Andreas Brugger, champion of Professional athletic meetings, founder and first president of Euromeetings, (1927-2018)

Andreas Brugger, courtesy of der Landbotte.ch.

ZURICH (SUI): Former Weltklasse Zurich meeting director (1973-2000) Andreas Brugger died at age of 91. He was the front runner in early stages of professional athletics and organisation of one day meetings. Just recently he was awarded at the IAAF Awards with the President Award. He was also the founder and first president of Euromeetings in 1979.

runblogrun opines: Truly one of the most innovative people in athletics, championed the Weltklasse, and the rise of the big one day meetings in our sport. He will be missed. Brugger was meet manager, deal maker, PR manager, kind of a Swiss P.T. Barnum. He was able to find the finest stars in the sport in a time when money was few and far between. Brugger was supported European Athletics when few else were and was able to move around the challenges in the sport with skill. All of the sport's stars came to his meeting.

Sven Arne Hansen had this to say about Andreas Brugger:

I was very sorry to hear the passing of a dear friend & former meet director of Weltklasse Zürich Andreas Brügger this morning. Andreas started Euromeetings in 1969 & was president until 1998 when I succeeded him. He would have been 92 on Feb 2, 2019. Sleep well Andreas RIP pic.twitter.com/BAnmh0Zt2n

-- Svein Arne Hansen (@SvenPres) December 27, 2018

To appreciate more on the Weltklasse, under Andreas Brugger, please read this fine piece from 2000 on the Weltklasse, by Dieter Ringhofer, then, the athletics correspondent of the Zürich newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.