Eugene Bleecher Selznick (March 19, 1930 – June 10, 2012) was an American

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player and coach. He played on world championship and Pan American Games championship teams. He was also inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life

Selznick, who was Jewish, was born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He also lived in Canoga Park, California. Selznick attended

Manual Arts High School Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high sc ...

in Los Angeles. He was a physical education major in college, and first began to play volleyball in 1949.

Volleyball career

Volleyball teams that Selznick played on won seven U.S. Open Volleyball Championships in 1951–53, 1956, 1960, 1965, and 1966, as well as seven runner-up titles. He was the

USA Volleyball USA Volleyball (USAV) is a non-profit organization which is recognized as the national governing body of volleyball in the United States by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committe ...

(USVBA) MVP in 1959, 1960, and 1962. He was captain of the United States men's national volleyball team from 1953 to 1967. His teams won the 1960 and 1966

FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship The FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variab ...

s. Selznick's teams also won

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s at the

Pan-American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

in 1955 and

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

. He was a member of the U.S. volleyball team at the

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics") is an international multi-sport event with summer and winter sports competitions featuring Jews and Israelis regardless of religion ...

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, and

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

. He was an early supporter of California

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

, and was designated the "First King of Beach Volleyball". Selznick played with Ev Keller to win the 1950 California Beach Men's Open. He later played with partner Don McMahon. He won every Laguna Beach Open from 1955 to 1961. Selznick introduced

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain ( ; August21, 1936 – October12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrin ...

to volleyball, and took him on a national tour in the 1970s.

Coaching career

Selznick coached the US women's volleyball team, which won the gold medal at the

1963 Pan American Games The 1963 Pan American Games, officially known as the IV Pan American Games () and commonly known as São Paulo 1963, were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963, in São Paulo, Brazil. Host city selection For the first time, two cities submitted b ...

and the 1964 Olympic Games. He also coached women's teams that won six USVBA titles (1959–61, and 1963–65). Selznick coached Olympic athletes Carl Henkel, Misty May, Holly McPeak, and Sinjin Smith.

Honors

Selznick was named to the All America first team 10 times, beginning in 1951. He won the 1956 international competition All-Star team MVP honor of "Mr. All-World". The FIVB named Selznick as one of the top American players of the 20th century. The U.S. Volleyball Hall of Fame honored him as the "All-Time Great Male Player". In 1995, ''Volleyball magazine'' called him the "Karch Kiraly of his era." Selznick was elected to the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1988. In 1990, he was inducted into the

. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

References

Sources

External links

Gene's Team Volleyball Club
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Selznick, Eugene 1930 births 2012 deaths American men's volleyball players American men's beach volleyball players American volleyball coaches Jewish volleyball players Jewish American sportspeople Volleyball players at the 1955 Pan American Games Volleyball players at the 1959 Pan American Games Maccabiah Games competitors for the United States Competitors at the 1957 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1961 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1973 Maccabiah Games Volleyball players from Los Angeles Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in volleyball 21st-century American Jews Jewish American sports coaches 20th-century American sportsmen