The Czechoslovakia national basketball team (, ) represented Czechoslovakia in international basketball from 1932 to 1992. After the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia set up their own national teams. Both teams are recognized as the successor to the Czechoslovak team.
Medals EuroBasket 1935 – Bronze medal EuroBasket 1946 – Champions EuroBasket 1947 – Silver medal EuroBasket 1951 – Silver medal EuroBasket 1955 – Silver medal EuroBasket 1957 – Bronze medal EuroBasket 1959 – Silver medal EuroBasket 1967 – Silver medal EuroBasket 1969 – Bronze medal EuroBasket 1977 – Bronze medal EuroBasket 1981 – Bronze medal EuroBasket 1985 – Silver medal
History EuroBasket 1935 The Czechoslovak side came in third place at the first European basketball championship, the EuroBasket 1935 held by the International Basketball Federation's FIBA Europe continental federation. They defeated France in the preliminary round to advance to the semifinals. There they lost to Spain, resulting in a playoff for third place with Switzerland which the Czechoslovaks won 25–23.
EuroBasket 1937 In the EuroBasket 1937 competition, the Czechoslovaks finished seventh of eight teams. Their preliminary group included the powerful French, Polish, and Latvian teams, each of which defeated Czechoslovakia in the preliminary round. The Czechoslovaks then faced Estonia in the classification semifinals, losing again. Their final match was against Egypt in the 7th/8th playoff; since Egypt had withdrawn during preliminary play, Czechoslovakia received their only win by default.
EuroBasket 1946 Czechoslovakia returned to European competition with EuroBasket 1946. They started off well in a tournament notably lacking the Baltic countries that had dominated the pre-war competitions. Defeating Switzerland and then Belgium, the Czechoslovak team placed first in the preliminary round group of three. They moved on to the semifinal round, facing the Hungarians. A 42–28 win secured a place in the championship game for Czechoslovakia. In that game, they played the undefeated Italy. After training 18–21 at halftime, Czechoslovakia came back to win the game 34–32 to win their first European championship.
EuroBasket 1947 Defending champions and tournament hosts Czechoslovakia started off well again at EuroBasket 1947, winning all three of their preliminary round matches and then all three of their semifinal round matches. This put them in their first match up against the Soviet Union in the championship game. In the first of five championship game matches between the European titans, Czechoslovakia lost 56–37 to finish with a silver medal.
EuroBasket 1951 Czechoslovakia did not compete at EuroBasket 1949 in Cairo, returning to the European championships at EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. They endured some hardship in the tournament, losing to Belgium in the preliminary round to finish the round 2–1 and second-ranked of the four teams in the pool. This was sufficient to advance to the semifinal round, however. There, they faced the dominant Soviet Union, losing their second game of the tournament and again finishing second of four in the pool with a 2–1 record. This put them in a match up against the first-ranked team from the opposite pool, hosts France. Czechoslovakia won 59–50, advancing to the final, a rematch against the Soviets.
In what was by far the closest game the Soviets had yet endured in European play, Czechoslovakia managed to bring the game to a 44–44 tie with 1 second remaining to play before fouling Ilmar Kullam and sending him to the free throw line to attempt a free throw. Kullam made the shot, but one of the referees gave an initial signal that he had stepped on the line during the attempt and that therefore the shot did not count. Consultation with another referee eventually resulted in the point being allowed, and Czechoslovakia lost its second championship game to the Soviet Union 45–44.
EuroBasket 1953 After placing in the top two in each of their last three appearances, the fourth-place finish that Czechoslovakia earned at EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow was somewhat of a disappointment. However, the difference between 2nd and 5th in 1953 was a 4-way tie-breaker, in which the Czechoslovakia squad had gotten the third spot for fourth place overall.
The preliminary round posed little difficulty, with Czechoslovakia winning all three games. The final round, however, saw Czechoslovakia lose close matches to Israel and Yugoslavia, as well as the Soviet squad, on their way to a 4–3 record in the final round. This put Czechoslovakia on an equal footing with Hungary, France national basketball team, and Italy in a tie for second behind the Soviets. Despite Czechoslovakia having beaten Hungary and France, both teams came about above Czechoslovakia in the final standings, while Israel was dropped to fifth place.
