Guðmundur Þorsteinsson (1 October 1942 – 16 January 2011) was an Icelandic basketball player and coach. Playing the center position, he was considered one of the best Icelandic basketball players of his generation and was a key player in ÍR's domination of the Icelandic championship in the early sixties. He was forced to retire from basketball at the age of 22 due to a serious illness.

Basketball career

Club career

Guðmundur was a key member of the ÍR team that did not lose a game in the Icelandic tournament from 1960 to 1964, winning five straight national championships. He was the first Icelander to score in a continental competition when he scored ÍR's first point from a

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

in a 71-17 victory against

Collegians Collegians are an Australian rugby league football team based in Wollongong, New South Wales, 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 c ...

from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

in the first round of the

1964–65 FIBA European Champions Cup The 1964–65 FIBA European Champions Cup was the eighth season of the European professional club basketball system, European top-tier level professional basketball club competition FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). It was won b ...

(now called

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

). His last career game came in the first leg of the second round of the Champions Cup against

ASVEL ASVEL Basket, currently known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team located in the commune of Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, France. The club, which is the basketball section of the ASVEL multi-sports ...

on 10 January 1965, where he scored 9 points in a 42-74 loss.

National team career

Guðmundur played 6 games for the Icelandic national basketball team from 1961 to 1962.

Coaching career

After his playing career ended, Guðmundur coached

Haukar Knattspyrnufélagið Haukar (, ) is an Icelandic multi-sport club from Hafnarfjörður with divisions in Association football, Football, Haukar Handball, Handball, Basketball, Haukar RC, Rugby union, Karate, Skiing & Chess. Club history The clu ...

, KR, Njarvík and Valur. He also served as the head coach of the Icelandic men's national basketball team from 1968 to 1969 and again in 1972.

Controversies

On 14 March 1971

Njarðvík Njarðvík () is a town in southwestern Iceland, on the peninsula of Reykjanes. As of 2009, its population was 4,400. History In 1995 it merged with the town of Keflavík and the village of Hafnir to form the new municipality of Reykjanesbær. ...

, which was coached by Guðmundur, met KR in their last game of the season. The game was meaningless for both teams, Njarðvík was already relegated and while KR was in second place, rivals ÍR had already secured the first place and the national championship. Before the game, Njarðvík only had four players ready to play so they turned to player of rival team HSK, Sigurður Valur, to fill the fifth spot. KR on the other hand fielded a former player of theirs named Gunnar Gunnarsson, who was playing for Skallagrímur in the second-tier

2. deild karla 2. deild karla () is a football league in Iceland. It is the third division in the Icelandic football league system. The current champions are Afturelding from Mosfellsbær, who won their 1st title in 2018. The division was started in 1966 as th ...

. In the last minutes of the game one of the Njarðvík's players fouled out so Guðmundur substituted himself in, finishing the game in his dress pants and scoring two points. After the game, the national newspapers were outraged, calling the game ''The travesty game'' (Icelandic: Skrípaleikurinn) and lamenting the disrespect by both teams towards the game. In the end the results of the game were nulled and the teams ordered to play it again. In the rematch, KR won a convincing 99-61 victory.

Titles

* Icelandic Champion:

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Death

Guðmundur died on 16 January 2011, at the age of 68, after battling an unspecific illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorsteinsson, Guðmundur 1942 births 2011 deaths Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Gudmundur Thorsteinsson Centers (basketball) 20th-century Icelandic sportsmen