Thursday, May 10, 2007

Black Sports Pioneers Thrived in Italy Where They Were NOT Discriminated Against

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Elliot van Zandt, Jimmy Strong, and Clarence Burks were  three African-Americans who arrived in Italy to fight a war. With the war over, they had little to go back to in the United States, after having served in an apartheid Military, so they chose to rebuild their futures in the company of men and women who would not discriminate against them. They stayed in Italy.......

Most importantly, as Pioneers, these three men also taught and inspired countless players and coaches. in the areas of basketball and baseball.

Many others have followed, but it was not easy to compile their names.

As a side note, Mano Ginobli a non black Italian starring for the San Antonio Spurs is an ultimate product of these pioneering African American Athletes in Italy.

I also find it amusing that a number of sports stars, notably Kobe Bryant, speak Italian as a result of his father Joe "Jelly Bean" Bryant who after playing eight seasons in the NBA with the 76ers, Clippers and Rockets. moved his family to Rieti, Italy,(half way between Rome and Perugia) to play pro basketball in 1984 when Kobe was 6. Bryant acclimated to the lifestyle and became fluent in Italian. At an early age, he learned to play soccer. He has said that if he had stayed in Italy, he would have tried to become a professional soccer player, and that his favorite team is AC Milan.

Kobe liked basketball, but finds little interest among friends. "After school I would be the only guy on the basketball court, working on my moves, and then kids would start showing up with their soccer ball. It was either go home or be the goalkeeper."

 After school, Kobe would join his dad at practices. He works on free-throw shooting off to the side while the team works out. "Sure, we were in Italy," Joe Bryant says, "but he was around basketball all the time, playing against older guys."

In 1991, when Kobe was 13, the Bryants moved back to the United States. Kobe was drafted right out of Lower Merion, PA High School in the first round when he was 18.

Kobe established "Vivo Del Mondo", that organizes annual  nine-day, all-expense paid trip to Italy for eight black and Hispanic college students, who were selected by two scholarship funds, and will visit Rome, Florence and Venice.

Kobe has returned to Italy numerable times with and without his family.

 

Remembering Three Giants Of Italian Sports (Part One)--- Elliot van Zandt

Black American Sports Network

By Alipio Terenzi,

May 8, 2007 

NOTE: Over the next three days, BASN will take a look at three African-American pioneers of sports. You may not have ever heard of Elliot van Zandt, Jimmy Strong, or Clarence Burks. But by the end of the week, you will as writer Alipio M. Terenzi tells you of their accomplishents. Today, Terenzi tells the story of Elliot van Zandt.

SEATTLE -- The time is 1947 in Italy. Can you name one African American who coached or played basketball or baseball in Italy immediately after World War II? Most likely you couldn't answer this question

And yet there were three black men who made very important contributions to the Italian -- and indeed European --  sports scene between 1947 and 1960.

Their names are long forgotten here in the USA, but in Italy they are still fondly remembered as the men who brought Italian basketball and baseball to a different level.

These men were Elliot van Zandt, Jimmy Strong, and Clarence Burks. All three served in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II, and all three decided to stay on and do what they loved: play ball and coach.

They stepped out of the demeaning apartheid reality of the American army, and established themselves as outstanding players and coaches in a post-war Italy where there was respect and admiration for them. Italy was ready for them.

Basketball was very popular but desperately needed an infusion of new ideas. And baseball had just exploded onto the sports scene in 1947 in Nettuno, thanks to Charles Butte, and was spreading like wildfire.

Of these three men, Elliot van Zandt is probably the one who had the greatest impact on Italian sports. Born in Arkansas in 1915, van Zandt was an athletic trainer who loved to teach and share his knowledge.

As early as 1947 van Zandt was hired by the president of the fledgling Italian Basketball Federation to train all the national basketball teams. From 1947 to 1951 he was the head coach of the Italian men's basketball team.

During this period he also traveled around Italy, teaching the fundamentals of basketball to players and coaches. As the coach of the Italian basketball team, Van Zandt constantly stressed physical preparation and what he called the "fundamentals" of basketball.

While Van Zandt was not allowed to attend the 1947 European Basketball Championships in Czechoslovakia -- it was the Cold War -- he did take the national team to the 1948 London Olympics.

When his stint as a head coach ended in 1951, van Zandt was then hired as the head coach of the Turkish national basketball team. He took this team to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

In 1953, van Zandt returned to Italy, where he was head coach for the C.U.S. Milano baseball team, where he was head coach for the C.U.S. Milano baseball team from 1955 to 1958, as well as coaching rugby, basketball, and track for this sports club.

Van Zandt is fondly remembered by his former players for his non-traditional coaching methods. He had a great sense of humor, but could also be very tough. If a baseball player made two or three errors in a row during practice, van Zandt would have them bend over and then kick them in the behind! Another approach was to have the offending player go around the bases on his knees.

Perhaps van Zandt's greatest success came as an athletic trainer for the prestigious A.C. Milan soccer team from 1956 to 1959. Here, working closely with head coach Bonizzoni, van Zandt broke new ground in the world of soccer. He was the first athletic trainer in Italian soccer.

