Jonas Juozas Žukas (October 29, 1915 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

- July 7, 1981) was a

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

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 ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. He won a gold medal with Lithuania national basketball team 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 ...

. Žukas lived in northern

, near

Ogden Park Ogden Park, also known as Ogden Skating Park, was a recreational facility on the near north side of Chicago around the 1860s and 1870s. It was home to the Ogden Skating Club. It was on a piece of land east of where Ontario Street (at that time) T-e ...

, and was known as Joseph "Joe" Zukas. His first visit to Lithuania was in 1930, where he worked as a sports instructor in the physical culture department in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

. He would later be part of a delegation of Lithuanian American athletes from Chicago that went to the 1935 World Lithuanian Congress in Kaunas, and stayed there teaching tennis and being a part of the national basketball team. He played basketball for CJSO Kaunas. He returned to the United States, and lived in Tucson, Arizona, where he died on July 7, 1981.

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography * Vidas Mačiulis, Vytautas Gudelis. Halė, kurioje žaidė Lubinas ir Sabonis. 1939–1989 – Respublikinis sporto kombinatas, Kaunas, 1989 1915 births 1981 deaths Basketball players from Chicago American people of Lithuanian descent FIBA EuroBasket–winning players Lithuanian men's basketball players {{Lithuania-basketball-bio-stub Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona