Rūdolfs Jurciņš (19 June 1909 – 22 July 1948) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. He played as a center.

Career

Jurciņš won a gold medal at the 1935 EuroBasket competition, becoming first European champion. He participated at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

, where

Latvia national basketball team The Latvia men's national basketball team () represents Latvia in international basketball. They are organized and run by the Latvian Basketball Association. Latvia has reached the European Basketball Championship 15 times, with their ultimat ...

got 15th/18th place. Jurciņš started to play basketball at the age of 15 in 1924. Before that, he played football. He studied in the

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

but did not graduate. However he played for University basketball team ''Universitātes sports'' from 1930 until 1937. He was a member of latvian

student fraternity In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...

''Beveronija''. He became a six-time Latvian champion. His debut in Latvian national basketball team was in 1928. Overall, he played 23 games in the national team and was a team captain. He was arrested in 1945 and deported to the

GULAG The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

camp in 1947. Rūdolfs Jurciņš died on 22 July 1948 in Molotov Oblast, Soviet Union.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jurcins, Rudolfs 1909 births 1948 deaths Latvian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Latvia Basketball players at the 1936 Summer Olympics FIBA EuroBasket–winning players Basketball players from Riga Latvian people who died in Soviet detention People who died in the Gulag Centers (basketball)