Leopoldas Kepalas - National Lithuanain Basketball player

Leopoldas Alfonsas Kepalas, son of Jonas and Elena Von Kulberg, born 6 Sept 1912 in Petrograd.  He returned to Lithuania with his parents in 1924 and lived near Kamajai near Rokiškis.  In 1926 he attended the Šiauliai school and was active in scouts.  He then entered the technical school in Kaunas and upon graduation moved to Vilnius where he was the Director of a soap factory. 

1927 – 1930 Šiauliu sports club member
1928 – 1931 Šiauliai and Kaunas  Aušros men’s team
1932 – 1935 Kaunas sports club Grandis1932 – 1939 Lithuanian Basketball league
1936 – 1937 Lithuanian national Basketball team
1945 Hanau Lithuanian basketball team
1947 Bayreuth Basketball team

He was selected for the 1937 Lithuanian basketball team to play in Riga.  He continued playing sports wile in Germany.  A keen scout from a young age he continued this also as part of the Hanau camp scouts and later in Australia part of Melbourne Džiugo tuntas.
He arrived in Australia in 1948 and while in the Bonegilla Migrant camp organised a basketball team.

He married and was survived by a son and daughter. 

He died 12 February 1981. Interned in Springvale Cemetery.

Basketball Champions come to Australia

There is only one sport in Lithuania and that is basketball.   It didn’t become popular in Lithuania until 1935, when a team of American Lithuanians were invited to Kaunas.  Only two years later in 1937, Lithuania won the second FIBA European Championship.  Eight national teams took part, the defending champions Latvia hosted the tournament, in Riga.
Two years later in 1939, the third EuroBasket was held, the defending champions Lithuania hosted the tournament, held in the Kaunas Sports Hall. The winning team was Lithuania, winning by a point. 

The 1937 team comprised of : 
Feliksas Kriaučiūnas, Pranas Talzūnas, Stasys Šačkus, Juozas Žukas, Leonas Baltrūnas, Zenonas Puzinauskas, Artūras Andrulis, Leopoldas Kepalas, Pranas Mažeika, Česlovas Daukša, Leonas Petrauskas, Eugenijus Nikolskis (Coach: Feliksas Kriaučiūnas)

The 1939 team comprised of:
Pranas Lubinas, Mykolas Ruzgys, Feliksas Kriaučiūnas, Leonas Baltrūnas, Zenonas Puzinauskas, Artūras Andrulis, Pranas Mažeika, Leonas Petrauskas, Eugenijus Nikolskis, Vytautas Norkus, Jurgis Jurgėla, Mindaugas Šliūpas, Vytautas Budriūnas, Vytautas Lesčinskas (Coach: Pranas Lubinas).

WWII came and everything changed.  Many of the players fled Lithuania and ended up in America; three came to Australia; Leonas Baltrūnas, Leonas Petrauskas, Leopoldas Kepalas.  I will write of each Leo in future posts. 

Leonas Baltrunas first on left, Leonas Kepalas is at the end. Leonas Petrauskas, one of the team's twelve members, is missing in this picture.