Horia Demian (1942–1989) was a Romanian basketball player who played for

U Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first tier of the Romanian ...

(Ştiinţa Cluj between 1951–1965, currently

U-BT Cluj-Napoca CS Universitatea Cluj-Napoca is a Romanian professional basketball club based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The club, for sponsorship reason under the name U-Banca Transilvania Cluj-Napoca, competes in the Liga Națională. As other sports teams that ...

) from 1960 until 197

During that period, U Cluj finished second in one season and third in four seasons in the

Romanian Basketball Division A Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

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Career

He was selected to play in the

Romania national basketball team The Romania men's national basketball team ( ro, Echipa națională de baschet a României) represents Romania in international basketball competition. The team is administered by the Romanian Basketball Federation (FRB). Romania has qualified ...

165 times and received the award "Maestru al Sportului" from the

Romanian Basketball Federation The Romanian Basketball Federation (FRB) ( ro, Federatia Română de Baschet) is the governing body of basketball in Romania. It was founded in 1931, and they became members of FIBA in 1932 as co-founders. The Romanian Basketball Federation opera ...

in 1964. He took part in four Eurobasket tournaments, including the

Eurobasket 1967 The 1967 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1967, was the fifteenth FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe. Venues First round Group A – Helsinki Group B – Tampere Knockout ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

, where Romania classified fifth, its best classification in history. After ending his career as player, he continued as coach. Although receiving offers to play elsewhere, including the American professional league, he remained loyal to his team. In 2005, the readers from the newspaper Ziarul Clujeanului voted him the best basketball player from

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , ...

of all times. The readers chose him over the NBA player

Gheorghe Muresan Gheorghe is a Romanian given name and surname. It is a variant of George, also a name in Romanian but with soft Gs. It may refer to: Given name * Gheorghe Adamescu * Gheorghe Albu * Gheorghe Alexandrescu * Gheorghe Andriev * Gheorghe Apostol * ...

, of whom Horia had been a mento

The main sports hall in

is named after him: Sala Sporturilor "Horia Demian".

Education

He obtained a pharmacy degree from the Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in

and a Ph.D. in Chemistry.

References

1942 births 1989 deaths Romanian men's basketball players Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy alumni {{Romania-basketball-bio-stub