Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Zenonas Puzinauskas
Lithuanian basketball player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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]
Remove ads
Biography
Summarize
Perspective
Puzinauskas was born in the village of Kulva, Jonava County, Lithuania.[4][5] He graduated from Kaunas Jėzuitai Gymnasium and from Vytautas Magnus University (philosophy and physical education degree).[5] In 1935, he started to play basketball for the Kaunas "Grandies" club.[5] He played for the Lithuania men's national basketball team twice (1937, 1939) and became European champion both times.[5] Aside from being the youngest player on the team, he was also a scholar athlete.[5]
In 1944 he moved to Austria and later to Germany.[5] 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][6] Later he worked for the Red Cross.[5] He was also active in Lithuanian emigrants activities.[5] 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]
Remove ads
State awards
Sources
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads