Lajos "Lala" Engler ( sr-Cyrl, Лајош "Лала" Енглер; 20 June 1928 – 1 May 2020), also credited as Lajoš Engler, was an Hungarian-born Serbian teacher and basketball player, who represented the

Yugoslavia national basketball team The Yugoslavia men's national basketball team ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Košarkaška reprezentacija Jugoslavije, Кошаркашка репрезентација Југославије; ; ) represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

internationally.

Playing career

Engler started to play basketball for team Proleter Zrenjanin of the

Yugoslav Basketball League The First Federal Basketball League () was the highest tier level men's professional club basketball competition in the former country of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia. Founded in 1945, and folded in 1992 (1991–92 YU ...

. In 1948, he moved to the Belgrade-based team Partizan where he played until 1953. In 1954, he moved back to Proleter. During his second stint with Proleter he won the National Championships in the 1956 season. Engler was a part of the group of players known as the Proleter's Five, which included himself, Milutin Minja, Ljubomir Katić, Dušan Radojčić, and

Vilmos Lóczi Vilmos Lóczi ( sr-Cyrl, Вилмош Лоци; 19 January 1925 – 12 July 1991), also credited as Vilmoš Loci, was a Yugoslav basketball coach and player. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. Lóczi was one o ...

National team career

Engler was a member of the Yugoslavia national team that participated at the

1950 FIBA World Championship The 1950 FIBA World Championship, also called the 1st World Basketball Championship – 1950, was the inaugural edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, World Cup basketball tournament for men's national teams. It was held by the Internatio ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina. Over three tournament games, he averaged 1.0 point per game. The World Championship in Argentina was the inaugural tournament. At the 1953 FIBA European Championship in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, the Soviet Union, he averaged 6.5 points per game over eight tournament games. At the

1954 FIBA World Championship The 1954 FIBA Basketball World Cup, FIBA World Championship (also called the 2nd World Basketball Championship – 1954) was the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. It was held by the International Basketball ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil, he averaged 5.8 points per game over five tournament games. At the 1957 FIBA European Championship in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Bulgaria, he averaged 4.8 points per game over nine tournament games. Engler played 78 games for the national team.

Post-playing career

After retirement, Engler worked as a teacher of

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

in the Zrenjanin Grammar School. Engler died on 1 May 2020 in

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

Career achievements and awards

* Yugoslav League champion: 1 (with Proleter Zrenjanin:

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

). * Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded by the Zrenjanin City Sports Association (2017) * Plaque of the

Basketball Federation of Serbia The Basketball Federation of Serbia () is a non-profit organization and the national sports governing body for basketball in Serbia. The organization represents Serbia in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the Olympic C ...

(2016)

In popular culture

* In the 2015 Serbian sports drama ''

We Will Be the World Champions ''We Will Be the World Champions'' () is a 2015 Serbian Sports film, sports drama film directed by Darko Bajić. It was one of six films shortlisted by Serbia to be their submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88t ...

'' Engler is portrayed by Lazar Jovanov. * The 2016 Serbian documentary, ''Šampioni iz pedeset i šeste'' (), portrays Engler and the achievements of the Proleter basketball team in the mid 1950s and how they won the Yugoslav Championship in 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engler, Lajos 1928 births 2020 deaths Guards (basketball) Hungarians in Vojvodina KK Partizan players KK Proleter Zrenjanin players People from Tolna County Serbian educators Serbian men's basketball players Basketball players from Zrenjanin University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni Yugoslav men's basketball players 1950 FIBA World Championship players 1954 FIBA World Championship players