Basketball
Basketball in Belarus has been cultivated since 1921 in the sports club “Subbotnik” in Vitebsk. Accordingly, Vitebsk is the birthplace of Belarusian basketball.
In 1924, the Supreme Council of Physical Culture held in Minsk the first All-Belarusian festival of Physical Culture, later called the First All-Belarusian Spartakiad. Basketball was included in the program of this Spartakiad.
The first more or less large-scale basketball competitions in the republic took place on August 26, 1926 at the so-called All-Belarusian Olympiad, which was attended by men’s and women’s teams from Vitebsk, Minsk, Bobruisk, Mogilev, Borisov, Orsha, Slutsk, Mozyr and Polotsk. Now the teams of Minsk have already taken the leading positions, the second were the teams of Vitebsk. As a result of this Olympiad, the national teams of the republic were formed.
The basketball players of the capital and especially the basketball players had a clear advantage over their colleagues from the teams of regional centers.
In 1929, there were 89 basketball sections in the republic, and about 300 competitions were held during the year. Basketball developed rapidly within the republic and took the second place in terms of mass after athletics.
From 1934 to 1936, the national teams of the cities of Belarus took part in the USSR Championships.
In 1936, basketball was first involved in the Olympic Games program. I would like to note that 1948 went down in the history of Belarusian basketball as the year of the organization of the first children’s sports school.
In 1949, competitions for the Belarusian Cup were held for the first time. The first two years the cup was won by the Minsk Bolshevik teams (women and men).
Basketball developed quite intensively in Minsk. The teams “Temp”, “Bolshevik”, “Spartak”, “Iskra”, “Burevestnik” and a number of other teams appeared.
1960 – the Burevestnik women’s team under the leadership of I. Smushkevich and A. Abramovich achieved great success – entered the highest league of the USSR championship – class “A”, but the first season of games in class “A” turned out to be unsuccessful. Since 1962, our Belarusian women’s basketball has been back in the second tier of All-Union basketball, and this continued until 1981, when the women’s team, now Horizon, entered the top league.
The first success in men’s basketball at the All-Union arena came in 1961. The Spartak team won the all-Union championship of the Spartak society, which gave the right to receive the first titles of “Masters of Sports of the USSR” to seven basketball players of the republic.
During these years, men’s basketball has been actively introduced into the student environment. In 1964, a new modern university was formed – RTI, and under it the student team of RTI was organized, which a year later competed with the leader of the republican student basketball – the Institute of Physical Culture.
In 1972, the RTI team entered the major leagues. In the same year, Ivan Edeshko became an Olympic champion in the USSR national team. His famous pass 3 seconds before the end of the match with the Americans helped to sum up the hegemony of American basketball players, which lasted 36 years.
For 20 years, students of the Belarusian basketball school have been part of the national teams of the Soviet Union of different ages, both men’s and women’s, and have participated in competitions of various ranks: from the Universiades to the Olympic Games
Public Association “Belarusian Basketball Federation”
Address: Belarus, Minsk, Pobediteley ave., 23/1 (3rd floor, office block 322)
Index: 220004
E-mail: info@bbf.by
Phone/fax: +375 (17) 292-86-30
Chairman Maxim Vladimirovich Ryzhenkov
Deputy Chairman Andrey Anatolyevich Balabin
Deputy Chairman Rasseko Vladimir Petrovich
Deputy Chairman Buben Anatoly Anatolyevich
Secretary General Marinina Anastasia Vladimirovna
Sports schools, clubs, basketball clubs in Minsk
Basketball club “Tsmoki-Minsk”
Address: Uralskaya str., 3a,
Phone number: +375 (17) 260-42-51, +375 (17) 356-17-51
Chairman: Yuri Ivanovich Shakola, +375 (17) 260-42-51, +375 (29) 650-55-26
Deputy Chairman for ML: Khodenkova Olga Alexandrovna, +375 (17) 397-79-40, +375 (29) 697-88-67
Deputy Chairman for AHR: Tolkach Alexander Viktorovich, +375 (29) 677-01-61
Sports school of the basketball club “Tsmoki-Minsk”
Address: 3a Uralskaya street
Phone number: +375 (17) 364-64-43, +375 (17) 358-98-41
Director of SDYUSSHOR: Ivashkov Pyotr Leonidovich
Basketball sports school of JSC “Horizont”
Address: Kuibyshev str., 22-205,
Phone number: +375 (17) 286-03-51, +375 (17) 288-13-24