His innovative training methods helped the Milan team win the top flight Serie A professional soccer championship in 1958-59. Tragically, van Zandt was not able to continue his work with A.C. Milan.

Unfortunately, he died of a kidney disease while on a plane flight back to Chicago, where he was hoping to have a kidney transplant.

http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish/

BASN_Focus_On_History_4/Remembering_

Three_Giants_Of_Italian_Sports_Part_Three.shtml

 

Remembering Three Giants Of Italian Sports (Part Two)----Jimmy Strong.

Black American Sports Network

By Alipio M. Terenzi
May 9, 2007

NOTE: Continuing BASN's three-part report on three great African-American pioneers of sports, writer Alipio M. Terenzi tells us the story of the versatile athlete and coach, Jimmy Strong and his impact on his European followers in Italy.

SEATTLE -- While Elliot van Zandt was spreading his gospel of the basics of basketball, Jimmy Strong was playing and coaching very successfully in central Italy.

Indeed the two ex-soldiers were slated to play on the same Livorno basketball team in 1947, but van Zandt was hired by the Italian basketball federation.

Jimmy Strong was an outstanding athlete and a natural coach in his own right. His speed and strength on the baseball field were impressive, as were his ball-handling skills on the basketball court.

Livorno basketball fans carried Strong in triumph after one of his amazing games in 1947. Strong then started playing basketball in Bologna in 1948.

He is now considered to be the first foreigner ever recruited to play basketball in Bologna, one of the strongholds of Italian basketball.

The locals in Bologna would flock to watch Jimmy Strong's practices and games. Strong both coached and played for the Gira basketball team.

While doing double-duty for this basketball team, Strong also played baseball for the Libertas Bologna team in 1948, winning the first Italian baseball title.

His former players remember him for his deep knowledge of the game and its rules. Strong is considered a landmark in the history of Bologna baseball.

Former pitcher and national team player Franco Ludovisi describes him as a master of psychology who was able to rev up his players; he was also a coach who always supported his players.

Giulio Glorioso, pitching legend and Italian Hall of Famer, describes Strong as a feared hitter and one of the most aggressive base runners, a man of "extraordinary intelligence and vitality."

For two years, from 1951 to 1952, Jimmy Strong followed van Zandt's lead and was head coach of the Swiss men's basketball team.

Like van Zandt, he took this team to the Helsinki Olympics. In Switzerland, Strong also played with the Servette BBC first division basketball team.

This did not interrupt Strong's baseball career in Italy; in fact, Strong went on to coach the Italian national baseball team at the European championships of 1957 and 1958.

In 1957 Strong was also the first instructor of the first-ever baseball coaches' course in Italy. He left Italy in the early 70's to continue his coaching career in the Netherlands, where he coached basketball, softball, baseball, and boxing.

In this northern European country, Jimmy Strong had a big impact and is greatly respected to this day.

 

Remembering Three Giants Of Italian Sports (Part Three)----Clarence Burks.

Black Athlete Sports Network

By Alipio M. Terenzi, 
May 10, 2007

NOTE: Over the last two days, BASN has taken a look at a group of forgotten African-American sports pioneers who made numerous athletic contributions in Europe. Today, writer Alipio M. Terenzi concludes the three-part series with a look at Clarence W. Burks.

SEATTLE -- Clarence W. Burks was one of the founders of the first baseball team in Florence, Italy. He played (as catcher) and managed the B.C. Firenze Braves, the team that won the 1949 Italian baseball championship

Former outfielder and Italian national team player Luciano Nardi remembers "Mr. Burks" (as he was called by his players) asking his mother for permission so that the 16-year old Nardi could play in far-away Trieste.

Burks was passionate but patient in his coaching style, giving the young Italian players tons of much-needed advice. He was also an assistant manager of the first Italian national baseball team.

Burks' Italian experience ended in 1954 when he moved to Liberia with his family.

Today's basketball and baseball players in Italy are walking in the footsteps of Elliot van Zandt, Jimmy Strong, and Burks. These three African-Americans arrived in Italy to fight a war.

Like Caesar's legions, they came, they saw, and they conquered. However, and most importantly, these three men also taught and inspired countless players and coaches in Italy and other countries.

They had little to go back to in the United States, so they chose to rebuild their futures in the company of men and women who would not discriminate against them.

It is thanks to them that men like Rudy Hackett and countless others have been able to play and coach basketball and baseball so successfully in Italy.

Van Zandt, Strong, and Burks laid the foundations for the huge gains that basketball and baseball have made in Europe since the 1960's. The least we can do to repay them for their amazing accomplishments is to remember their names and their successes.

Thank you, Elliot, Jimmy; and Clarence.

Alipio M. Terenzi teaches high school in the state of Washington. He grew up in Italy and moved to the U.S. in 1982 to continue his university studies. He can be reached via e-mail at terenzi@verizon.net.

http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish/

BASN_Focus_On_History_4/Remembering_

Three_Giants_Of_Italian_Sports_Part_Three.shtml

 

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