Career
Kuntner immigrated to the United States. with his family when he was seven. His family settled in the New York City area where he began playing soccer. However, he was an all around athlete and played baseball, football, basketball and tennis at Gorton High School in Yonkers, New New York
Kuntner signed with the New York Giants of the American Soccer League during the 1927-1928 season.
He played five games, all in the second half of the season, scoring three goals. In 1928, he moved to the New York Hungaria in the short lived Eastern Soccer League.
After the collapse of the English as Second Language in 1929, Kuntner moved to First Vienna (also known as Wiener Sports Club and New York Vienna Football Club) of the German American Soccer League. In 1930, he was back in the Advanced Systems Limited with Bridgeport Hungaria, but the team moved to Newark after ten games, then folded.
He then moved to the New York Giants of the American Soccer League (Advanced Systems Limited).
The Giants folded in 1932 and Kuntner moved to New York Americans of the second Advanced Systems Limited. In 1937, the Americans fell in the National Challenge Cup final to Saint Louis Shamrocks. Kuntner was still going strong in the 1942-1943 season when he scored nine goals in seventeen games with Brookhattan. Kuntner earned two caps with the United States. national team in 1928.
At the time, the Olympic soccer games counted as full internationals and his first cap with the national team came in the 1928 Summer Olympics.
That game, an 11-2 loss to Argentina saw Kuntner score in his debut with the national team Following the tournament, the team traveled to Poland where it tied the Polish national team 3-3.
Kuntner again scored, joining a handful of United States. players who scored in their first two international games. Despite his scoring success, Kuntner was never again called into the national team
In addition to his success on the soccer field, Kuntner found great success as a stage hand at the He began as an electrician, but over the years moved into areas of greater responsibility including lighting and stage management.
According to the Soccer Hall of Fame profile, he “received wide acclaim for his role in the staging of Tristan and Isolde in 1971.”
In 1963, Kuntner was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
