Feliksas Kriaučiūnas (Americanized his name as Phil Krause; August 18, 1911 – October 28, 1977) was a

Lithuanian American Lithuanian Americans refer to American citizens and residents of Lithuanian descent or were born in Lithuania. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in its population in the United States. ...

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 and coach. He won two gold medals with Lithuania national basketball team and silver medal with

Lithuania women's national basketball team The Lithuania women's national basketball team () represents Lithuania in international women's basketball competitions. They are regulated by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Lithuania. The team is cur ...

Biography

Feliksas studied and played for

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

team, along with his brother

Moose Krause Edward Walter "Moose" Krause (born Edward Walter Kriaučiūnas; ; February 2, 1913 – December 11, 1992) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player, track athlete, coach, and college athletics administrator. He lettered in four ...

. Later he moved to

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

and played for their university team. In 1935, along with other

s, he started teaching Lithuanians how to play basketball. He was Lithuania national basketball team

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

and team captain during

EuroBasket 1937 The 1937 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1937, was the second FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA. Eight national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took p ...

and

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 ...

. As soon as

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

begun in 1939, Kriaučiūnas and his brother traveled back to the United States.Mr. Notre Dame: The Life and Legend of Edward Moose Krause
/ref> Kriaučiūnas played a total of 19 games, scoring 65 points. He also was the head coach of

during the first ever women's EuroBasket in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

where Lithuania won silver medals. He also firmly contributed in developing nowadays basketball in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

State awards

* Order of Vytautas the Great Officer Cross (1937)

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography *Vidas Mačiulis, Vytautas Gudelis. Halė, kurioje žaidė Lubinas ir Sabonis. 1939–1989 – Respublikinis sporto kombinatas, Kaunas, 1989 1911 births 1977 deaths DePaul Blue Demons men's basketball players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players FIBA EuroBasket–winning coaches FIBA EuroBasket–winning players Lithuanian basketball coaches Lithuanian men's basketball players 20th-century American sportsmen {{1910s-US-basketball-bio-stub

Biography

State awards

See also

References