For most of the half century that Horst Richardson has been coaching the men’s soccer team at Colorado College, his office was in the school’s language department, where he taught German.
But eight years ago, soccer came of age at CC.
“They gave me an office in the athletic department,” Richardson said.
It was a small but meaningful step for Richardson’s association with Colorado College and his love of soccer. He’s celebrating his 50th year of involvement in the soccer program and 49th as the Tigers’ head coach.
“The opportunity as an educator and a coach to work with quality young people here at CC has kept me enthusiastic,” Richardson said. “As a coach, I learn something from my players every week, if not every day.”
Richardson’s position is being recognized in other ways. Two weeks ago he was honored by the school at homecoming ceremonies. The attraction wasn’t at a typical American football game, but the football that Americans call soccer.
Then, on Tuesday night, Richardson was inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.
“It was a hoot and holler,” Richardson said of the homecoming event. “It was incredible to see all the people. I bet there were 225 at least. They called it ‘Horstoberfest.’ “
But don’t think that because of the homecoming event and the Hall of Fame induction that Richardson is thinking of retirement. He has found it easy to recruit eight to 10 quality players every year to keep the program going and, at least for now, he wants to remain head coach.
“We’ll see how the juices flow and how the season goes,” he said. “I want to do at least one more international trip.”
There are plans in the works for the Tigers to make a tour of Scandinavia in May.
Richardson’s path to Colorado College had some bumps in the road. Some of his first memories are of the ravages of war while growing up in Nuremberg, the second-largest city in Bavaria, after Munich.
“I remember the Americans coming to Nuremberg as liberators,” Richardson said. “As kids, we liked to interact with the American soldiers. Before that, I was young enough to not know what it was all about.”
But in 1955, 10 years after the end of World War II, Richardson’s life changed forever when his family emigrated to California. He was 14 years old.
“Imagine leaving all that destruction behind one day and being on the beaches in California the next day,” Richardson said. “It was a major adjustment in my life.”
After graduation from UC Riverside, Richardson arrived in Colorado Springs in 1965 to join the faculty at CC. He was 24.
“I had an apartment on campus,” Richardson said. “I could see the soccer fields out of the front window.”
He walked over to the fields, met the head coach, became an assistant coach for a year and never looked back.
Richardson maintains a connection to his roots.
“I haven’t lost contact with the home country,” Richardson said. “I still have three good friends from kindergarten over there. We go back to the war.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@ or
Richardson bio
Born: June 11, 1941, in Nuremberg, Germany
High school: Newport Harbor in Newport Beach, Calif.
College: UC Riverside
Family: Wife Helen, son Erik and daughter Stacia
Hobby: Former member of the youth symphony board
Residence: Colorado Springs