EuroBasket 1955 In Budapest for the EuroBasket 1955 competition, the Czechoslovakia team found itself slaying giants but falling to less vaunted opponents. They had little difficulty in the preliminary round, going 3–0 to advance to the final pool. There, Czechoslovakia defeated powerful Hungary, in Hungary's only loss of the final round on their way to the gold medal, but also gave Yugoslavia the only win the Yugoslavian team would get in the final round as Czechoslovakia fell 52–49 to the eventual 8th-place finishers. A third-round loss to Poland made the round robin look bleak for the Czechoslovak team, as they were already down to 1–2 and had yet to face the Soviet Union, which had yet to lose a game in 4 tournaments and 31 matches.
Nevertheless, Czechoslovakia defeated the Soviets 81–74 in a surprising match. They then won their next three games, finishing in second place with the silver medal and a 5–2, edging out the Soviets who were also 5–2 after losing to Hungary in their sixth match. Czechoslovakia had managed to defeat both the gold medallists and bronze medallists, meanwhile losing to teams that finished 5th and 8th.
EuroBasket 1957 Sofia was the location of Czechoslovakia's next European tournament entry, EuroBasket 1957. They had little difficulty in the preliminary round, winning each of their three games by 18 points or more. In the final round, Czechoslovakia met with Bulgaria and Soviet Union in the second and third matches of the 7-game round robin, losing those two to drop to an early 1–2 record. However, none of the other teams in the final round could match the Czechoslovakia squad, and the team finished at 5–2 with a bronze medal behind the Bulgarians and Soviets. Czechoslovak player Jiří Baumruk was named MVP.
Statistics Top career caps Players with the most caps (total games played):
RankPlayerCaps (Total Games Played)1.Kamil Brabenec4032.Vlastimil Havlík3703.Stanislav Kropilák3684.Zdeněk Kos3455.Gustáv Hraška3366.Jaroslav Skála3337.Jiří Pospíšil2768.Jan Bobrovský2679.Jiří Zídek Sr.25710.Peter Rajniak25511.Vojtěch Petr25112.Zdeněk Böhm25013.Zdeněk Douša24614.Juraj Žuffa24115.Jiří Růžička24016.Vlastibor Klimeš23417.Jiří Okáč23018.Oto Matický22419.Leoš Krejčí21920.Jiří Zedníček21721.František Konvička21622.Bohumil Tomášek20523.Vladimír Pištělák203
Top 20 career scorers Includes total points scored in only games played at the FIBA Pre-Olympic Tournament, the FIBA European Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the Summer Olympics, the FIBA World Cup, and the FIBA EuroBasket.
RankPlayerPoints ScoredCapsPoints Per Game1.Kamil Brabenec 1,93912215.92.Stanislav Kropilák1,3829215.03.Jiří Zídek Sr.1,2308714.14.Zdeněk Kos1,15011310.25.Jiří Pospíšil791859.36.Gustáv Hraška761918.47.Jan Bobrovský748789.68.Jiří Baumruk6545511.99.František Konvička6546110.710.Ivan Mrázek6295012.611.Jiří Zedníček624669.512.Jaroslav Skála 574698.313.Jaroslav Šíp4854311.314.Jiří Růžička478667.215.Miroslav Škeřík477499.716.Jaroslav Tetiva473627.617.Vlastimil Havlík471627.618.Zdeněk Douša434716.119.Bohumil Tomášek417469.120.Peter Rajniak4084010.2
Rosters 1935 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 3rd among 10 teams
Jiří Čtyřoký, Jan Feřtek, Josef Franc, Josef Klíma, Josef Moc, František Picek, Václav Voves
1936 Summer Olympic Games: finished 11th among 21 teams
Jiří Čtyřoký, Josef Klíma, František Picek, Josef Moc, Karel Kuhn, Ladislav Prokop, Ladislav Trpkoš, Hubert Prokop
1937 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 7th among 8 teams
Jan Kozák, Josef Klíma, Ladislav Prokop, Josef Bartoníček, Ludvík Dvořáček, Silverius Labohý, Zdeněk Scholler, Bertan Štorkán (Head coach: František Marek)
1939 FIBA EuroBasket: did not participate
