Vytautas Norkus (28 January 1921 – 29 January 2014) was a Lithuanian-born American

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 won a gold medal with the

Lithuania national basketball team Lithuania national basketball team may refer to: * Lithuania men's national basketball team * Lithuania women's national basketball team * Lithuania men's national under-20 basketball team * Lithuania men's national under-18 and under-19 basketball ...

during

EuroBasket 1939 The 1939 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1939, was the third FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA. Eight national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took par ...

Biography

He studied at

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

Aušra boys gymnasium. From 15 years old he started to play basketball. Later in

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (VDU)) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known ...

he studied physical education. He also played for Kaunas "Grandies" team, later for Kaunas "Perkūnas". He was invited to join

and participate in

. He became

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

champion that year. Spectators were pleased to see combination performed by him along with

Vytautas Budriūnas Vytautas Budriūnas (Americanized his name as Walter "Whitey" Budrun; born December 19, 1908; died June 28, 2003) was a Lithuanian basketball player. He won gold medal at EuroBasket 1939 with Lithuania men's national basketball team, Lithuania ...

and

Pranas Lubinas Frank John Lubin ( lt, Pranas Jonas Lubinas; January 7, 1910 – July 8, 1999) was a Lithuanian-American basketball player. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins from 1928 to 1931. In 1997, Lubin was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hal ...

. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he moved to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, where he played for Kempton ''Šarūnas'' Lithuanian emigrants basketball team. In 1949 he moved to

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

References

Sources

* Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų lietuviai. (II t.) – Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras, Vilnius, 1998 * Vidas Mačiulis, Vytautas Gudelis. Halė, kurioje žaidė Lubinas ir Sabonis. 1939–1989 – Respublikinis sporto kombinatas, Kaunas, 1989 1921 births 2014 deaths Place of birth missing FIBA EuroBasket-winning players Lithuanian men's basketball players Soviet expatriates in Germany Soviet emigrants to the United States {{Lithuania-basketball-bio-stub