and buts. Any kind of show was alien to him. He said the important because the unimportant is what it is: unimportant.
One of his most legendary reports was that of the 1970 World Cup semi-final thriller between Germany and Italy, when Italy legionnaire Karl-Heinz Schnellinger from AC Milan forced extra time with his goal at the last second. The “Schnellinger of all things!” by Huberty is unforgettable. It was this goal that made the unbelievable five-goal overtime possible and the Azzurri’s lucky 4-3 victory over the German Football Association.
After the end of his ARD career, Huberty made a name for himself as a “coach” for many of today’s well-known TV presenters – an incorrect expense report led to his retirement. He revealed his credo, which he always gave his “students” along the way, to “Bild am Sonntag”: “You don’t work in a television studio. You work in a living room. You have to try to get into people’s living rooms come.” Ernst Huberty has always succeeded in this in his reports.