Birgir Jakobsson (born 21 March 1948) is an Icelandic doctor and former

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 (appr ...

player. He was a member of the

Icelandic national basketball team The Iceland men's national basketball team ( is, Íslenska karlalandsliðið í körfubolta) represents Iceland in international basketball tournaments. The team is controlled by the Icelandic Basketball Association. Iceland has qualified for t ...

from 1966 to 1976. Following a 20-year stay as a doctor and later director at the

Karolinska University Hospital The Karolinska University Hospital ( sv, Karolinska universitetssjukhuset) is a teaching hospital affiliated with Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, with two major sites in the municipalities of Solna and Huddinge. The hospital network is ...

, he was the Director of Health of Iceland from 2015 to 2018.

Early life

Birgir was born in Reykjavík to Jakob Tryggvason and Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir.

Basketball

Club career

Born in Reykjavík, Birgir started playing basketball at the age of 10. He played his first senior games with ÍR in 1964. In December, he was part of the first Icelandic team to participate in a continental competition when he scored a game high 16 points in a 71–17 victory against the

Collegians Collegians are an Australian rugby league football team based in Wollongong. The club are a part of Country Rugby League and compete in the Illawarra Rugby League premiership. Originally known as CBC Old Boys, the Club was founded in 1933. The ...

in the FIBA European Champions Cup (now EuroLeague). In the second game between the teams later in the month, he scored 26 points in ÍR's 63–47 victory. In 1972, he was named the league's best player. In 1972 he played for ÍR against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

in the FIBA European Champions Cup.

National team career

From 1966 to 1976, Birgir played 24 games for the Icelandic national team.

Awards, titles and accomplishments

Individual awards

* Úrvalsdeild Player of the Year:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Titles

* Úrvalsdeild karla (7): 1964,

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975

References

1948 births Living people Birgir Jakobsson Birgir Jakobsson Birgir Jakobsson {{Iceland-basketball-bio-stub