Racing Basket Mechelen

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Racing Basket Mechelen as the basketball department of the Koninklijke Racing Club Mechelen was for a long time the most successful department of the Belgian sports club from Mechelen . The men's basketball team is the Belgian record champion in basketball with 15 titles and was merged with a neighboring club from Antwerp to become Racing Basket Antwerp in 1995 .

history

In 1949 the club registered its basketball team with the Belgian Basketball Association as the 71st team in total, which initially started in the third Belgian basketball league. After several promotions and relegations, the club was able to establish itself in the first division from 1962. In 1964, the club won the first national title by winning the cup. The championship and cup double followed in 1965 . Three more championships until 1969, followed by two more cup wins and in 1973 the entry into the final game of the Korać Cup , in which Birra Forst Cantù had to admit defeat. This was and remained the furthest advance in a European club competition. This was followed by four more national championships until 1980.

Then you could only build on old successes in the mid-1980s, when you could get Rik Samaey , who came from series champion BC Ostend , who had previously won six championships from 1981 to 1986. After winning the cup in 1986, they won a national double again the following year. 1989 followed the most successful period of the club with the then most important Belgian basketball player Éric Struelens , when they won six championships in a row, including three times in connection with the cup victory as a double. In 1994 they only failed because of the poorer direct comparison with FC Barcelona in the quarter-final play-offs in the FIBA Europa League , the highest European club competition at the time. In 1995, after financial problems and the loss of Struelens to competitor Spirou BC Charleroi, the merger with Sobabee from neighboring Antwerp to form Racing Basket Antwerp.

successes

  • 15 × Belgian champion (1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994)
  • 9 × Belgian Cup winners (1964, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1994)
  • Korać Cup finalist (1973)

Important players

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WATCO Antwerp / European Championship for Men's Clubs 1994 - Semi-Final Round. FIBA Europe , accessed on March 18, 2013 (English, game results including table in the right column).