 Leonas Baltrūnas in1939 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1914-10-20)20 October 1914 | |||||||||||||||||
| Died | 20 April 1993(1993-04-20) (aged 78) | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 195 lb (88 kg) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Leonas Baltrūnas (20 October 1914 – 20 April 1993) was aLithuanianbasketball player and coach. He won two gold medals withLithuania national basketball team duringEuroBasket 1937 andEuroBasket 1939.[1]
In 1937 he graduatedKaunas Highs physical education courses, taught in Higher Technical School. Baltrūnas became interested in basketball in 1935 when he met with the basketball coach from the U.S.Konstantinas Savickas. He was member ofLithuania national basketball team (1936–1940) and participated in twoEuroBaskets:EuroBasket 1937 andEuroBasket 1939. He won two gold medals during both competitions. In 1944 he moved toGermany, in 1949 he settled inAustralia. In 1950 he organized Lithuanians basketball championship inMelbourne for the first time, established Lithuanians sports club "Varpas" and was physical education chairman. In 1949-1953 he wasVictoria state and in 1955Australia national basketball team coach, later he worked as physical education teacher at Swinburne Technical School in Hawthorn, Victoria. He also firmly contributed in popularizingvolleyball in Victoria state.[2]
Leonas Baltrūnas once said:
"I have dedicated the most of my life for the Lithuanian sports and deep in the heart I am proud of it because it is hardly believable that our small Lithuania was advertised with the capital letters in the biggest states capitals. Just because of the sport, the first daily newspapers pages were announcing: LIETUVA – LITAUEN – LITHUANIA – LITVA.It becomes warm, well and pleasant when I return there in my memory. Not only the trainings, games, tournaments and various competitions where I played, but I also remember these countless hours spent in courses, meetings, camps and the long journeys. By preparing coaches and referees I had to ride throughout our beautiful land."[3]
Sport journalist Antanas Laukaitis describing him wrote:
"In Lithuania's, emigrants and in ourLithuanian Australian sport life Leonas Baltrūnas name is just legendary. He – free Lithuania double European champion, he – teacher, preceptor, sporting youth ideal, he –Čiurlionis Ensemble administrator at the flowering time in Germany, he – the founder of the Lithuanian Australian sport, Melbourne Song Gathering organizer, press associate. More can be told about him because it is the human full of the endless energy in sport and in the living activities. In his initiative the first Lithuanian Australian Sport Games were organized in 1950 and it is still continued nowadays, bringing together our sporty Lithuanian youth..."[4]
Lithuania: 1st degreeMedal of the Order of Vytautas the Great (1937)[5]
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