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Lithuanian basketball player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zenonas Puzinauskas (March 4, 1920 – July 16, 1995[1]) was a Lithuanian basketball player. He won two gold medals with the Lithuania national basketball team during EuroBasket 1937 and EuroBasket 1939.[2][3]
Zenonas Puzinauskas in 1939 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | March 4, 1920 Kaunas, Lithuania | |||||||||||||||||
| Died | July 16, 1995 (aged 75) Beverly Shores, Indiana, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 198 lb (90 kg) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Zenonas was born in Kaunas.[4] He graduated from Kaunas Jėzuitai Gymnasium and from Vytautas Magnus University. In 1935, he started to play basketball for the Kaunas "Grandies" club. He played for the Lithuanian national basketball team twice (1937, 1939) and became Europe champion both times. Aside from being the youngest player on the team, he was also a scholar athlete.
In 1944 he moved to Austria and later to Germany. He worked as an interpreter in the United States Army[3][4] and played for the Kempton Šarūnas Lithuanian emigrants basketball team. He was an active war refugee sport organizer. In 1947, in Augsburg, he was nominated as the Lithuanian emigrants' Physical Education and Sports Association chairman. He spoke and read Lithuanian, Russian, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, and English, and he had a strong command and understanding of Ancient Greek and Latin.
In 1951 he moved to the United States[4] and worked at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Chicago department.[3][5] Later he worked for the Red Cross. He also was active in emigrant activities. His wife was Ona Puzinauskas (1922–2021), and they had one daughter, Dalia K Puzinauskas (Wendt).[3][4] In 1987, he moved to Beverly Shores, Indiana, where he died in 1995.[4]
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