1946 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 1st among 10 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Gustáv Hermann, Miloš Bobocký, Jiří Drvota, Josef Ezr, Ján Hluchý, Josef Křepela, Pavel Nerad, Ladislav Šimáček, František Stibitz, Josef Toms, Ladislav Trpkoš, Emil Velenský, Miroslav Vondráček (Head coach: František Hájek)
1947 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 2nd among 14 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Jiří Drvota, Gustáv Hermann, Miloš Bobocký, Jan Kozák, Josef Ezr, Karel Bělohradský, Miroslav Dostál, Milan Fráňa, Václav Krása, Josef Toms, Ladislav Trpkoš, Emil Velenský, Miroslav Vondráček (Head coach: Josef Fleischlinger)
1948 Summer Olympic Games: finished 7th among 23 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Jan Kozák, Josef Ezr, Jiří Drvota, Karel Bělohradský, Ctirad Benáček, Zdeněk Chlup, Jozef Kalina, Václav Krása, Zoltán Krenický, Josef Křepela, Jiří Siegel, Josef Toms, Ladislav Trpkoš
1949 FIBA EuroBasket: did not participate
1950 FIBA World Championship: did not participate
1951 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 2nd among 17 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Miroslav Škeřík, Jiří Baumruk, Jaroslav Šíp, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Jan Kozák, Zdeněk Rylich, Miroslav Baumruk, Zoltán Krenický, Karel Belohradsky, Jindřich Kinský, Jiří Matoušek, Miloš Nebuchla, Arnošt Novák, Karel Sobota, Stanislav Vykydal (Head coach: Josef Andrle)
1952 Summer Olympic Games: finished 10th among 23 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Miroslav Škeřík, Jiří Baumruk, Jaroslav Šíp, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Jan Kozák, Zdeněk Rylich, Miroslav Baumruk, Jiří Matoušek, Eugen Horniak, Jaroslav Tetiva, Josef Ezr, Lubomír Kolář, Miloslav Kodl
1953 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 4th among 17 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Jiří Baumruk, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Jan Kozák, Miroslav Škeřík, Zdeněk Rylich, Radoslav Šíp, Jaroslav Tetiva, Jaroslav Šíp, Jindřich Kinský, Eugen Horniak, Rudolf Stanček, Lubomir Kolář (Head coach: Lubomír Dobrý)
1954 FIBA World Championship: did not participate
1955 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 2nd among 18 teams
Ivan Mrázek, Jiří Baumruk, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Miroslav Škeřík, Jaroslav Šíp, Zdeněk Rylich, Jaroslav Tetiva, Radoslav Sís, Eugen Horniak, Jan Kozák, Lubomír Kolář, Dušan Lukášik, Jiří Matoušek, Milan Merkl (Head coach: Josef Fleischlinger)
1956 Summer Olympic Games: did not participate
1957 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 3rd among 16 teams
Jiří Baumruk, Miroslav Škeřík, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Jaroslav Šíp, Zdeněk Rylich, Lubomír Kolář, Dušan Lukášik, Jaroslav Chocholáč, Milan Merkl, Nikolaj Ordnung, Jaroslav Tetiva, Jiří Tetiva (Head coach: Gustáv Hermann)
1959 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 2nd among 17 teams
Jiří Baumruk, František Konvička, Bohumil Tomášek, Jaroslav Křivý, Miroslav Škeřík, Jaroslav Šíp, Boris Lukášik, Dušan Lukášik, Zdeněk Rylich, Jiří Šťastný, Jaroslav Tetiva, Bohuslav Rylich (Head coach: Gustáv Hermann)
1959 FIBA World Championship: did not participate
1960 Summer Olympic Games: finished 5th among 16 teams
Jiří Baumruk, František Konvička, Vladimír Pištělák, Bohumil Tomášek, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Jiří Tetiva, Boris Lukášik, Jiří Šťastný, Bohuslav Rylich, Jan Kinský, Dušan Lukášik, Zdeněk Konečný (Head coach: Ivan Mrázek)
1961 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 5th among 19 teams
František Konvička, Vladimír Pištělák, Jiří Baumruk, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Bohumil Tomášek, Bohuslav Rylich, Jaroslav Tetiva, František Pokorný, Zdeněk Konečný, Jiří Marek, Miloš Pražák, Vladimír Lodr (Head coach: L. Krnáč)
1963 FIBA EuroBasket: finished 10th among 16 teams