Vilmos Lóczi ( sr-Cyrl, Вилмош Лоци; 19 January 1925 – 12 July 1991), also credited as Vilmoš Loci, was a Yugoslav basketball coach and player. He represented the

Yugoslavia national basketball team The Yugoslavia men's national basketball team ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Košarkaška reprezentacija Jugoslavije, Кошаркашка репрезентација Југославије; ; ) represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

internationally. Lóczi was one of the best Yugoslav players from the 1940s and the 1950s according to Nebojša Popović,

Aleksandar Nikolić Aleksandar "Aca" Nikolić ( sr-cyr, Александар "Аца" Николић; 28 October 1924 – 12 March 2000) was a Serbian professional basketball player and coach. He was also a professor at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of S ...

Ranko Žeravica Ranko Žeravica ( sr-cyr, Ранко Жеравица; 17 November 1929 – 29 October 2015) was a Serbian professional basketball coach. With a career that spanned over 50 years, he is most noted for his work with the senior Yugoslav national ...

and

Mirko Novosel Mirko Novosel (30 June 1938 – 20 July 2023) was a Croatian professional basketball coach and player. Playing career Novosel played club basketball, from 1952 to 1966, with Lokomotiva Zagreb (later changed to KK Cibona Zagreb). Coaching caree ...

Early life

Lóczi was born in Veliki Bečkerek to Hungarian parents from Pest. His father was a

construction worker A construction worker is a person employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definitions By some definitions, construction workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers ...

who died in Albania.

Playing career

Lóczi started to play basketball for his hometown team Proleter of the

Yugoslav Basketball League The First Federal Basketball League () was the highest tier level men's professional club basketball competition in the former country of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia. Founded in 1945, and folded in 1992 (1991–92 YU ...

. In 1948, he moved to Belgrade-based team Partizan where he played until 1950. Over three seasons with Partizan, he averaged 11.7 points per game. In 1951, Lóczi moved back to Proleter. On 19 June 1951, Lóczi played one game for

Crvena zvezda Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

at an international cup tournament in

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, Italy. He recorded game-high 19 points in a 54–24 win over Ginnastica Roma. During his second stint with Proleter, he won the National Championships in the 1956 season. Lóczi was a part of the group of players known as the Proleter's Five, which included himself, Milutin Minja, Ljubomir Katić, Dušan Radojčić, and Lajos Engler. In 1960, Lóczi announced his retirement from playing after Proleter got relegated from the First League.

National team career

Lóczi was a member of the Yugoslavia national team that participated at the

1950 FIBA World Championship The 1950 FIBA World Championship, also called the 1st World Basketball Championship – 1950, was the inaugural edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, World Cup basketball tournament for men's national teams. It was held by the Internatio ...

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, Argentina. Over four tournament games, he averaged 7.8 points per game. The World Championship in Argentina was the inaugural tournament. At the 1953 FIBA European Championship in

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, the Soviet Union, he averaged 6.7 points per game over eleven tournament games. At the

1954 FIBA World Championship The 1954 FIBA Basketball World Cup, FIBA World Championship (also called the 2nd World Basketball Championship – 1954) was the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. It was held by the International Basketball ...

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, Brazil, Lóczi averaged 7.0 points per game over five tournament games. At the 1955 FIBA European Championship in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary, he averaged 8.2 points per game over nine tournament games. On June 10, 1955, he scored a national team-high 16 points in a win over

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. At the 1957 FIBA European Championship in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Bulgaria, he averaged 2.8 points per game over eight tournament games. Lóczi is the first player who appeared in 100 games for the Yugoslavia national team. He averaged 6.7 points per game over 101 career games for the national team. Lóczi was the national team captain from 1953 to 1957.

Coaching career

Lóczi began his coaching career in Proleter. Also, he coached teams in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Lóczi was the head coach of the Central African Republic national team for two years. He led the national team at the

1974 FIBA World Championship The 1974 FIBA World Championship was the 7th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. It was hosted by Puerto Rico from July 3 to 14, 1974. The tournament was won by the Soviet Union men's ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. He also coached the United Arab Emirates national team.

Career achievements and awards

* Yugoslav League champion: 1 (with Proleter Zrenjanin:

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

). * Plaque of the Basketball Federation of Serbia (2016, ''posthumous'')

In popular culture

* In the 2015 Serbian sports drama ''

We Will Be the World Champions ''We Will Be the World Champions'' () is a 2015 Serbian Sports film, sports drama film directed by Darko Bajić. It was one of six films shortlisted by Serbia to be their submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88t ...

'' Lóczi is portrayed by Ivan Zablaćanski. * The 2016 Serbian documentary, ''Šampioni iz pedeset i šeste'' (), portrays Lóczi and the achievements of the Proleter basketball team in the mid 1950s and how they won the Yugoslav Championship in 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loczi, Vilmos 1925 births 1991 deaths Hungarians in Vojvodina KK Crvena zvezda players KK Partizan players KK Proleter Zrenjanin players KK Proleter Zrenjanin coaches Serbian expatriate basketball people in Saudi Arabia Serbian expatriate basketball people in the Central African Republic Serbian expatriate basketball people in the United Arab Emirates Serbian men's basketball players Serbian men's basketball coaches Basketball players from Zrenjanin Yugoslav men's basketball players Yugoslav basketball coaches 1950 FIBA World Championship players 1954 FIBA World Championship players