.jpg) Rubini (with the basketball in his hands). | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1923-11-02)2 November 1923 Trieste, Italy | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 8 February 2011(2011-02-08) (aged 87) | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Italian | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1948–1957 | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 1957–1973 | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
Playing | |||||||||||||||
| 1948–1957 | Olimpia Milano | ||||||||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||||||||
| 1957–1973 | Olimpia Milano | ||||||||||||||
| Career highlights | |||||||||||||||
As a player:
As a head coach:
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| Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||
| FIBA Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||
Medals
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| Cesare Rubini | |||
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Rubini, circa 1948. | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Born | (1923-11-02)2 November 1923 Trieste, Italy | ||
| Died | 8 February 2011(2011-02-08) (aged 87) Milan, Italy | ||
| Senior clubs | |||
| Years | Team | ||
1947–1948 | Società Canottieri Olona | ||
1949–1951 | Rari Nantes Napoli | ||
1952–1956 | Rari Nantes Camogli | ||
Cesare Rubini (2 November 1923 – 8 February 2011) was an Italian professionalbasketball player andcoach, and awater polo player. He was considered to be one of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time. Rubini was inducted into theBasketball Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first, and to this day, just one of three Italian basketball figures to receive such an honour, alongsideDino Meneghin andSandro Gamba. He was also inducted into theInternational Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000.
In 2002, he was awarded theFIBA Order of Merit. He was inducted into theItalian Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2006. He was also inducted into theFIBA Hall of Fame, in 2013. In 2015, he was inducted into theWalk of Fame of Italian sport.[1]
Rubini started to playbasketball for his high school team, in his nativeTrieste, where he graduated in 1941. The same year, he began to play forOlimpia Milano's junior clubs, the most prestigiousItalian League basketballclub at that time. However, he had a long-lived passion forwater polo: this led him to later become one of the rare world sportsmen to compete at the highest level in two different team sports.
As a clubplayer-coach, Rubini won 6Italian national domestic league titles in water polo (1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1955) with Società Canottieri Olona, Rari Nantes Napoli, and Rari Nantes Camogli. He also totaled 84caps, for the seniorItalian water polo national team, 42 of which were as a teamcaptain. He won a gold medal at the 1947European Water Polo Championship, with the senior Italian national water polo team.
In the meantime, he had also assumed the role of player-coach of the Italian basketball clubOlimpia Milano, in 1948; and he was called by the national teams of both sports (basketball and water polo) to play with them. Rubini chose water polo, and he won a gold medal in the sport, at the1948 Summer Olympic Games, inLondon, beating theHungary in the final. With Rubini as a full-time player, Italy could boast what was to be called the "Golden Settebello", one of the most valuable water polo teams ever, which also won a bronze medal at the1952 Summer Olympics, and at theTurinEuropean Championship of1954. In both the events, Italy was behind traditional rivals ofYugoslavia andHungary.
As a club basketballplayer-coach, Rubini won 6Italian national domestic league titles (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957) withOlimpia Milano. In 1957, he devoted himself only to the team'shead coach role, and he then went on to win 9 more Italian national domestic league titles with Olimpia (1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1972). In those years, he set an unparalleled record of 322 victories, and 28 defeats. Overall, as head coach of the Milan team, Rubini totaled 501 victories, including theFIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague) championship in 1966, and two (European 2nd-tier) levelFIBA European Cup Winners' Cups (FIBA Saporta Cup) titles, in 1971 and 1972: these were the first European-wide victories of Italian basketball clubs. He also won theItalian Cup, in 1972.
As a player, Rubini won a silver medal with the seniorItalian national basketball team, at the1946 FIBA EuroBasket, which was held inGeneva. Later, as the delegation head of the senior Italian national basketball team, Rubini also took part in the first international victories of Italy: these include the silver medal at the1980 Summer Olympic Games. At theFIBA EuroBasket, Italy finished first at the1983 FIBA EuroBasket, inNantes, finished third at the1985 FIBA EuroBasket, inStuttgart, and finished second at the1991 FIBA EuroBasket, inRome.
Rubini was involved with his beloved sports until his death: he promotedwater polo formation for young athletes, and he was the Honorary President ofOlimpia Milano. He died on 8 February 2011.[2]
Italy squads | |||||||||||||
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